Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra Archives

Joakim Borgen to depart Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

Joakim Borgen, co-founder of Norway’s popular Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra, has announced his decision to leave the group.

Borgen founded the group with Rebekka Nilsson, after the two saw the 2012 Belgian film, Broken Circle Breakdown, a tragic romance which was set within a Dutch bluegrass band. The two, already experienced musicians, became so fascinated with the sound of bluegrass music that they dedicated their efforts to learning to play and sing it themselves.

The group quickly became quite popular in European bluegrass circle after a video of them performing the folk classic, Wayfaring Stranger, hit big on YouTube. More than 5 million views later, and they found themselves booked on shows across the continent. A debut full-length album, Migrants, earned a Norwegian Grammy nomination in 2022 and the Orchestra – so named for their unusually large number of players – showcased at the IBMA World of Bluegrass.

Rebekka and Joakim, who had met in drama school, always had a highly theatrical vision for their shows, something they achieved with aplomb in a live concert video they produced as an album release film when Migrants first hit.

Borgen was behind their recording of the Everly Brothers song, All I Have To Do Is Dream, which was used as the final music in the Netflix series, Lost Ollie.

On departing his co-creation, Borgen says…

“There is a time for everything, and I now feel that the time has come for me to step aside and let the band continue on its journey without me. There is no bad blood between us, and I wish my incredible bandmates all the best moving forward.”

The full Orchestra, minus Joakim, will be performing next week during the World of Bluegrass convention in Raleigh, NC.

The Broken Circle Sessions – Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

The distance separating Norway from North America seems insignificant when Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra take the stage and share the sounds inspired by their seminal influences. After making their mark with Migrants, their well-received debut, the eight piece ensemble take things up several notches with a live follow-up titled The Broken Circle Sessions, a collection of songs that revel in their roots in no uncertain terms.

Still, this isn’t simply some rote re-read. While nearly every song could be considered a classic, the band’s unique combination of trad treatments and brassy flourishes results in an interesting mix, one that makes any ready definition somewhat difficult to discern. The band — Rebekka Nilsson (vocals), Joakim Borgen (mandolin), Ole Engrav (guitar), Magnus Eriksrud (banjo), Moa Meinich (fiddle), David Buverud (bass), Emil Brattested (dobro), and Sjur Marqvardsen (accordion) — are an assured outfit, bolstered by articulate instrumentation and a steady stride, with Nilsson’s singing providing the added extra. Her upper register lends a sense of freshness and finesse, an engaging sound tempered by innocence and appeal.

Then again, the band’s been on a steady roll ever since they started. Inspired by the soundtrack to the Belgian film Broken Circle Breakdown, they recorded their first song, Wayfaring Stranger in a living room, garnering millions of streams and tens of thousands of subscribers in its aftermath. Their fame spread to the States with a nomination as Band of the Year and a win for Vocalist of the Year courtesy of the IBMA Momentum Awards. Back home, Migrants was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy Award following its ascent to the top of the charts.

In a very real sense then, The Broken Circle Sessions could be considered the culmination of all the band has achieved so far. A resilient read of Bob Dylan’s Señor (Tales of Yankee Power), an exceedingly lovely Girl From the North Country, and the heartfelt, Going Out West, could be considered highlights, but so too, their takes on the traditional tunes, Wayfaring Stranger, Lord Don’t Forsake Me, and Ain’t No Grave, are exceptional as well. The imaginative arrangements — check out the percussive, gypsy-like vamp that steers several of the songs as examples — and an appreciative audience, suggest the fact that this is an intimate encounter overall.

As unassuming as it might seem at first glance, The Broken Circle Sessions transports Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra to a higher plateau. It’s another solid step on that steady ascent towards international acclaim.

Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra nominated for Norwegian Grammy

The Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra, based in Oslo, has received a Norwegian Grammy nomination for their debut album, Migrants.

An unusually large congregation, HBO contains eight members – hence the orchestra in the name – and also has an unusual genesis. Vocalists Rebekka Nilsson and Joakim Borgen were not bluegrass fans, but were converted together at a screening of the Belgian film, Broken Circle Breakdown, which contained music from Dan Tyminski and Alison Krauss. The film likewise tells the story of a couple play together in a bluegrass band. So what else were Rebekka and Joakim to do?

They pulled together a group of musical friends and started rehearsing. After just a few weeks, they shot a live video of their arrangement of the classic song, Wayfaring Stranger, and posted it online. That video received 10,000,000 views, and got them 40,000 subscribers, so they knew they had something special.

The Orchestra was an invited Bluegrass Ramble act at World of Bluegrass 2021, which they performed virtually with an actual live recording of a theater show, the highly-stylized album release concert for Migrants.

Last month Migrants received the nomination for Spellemannprisen, known as the Norwegian Grammy, in the Country category.

Members of Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra include Nilsson and Borgen as primary songwriters and vocalists, Moa Meinich on fiddle, Sjur Marqvardsen on accordion, Ole André Enggrav on guitar, Emil Brattested on reso-guitar, Magnus Eriksrud on banjo, and Jonas Wøien Olsen on bass. Their music combines their original compositions with the sounds of Appalachian traditions, alongside Celtic and Norwegian folk music.

Congratulations on the nomination and best of luck!

Bluegrass Beyond Borders: Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

Better known as the land of the midnight sun than as a place where the grass grows blue, Norway has nevertheless managed to spawn a band that stays true to tradition despite the seeming disparity between Scandinavia and Appalachia. Based in Oslo, the Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra found initial inspiration from an Oscar-nominated Belgian film titled Broken Circle Breakdown, and quickly made preparation to put a band together that could emulate the music heard in the movie. They were so enthused about the concept that the band’s founders even managed to persuade one of their friends to actually acquire a double bass by promising a position in a bluegrass band that didn’t even exist… at least not at that point.

Once the group actually coalesced and found their footing, the musicians — Rebekka Nilsson (vocals), Joakim Borgen (mandolin), Ole Enggrav (guitar), Moa Meinich (fiddle), Magnus Eriksrud (banjo), Emil Brattested (dobro), Sjur Marqvardsen (accordion), and the aforementioned recruit Jonas Wøien Olsen (upright bass, later replaced by David Buverud) — made it their mission to first learn songs from the film. Yet they also draw from a number of disparate individual influences as well, among them, Watchhouse (formerly known as Mandolin Orange), Tim O’Brien, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, and Alison Krauss & Union Station.

Early on, one of the first songs they opted to record was the classic Wayfaring Stranger, and to their delight, it quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of plays on YouTube, and introduced the group to a substantial-size audience. To date, they’ve surpassed seven million plays online, with their channel attracting over 30,000 subscribers.

It’s not surprising then that Hayden’s debut album, Migrants — released this part March — has been received with an outpour of enthusiasm. A collection that includes ten original songs and two covers, debuted at number four on the official Billboard Bluegrass Album chart, nothing less than a remarkable feat for a brand new, all but unknown Norwegian band attempting to make their mark in that most American of musical styles, bluegrass. It sold out on Amazon for almost three weeks, but still retains its placement on the charts.

What’s more, the album gandered an array of critical kudos. One critic hailed it as, “one of the best albums this year,” while another raved, “The album by Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra is so solid that it is almost unbelievable.” Yet another insisted, “Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra is something like a impossible dream of what Norwegian musicians can achieve – in American.” Meanwhile, Music News Norway exclaimed, “Migrants is a good debut album that shows that Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra has originality,” before going on to compare them to Nickel Creek and Alison Krauss & Union Station.

The band defines their sound as being solidly seeped in bluegrass and grassicana, but also admits to including influences of folk rock, and pop, along with other influences that span Irish, Celtic, and Norwegian folk music as well. “We tend to do covers live, and make sure to have video and sound that we can record and then drop it on YouTube shortly after,” they insist. “We like the mix.” Norwegian bluegrass might be the easiest way to describe the sound, they suggest, pointing to the beautiful harmonies, infectious melodies, and a mix of driving, uptempo tunes and delicate yet demonstrative ballads.

To date, the band has played dozens of dates throughout Norway, and also made appearance in Ireland as well. Prior to the pandemic, the band had plans to perform at a number of major festivals. They had been booked to travel to the US to serve as the house band at Dollywood, where they were slated to perform six days a week during a five week period. Although those plans fell through, the band was handpicked to play the digital version of the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards in September and to be part of IBMA’s Rumble at Folk Unlocked this past February.

Happily then, the group has more music planned, including some live recordings that they plan to release online in the near future. They include a performance from Oslo Concert Hall which finds the group revisiting the album with a New Orleans flavor, incorporating drums, piano and a full horn section.

“People often tell us that they love the musical combination of fun, fast, pulsating music with the feeling of tenderness and melancholia,” they reflect. “You can laugh, dance and cry at our concerts.”

Migrants album release concert from Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

We have had occasion several times to write about Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra. They are interesting and divergent in a number of ways, outside of the band’s unusual name. It’s perfectly fitting, as they are an eight piece group, hence orchestra, and their music is quite carefully arranged.

We first encountered them in 2019 when they were the subject of one of our Bluegrass Beyond Borders, features where Lee Zimmerman conducts interviews with bluegrass artists outside the US every two weeks, to talk about how they discovered the music, and how they play it themselves. Immediately of interest was how Hayde was formed in 2012, as true a bluegrass conversion story as you will ever read.

It all started when a pair of acting students in Oslo, Joakim Borgen and Rebekka Nilsson, began to be drawn to the idea of pursuing music rather than simply drama as a career. Rebekka was already a fan of their native Nordic folk music, as well as folk and Americana from the States, but everything clicked when the two saw the Belgian film, The Broken Circle Breakdown. Based on the play of the same name by Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels, the plot shares a love story between two characters which develops and eventually falls apart within a bluegrass band in which they are both members.

Nilsson and Borgen were immediately smitten, and began to put together a group to perform the sort of music seen in the film, and their own original compositions which tended to blend Appalachian and Nordic folk influences.

A debut album was released in 2019, and a followup is just now available, titled Migrants. In addition to Rebekka on vocals and Joakim on mandolin, the Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra (HBO for short) consists of Ole Engrav on guitar, Magnus Eriksrud on banjo, Moa Meinich on fiddle, Jonas Olsen on bass, Emil Brattested on reso-guitar, and Sjur Marqvardsen on accordion.

HBO entered 2020 with the highest possible hopes. They had been selected as an official Bluegrass Ramble showcase artist at the IBMA’s World of Bluegrass convention, and were expecting to include a five-week stint at Dollywood in their US visit. Of course as things transpired, the overseas trip was cancelled, and though they provided a very impressive concert performance on video for IBMA, the possibility of them being able to work live over here was lost.

They had achieved tremendous momentum in 2019 from success on YouTube, where their channel has nearly 30,000 subscribers, and their videos have received more than 5,000,000 views.

But instead of lamenting what could have been, energy was directed into producing a live concert with the music from Migrants, which they were able to edit down into their 20 minute World of Bluegrass showcase. It is now available on YouTube, the full production, which includes many elements from Joakim and Rebekka’s theatrical training. The staging, lighting, and videography are extremely well done, and Borgen told us that they manage to present it before a live audience last summer between the time when COVID restrictions were loosened and when shutdowns were reinstated.

Here is the full concert, which runs just over an hour. If you have watched the Oscar-nominated Broken Circle Breakdown, you will note the homage paid to the film.

Migrants is available now wherever you stream or download music online.

Smokey Mountain Railway from Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra has another single today from their upcoming album, Migrants, a new song written by vocalist Rebekka Nilsson and mandolinist Joakim Borgen.

If you were watching the Bluegrass Ramble concerts during the virtual World of Bluegrass last month, you may have seen their stunning presentation. It was a full on production, recorded before a live audience, complete with sparse but effective staging and brilliant costuming, not to mention beautiful music.

This eight-piece band includes all the instruments you would expect from a bluegrass ensemble, plus an accordion, in a nod to Norwegian folk and dance music.

Borgen says this song, Smokey Mountain Railway, was written as an allegory about love lost.

“Smokey Mountain Railway gets its title from the beautiful North Carolina railroad, but it’s really a song about loss and longing. It’s about being on a journey that takes you further and further away from where you want to be, and from a love that you left behind. As the train moves endlessly forward you look back and wonder if you made the right decision.”

In addition to Rebekkah and Joakim, Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra is Ole Engrav on guitar, Magnus Eriksrud on banjo, Moa Meinich on fiddle, Jonas Olsen on bass, Emil Brattested on reso-guitar, and Sjur Marqvardsen on accordion.

Smokey Mountain Railway is available now from several popular streaming sites.

Migrants is scheduled for a full release in February of 2021.

Take Me Away, new single from Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

One silver lining to losing all access to live, in-person music performance this past few months is the abundance of recorded bluegrass that has been coming out in the same time frame. We hear almost every day about new singles being released, and are happy to be able to share this with our readers.

We have one today from Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra, a prolific group from Oslo that has been performing together since 2013. The band is centered around mandolinist and songwriter Joakim Borgen, and singer Rebekka Nilsson, who met in as drama students in college and dropped their studies to pursue music. Like so many fans worldwide, their love for bluegrass was cemented by a film experience, in this case The Broken Circle Breakdown, a 2012 movie made in Belgium which used an all-bluegrass soundtrack, and built its story arc around the experiences of a bluegrass band in Europe.

Joakim and Rebecca have assembled a strong group around their style of grass, which uses influences from Nordic folk music mixed with its American cousins. In fact, they like to lay claim to the fact that the actual Kentucky Bluegrass – also known by its scientific name, Poa pratensis – for which Bill Monroe named his band, was first introduced to the state by a fellow Norwegian, Thomas Goff, some years ago.

Ole Engrav is on guitar, Magnus Eriksrud on banjo, Moa Meinich on fiddle, Jonas Olsen on bass, Emil Brattested on reso-guitar, and Sjur Marqvardsen on accordion.

Yesterday they released a new single from their upcoming Migrants album called Take Me Away. It was written by Borgen with Jeff Wasserman, a lovely ballad of farewell which uses the familiar bluegrass instruments to create an airy arrangement behind Nilsson’s powerful vocal.

Take Me Away is available now wherever you stream or download music online.

Be on the lookout for Migrants later this year.

Pickin’ On Me from Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra has just released a third single from their upcoming debut album.

It’s one they wrote called Pickin’ On Me, which has some fun with the way that the word pickin’ has a dual meaning in English. Of course for bluegrass lovers it means playing the music, but it’s also used idiomatically to describe someone annoying or disturbing you.

The band got their unique name as what had started as a normally sized bluegrass group, kept growing and adding new members until it was an eight-piece outfit. At that point, calling themselves an orchestra started making sense, and the name stuck.

Hayde Bluegras Orchestra has found eager fans all over the world on their YouTube channel and social media pages, with many videos getting several hundred thousands views.

You can get the single now wherever you stream or download music online. Keep an eye out for the release of the album later this year.

All My Tears drops for Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

Regular readers will remember us writing about Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra, a larger-than-usual aggregation of grassers founded and maintained by Joakim Borgen and Rebekka Nilsson.

The pair have combined their love of their native Nordic folk inheritance, and their deep fondness for bluegrass and old time traditions to create a distinctive sound in the acoustic music world.

Orchestra has a new album, Migrants, set for release in the near future, and today a second single from that project has hit the streets. It’s one written by Julie Miller called All My Tears, which Emmylou Harris recorded on her Wrecking Ball CD in 1995.

All My Tears is available now wherever you stream or download music online.

Afraid Of Walking drops for Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra

Norway’s Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra has released the first single from their upcoming album, Migrants. The eight-piece band plays an interesting mix of roots music, drawing on bluegrass and old time Appalachian music, as well as Norwegian, Celtic, and Anglo-Saxon folk traditions.

Members include Rebekka Nilsson on vocals, Joakim Borgen on mandolin, Ole Engram on guitar, Magnus Eriksrud on banjo, Moa Meinich on fiddle, Jonas Olsen on bass, Emil Brattested on reso-guitar, and Sjur Marqvardsen on accordion.

The single, Afraid Of Walking, was written by Borgen and Nilsson, and is available now wherever you stream or download music online. It tells of the universal human fear of the unknown, set to a sprightly bluegrass beat.

Keep an eye on the band web site for more details to come about the imminent release of Migrants.