PAUL WILSON & MARY ABENDROTH

Paul Wilson (b.1951) and Mary Abendroth (b.1947) are a husband and wife team from Brainerd, Mn. The couple has spent much of their adult lives exploring the folk arts and culture of their forebearers, both as Scandinavians and Scandinavian-Americans. Paul sings and plays the two-row button accordion, fiddle, guitar and pump organ and is the founder of two traditional Scandinavian music groups in the Brainerd area: Skål Klubb and Skålmusik, and is also the founder of Nisswa-stämman, a Scandinavian folk music festival in Nisswa, Mn. He has taught Scandinavian fiddling workshops at the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Ia. and also makes violins, in the tradition of his great grandfather, Hover Vetleson from Telemark, Norway. Mary sings and plays pump organ and guitar. Mary is also a talented handknitter in the Scandinavian tradition, producing fine handknitted items for discriminating customers! The two present songs in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, English and "Swinglish" and provide translations and historical context for their songs.  Mary and Paul have performed as a duo and together with Skålmusik and Ole Olsson's Oldtime Orkestra all over the midwest. In August, 2000 they made a musical tour to the western states of Montana, Washington state and Oregon, playing in festivals and concerts. In the summer of 2001, and again in 2004, they performed in Battery Park, Manhattan, New York City for the largest Swedish midsommar celebration in the U.S. They have also appeared at the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota; in 2003 at the Great Lakes Folk Festival in E. Lansing, Mi., and, 2004 at Scandinavian Festivals in Edison, N.J. and Jamestown, N.Y. The duo has traveled extensively in Norway, Sweden and Finland, gathering musical inspiration and performing a bit for the folks there too. They have appeared on National Public Radio on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion". They have been involved in seven recordings on their Timmerhus label and were also featured on the 1998 film and companion Smithsonian Folkways Recording, "The Mississippi River of Song" broadcast nationwide on PBS. The two have been working for 20+ years in elementary schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin and N. Dakota. They have conducted several of their residencies for year after year in the same schools. In their school programs they teach about Scandinavian folk dance and folk music, stressing the vallues of cooperation, tolerance and respect for tradition and community. Through the years they have been listed on the Minnesota State Arts Board's "Artists in Education" roster, the COMPAS Cultural Arts roster and the Duluth Depot Outreach roster. They are also listed artists in the Minnesota Folk Artists Directory published by the Minnesota State Arts Board, and have performed in hundreds of venues over the last 22 years ranging from historical society potlucks to very large community celebrations. Paul and Mary are dedicated to their musical lives and truly love what they are doing!

Click here for above text in a PDF document (1.7 Mb).

1.4 Mb downloadable version of their color promo photo, click here

Contact them at 218-764-2994 or at: pwilson@brainerd.net

Photos from fun gigs:

Battery Park majstång raising -1000 Swedes dancing overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York City! June, 2001

Mount Rushmore National Monument - performing with Skålmusik on July 13, 2001

Some of their school residencies -

Heritage Week at the Chippewa City Pioneer Village in Montevideo, Mn. ,

Kinderfriends in Brainerd, Mn.

last updated 3/30/05