Buster Sledge
Date to be announced
Buster Sledge is an acoustic chamber-quartet of four voices, fiddle, banjo, guitar and contrabass fronted by a Californian living in Norway and backed by three Norwegians of diverse musical backgrounds, all with a shared love for traditional American music. With a starting point in bluegrass, their music brings the melodic focus of American old-time fiddle music and the storytelling of old mountain-ballads and country songs together with elements from jazz, indie and jambands to create a contemporary expression of age-old traditions.
Nice Time on Earth Today, the third full-length release from the Oslo-based Norwegian/American acoustic wonder-group Buster Sledge, runs the gamut of American folk and popular music styles while on a mission to tell you a story in each song. With a firm starting point in a Bluegrass-inspired Americana sound, they eclectically incorporate elements from, e.g., jazz, country and indie. Though in this way the musical backdrop is continuously shifting, the lyrics are always up-front and delivered via hummable melody. Moments of reckless abandon and maximalism explode through unexpected chord changes, grandiose arrangements, and wild solos though the backdrop remains tight-knit and controlled. Or as summed up by a friend of the band: Buster Sledge is new-time upbeat sadgrass melancholicana.
The band’s Norwegian members all share a love for traditional American music, having grown up outside of it, and having had to find their way in by whatever means. Mikael Jonassen, largely self-taught, fell in love with the banjo as a youth in the north of Norway but didn’t start playing traditional bluegrass banjo until after having spent a few years playing fusion-jazz electric banjo. Jakob Folke Ossum, turned on to bluegrass by a friend while studying jazz guitar in college, bought an acoustic guitar and with his methodical and creative approach to music was quickly down the road to native proficiency. Vidar Starheimsæter, originally a “prog-rock guy” and son of rural dairy farmers, began playing jazz on contrabass in college and was later introduced to bluegrass music through friends.
