Music & Dance
LES ROSS SR and the FINNISH AMERICAN ALL-STARS
Northern Michigan
Finnish American Harmonica
Leslie Victor Ross, Sr. (a few generations ago in Finland, the family name was Rosendahl "roses in the valley") was born in 1924 in a farmhouse in Eben Junction, a small Alger County community in the north central part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The area was mostly settled by Finns who, along with their language and "sisu" (strength and perseverance to overcome all odds), brought their music. Especially during the Depression years, small inexpensive instruments like the harmonica were popular. When Les was about seven, his grandfather gave him a used "mouth organ." He learned tunes from family elders, from old 78 records and from Finnish-speaking lumberjacks taking leave of their paychecks at the Blue Moon tavern at the hamlet’s only intersection. Les says his distinctive Finnish-Scandinavian "lumberjack style," in which the melody and pronounced rhythmic chording are played simultaneously, was once common in his community. But today Les is one of the few remaining masters of this charming style. While he insists that playing the harmonica is just a hobby, his 1998 recording Hulivili Huuliharppu ("Rollicking Harmonica") of Finnish American folk and dance music created quite a sensation and led to numerous radio, television and festival appearances. Says the elder Ross, "I don’t know what all the hoopla’s about. I just play the songs like I always have."
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