The story
The time is Friday evening in early August 2000. The place is Syðri-Á (South River), a farm in an area called Kleifar and located 2 km from Ólafsfjörður town - now a part of Fjallabyggð commune - in North Eastern Iceland. A festival called "Kleifamot" - held every three years has just started. Friends and relatives that have ties to the small Kleifar area gather for a weekend get-to-gether, eating, singing and celebrating. A few musicians, friends and relatives have gathered in the living room of South River for an all night session of playing and singing and a rehearsal for the formal ball of the festival, on the Saturday evening.
This marked the formal beginning of South River Band but since then, the band has been quite active, it has released 5 records and sold more than 10.000 copies. The band has had different comments during its concerts and in reviews and they were called "The gypsies of the north" in a newspaper article a few years ago.
However, it can be said that the band has been there for a much longer time, in various forms. There was always a lot of music in Kleifar, specially in South River. The photo shows some of the houses and the house with the red roof on the left is South River. After the festival in 2000 the group decided to continue in a more formal way than before and they have held weekly rehearsals since then. In the beginning, the focus was on playing the music from Kleifar for the audience to sing along with the band. South River Band held "singing nights" in Reykjavik where all lyrics were projected to the wall for the audience to be able to read and sing along with the band. Singing nights were typically held in Kaffileikhusid in Reykjavik centrum and they were well attended. Often there were guest musicians and the photo is taken during a singing night in Kaffileikhusid in 2003 where Szymon Kuran played the violin.
From left: Helgi Thor Ingason, Olafur Baldvin Sigurdsson, Szymon Kuran, Kormakur Bragason, Olafur Thordarson, Jon Arnason, Gunnar Reynir Thorsteinsson and Gretar Ingi Gretarsson.
The first record was released in the spring of 2002, with many original songs and lyrics. This is a quite special record for South River Band because it featured Jon Arnason on accordion and he also sang two of the songs. He died in 2004. The record received the following comment in Morgunbladid newspaper:
"The plain and simple joy of playing music is the strength of this record and there is certainly something charming about listening to a group of relatives playing music from their hearts - related not only through love for music but also through blood."
The plain and simple joy of playing music has always been the main characteristics of South River Band. In 2003 a new member joined forces with the band. Matthias Stefansson violinist, guitarist and recording engineer was an incredibly important addition to the band, and his experience, expertise, ambition and huge musical talent have since then been a major factor in shaping the band and its directions.
Shortly after Matthias joined the band a new strategy was defined; to play mostly acoustic instruments. Electric guitar was replaced by mandolin. Keyboards were replaced by accordion. In 2004, record number two was released under the peculiar title "One could ask for better weather." The music was something quite new for South River Band and could perhaps be defined as world music. Half of the songs were original music and all lyrics were original. The music critic of Morgunbladid newspaper wrote:
"The joy of playing is still the major force in this second record of South River Band and the band consists of very skilled players that obviously enjoy playing together - folk music from all over the world."
South River Band continued to play world music. They evolved as players through their weekly rehearsals and the band was often hired to entertain in parties and at gatherings of organizations. In 2005 the band was allowed to record for 3 hours in the best acoustic studio of the National Radio. The outcome of this session was the third record, Bacalao. This was solely an instrumental record, with folk songs from different parts of the world. Bacalao was recorded in an old fashioned way, microphones were placed at each instrument and the band played as if playing on a concert. The outcome was quite good and reflected the real sound of the band. The music critic of Morgunbladid newspaper wrote:
"The friends and relatives from South River have collected songs from Ukraine, Ireland, United States, Finland, Spain and Sweden. Their choice of songs is good, an entertaining mixture of old and more recent music and they play this music very well, in a lively and vibrant way. They demonstrate that the core of folk music is the same, even though the language and selection of instruments may vary. A good tune is always a good tune, regardless of the framework."
In the summer of 2005 South River Band performed at the folk festival in Siglufjordur and the photo was taken on that occasion.
From left: Olafur Thordarson, Olafur Baldvin Sigurdsson, Einar Sigurdsson, Matthias Stefansson, Kormakur Bragason and Helgi Thor Ingason.
South River Band meets weekly on rehearsals and performs quite often on concerts and on different social occasions for individuals and organizations. They use their time together well for playing and creating new music. In 2007 the fourth record was released - All the girls. It contains 14 songs, original songs and international folk songs but all lyrics are original. They tell stories on the happy and sad sides of our lives, there is joy and comic and also a share of sadness. The record was well received and the critic of Morgunbladid newspaper wrote:
"The members of South River Band are the stars of this record. Their original songs are very well written and they have a good sense of choosing music by others that fits the band. It is however their playing that really matters, no error can be found and their performance is full of life and feelings, from the first song to the last one."
The photo is taken at a joyful moment in Idno restaurant in February 2007 when All the girls was being recorded.
From left: Gretar Ingi Gretarsson, Matthias Stefansson, Olafur Baldvin Sigurdsson, Olafur Thordarson, Helgi Thor Ingason and Kormakur Bragason.
The first concert in a foreign country was in the summer of 2009 when the band travelled to Kumlinge, a small island in Åland municipality in Finland. A well known singer in Iceland, Gudrun Gunnarsdottir, joined South River Band for this trip.
From left: Olafur Baldvin Sigurdsson, Matthias Stefansson, Gretar Ingi Gretarsson, Gudrun Gunnarsdottir, Olafur Thordarson and Helgi Thor Ingason. Skotta the dog is sitting.
In 2010 Gretar Ingi Gretarsson moved to Copenhagen to become a CEO of an international institution. He was granted a temporary vacation from South River Band and Jon Kjartan Ingolfsson was hired to take his place. He is an experienced bass player and singer and it didn't take him long to master the repertoire. The first concert with Jon Kjartan was on Kaffi Rosenberg on February 17th 2010.
The band was quite busy in the summer of 2010 and in August it toured north eastern Iceland and gave concerts in Akureyri, Dalvik and Husavik. It participated in "The great fish day" in Dalvik and saw its largest audience so far.
In Dalvik Unnur Birna Bjornsdottir performed with the band. She is a singer and violinist and has occasionally stepped in on the violin when Matthias has been otherwise occupied.
South River Band has planned for many years to do a Christmas record - original music mixed with well known favourite Christmas songs. In the spring of 2010 the band decided to go forward with this plan and Christmas songs were being written and recorded in the summer of 2010. The record was released in early December 2010. It was well received but it was released in the shadow of a terrible shock. Olafur Thordarson, a major driving force for South River Band and beloved musician in Iceland, was attacked in his home in November 2010 and is still unconscious in hospital. The photo is taken in the beginning of November when Olafur was in the final stages of designing the layout for the new album.
From left: Olafur Thordarson, Helgi Thor Ingason, Matthias Stefansson, Olafur Baldvin Sigurdsson and Jon Kjartan Ingolfsson.
In order to continue and keep South River Band running while Olafur Thordarson was recovering, we talked to his co-worker from National Radio and well known musician in Iceland, Gudmundur Benediktsson. He joined South River Band in February 2011 and it didn't take him very long to master the repertoire. The first real concert with Gudmundur as a band member was on June 1st 2011 in Kaffi Rosenberg.
The collaboration of the friends in South River Band has been active and alive for many years and it is driven by musical ambition, interest, passion and good friendship. Their weekly rehearsals in their homes in Reykjavik continue because the original driving forces are still there.
