Finnish American Folk Arts Series: Fin-A-Billy: American Roots Music and Rebellion in Finland
Presentation: Nathan Gibson presents Fin-A-Billy: American Roots Music and Rebellion in Finland
Free and Open to the Public
March 26, 2022 11:00 am – 12:30 pm CT
Virtual (Zoom): Register online
Our friends at the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest project are hosting this free online presentation in collaboration with FinnFest USA as part of their Finnish American Folk Arts Series.
During the 1970s, there was an enormous American roots music boom in Finland, spawning hundreds of Fin-A-Billy (Finnish rockabilly, country, bluegrass, blues, and related genres) bands with thousands of fans. Folklorist and ethnomusicologist Nathan Gibson will share his research and musical samples of the ways many Finns have connected with American culture through American roots music over the last 60 years.
Nathan Gibson is the Audio-Visual Preservation Archivist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s General Library System. He holds a B.F.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University. He is an affiliate of the German, Nordic, and Slavic department, a Morgride Fellow (working to build equitable, mutually-beneficial campus-community partnerships), runs the audio preservation studio at the Mills Music Library, and works with Anna Rue and Marcus Cederström on the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest project.
The Finnish American Folk Arts Series features artists, community members, culture workers, and scholars—all experts in various forms of Finnish folk arts. Register at this link for this presentation and future events. A Zoom link to the virtual program will be sent to your registered email address one day in advance of the event.
Although this event is free and open to anyone who can and wants to take part, the co-sponsors do hope you will consider donating to the FinnFest USA organization, whose hard work and dedication makes events like this possible. If you have the ability to donate any amount of money to FinnFest to support future programming, please visit their donation page.