Fall Swedish Music & Dance Weekend

Paul Dahlin, fiddle

For the past 45 years, Paul has been sharing the folk music of Dalarna, Sweden brought to the U.S. by his grandfather Ivares Edwin Johnson, who emigrated to Minnesota in 1924. Paul learned to play fiddle from his grandfather when he was a young boy. Paul, his grandfather, and Uncle Bruce formed the group American Swedish Spelmans Trio and performed at the Snoose Boulevard Festival in Minneapolis, on the radio program A Prairie Home Companion, and even for the King of Sweden! Edwin Johnson died in 1984, but his musical legacy lives on in Paul who, together with his family, carries on the style of music Grandpa Edwin played as a young man–traditional dance polska, vals and gånglåt walking tunes. Paul was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1996.
Through the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis and at Folklore Village, Paul’s goal has been to make this rich traditional music available to all those interested, teaching the melodies and communicating the subtleties in the rhythms to keep the music as authentic as possible–even if it has a slight American accent. Each year Paul creates a team of musicians: the “Folklore Village Spelmanslag.”