Ole Hendricks and His Tunebook: Folk Music and Community on the Frontier is now available! Order your copy from the University of Wisconsin Press.
Amy Shaw’s book tells the story of Ole Hendricks (1851-1935), a Norwegian-born fiddler who came to Wisconsin at the age of three with his family. Eventually Ole settled in the town of Elbow Lake in western Minnesota. A gifted musician, he compiled a 97-page manuscript tunebook that is an important primary source for the study of folk music and dance in rural, immigrant communities. After Ole died, the tunebook lay forgotten for many years, narrowly escaping oblivion before being entrusted to the safe hands of fiddler Beth Hoven Rotto of Decorah, Iowa. Ole Hendricks and His Tunebook (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020) introduces readers to this remarkable immigrant fiddler and the music he collected, and contains annotated transcriptions of all the tunes. Among them are many quadrilles, reinlenders, polkas, and waltzes that Ole would have played for local dances before 1900.
As a companion project, Amy also produced Play it Again, Ole!, a recording of a selection of Ole’s tunes as performed by the New Ole Hendricks Orchestra.
These projects were generously supported through a Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions Fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Sons of Norway Foundation.
