New Year News

Hello all and Happy New Year, or, as we say in Norwegian, godt nytt år! Things are really hopping during this offseason for the band. I'm currently working on a major overhaul of our booking database along with my wife Danna. Many of you have heard her sing with us in the past couple years. What you may not know is that she's a whiz with all kinds of office and organizational things as well as booking gigs. She actually does most of the booking nowadays. We're working on getting the database up to speed with all of the new and expanded festivals and events around the Northwest. We're hoping to make 2007 the best and busiest for the band ever!

We also have some big news... we're on iTunes! Yes, that's right. You can now go to the iTunes Store and search for the Smilin' Scandinavians. You can download individual tracks from our most recent album, 2003's Northwest Polka Country or buy all of them at once. In addition to iTunes, the album is also available at the Rhapsody music store, Napster and Sony Connect. In addition to the downloads you can also buy the old-fashioned CD of Northwest Polka Country from CD Baby. Of course, you can still order both that album and The Tom 'n' Toby Show from our current Internet distributor Accordions 'n' More.

If you've been paying attention you'll have noticed that our last album was released in 2003. May 2003, to be specific. It's been a busy four years since that last album. In that time I've moved twice and got married. Those things can take a lot of time. With my wife going to Pacific Lutheran University and majoring in music education I don't have a whole lot of free time to make albums. I hope to remedy that situation in the coming year. First off, Northwest Polka Country doesn't have any of my wife's vocals. Now that she's performing with us live people are asking for recordings with her singing. Second, the band has evolved artistically in the past four years. I really want to try and make another recording this coming year which will showcase what we're able to do currently. Tentatively it will have the same mix of tunes that have been so popular in the past: good polkas, a couple waltzes, at least one schottische and some classic country. I'm really hoping to get Danna to record at least one Patsy Cline number and maybe an old Bob Wills tune like Heart To Heart Talk. She does such a beautiful job on it in our live performances that I really want to record it so everyone can hear it. Let's hope the stars align and I can pull a recording budget together and make a new album.

Take care, everyone, and be sure and keep an eye on our website for all the news on our upcoming events!