Nidaros Blues

Nidaros Blues was the hotel weekend in Trondheim. Jan Engen ran it. A Bluesnews note sets the start in 2000, and says the beginning was not an easy one. The party for the first 20 years fell on 24 to 28 April 2019 at the Royal Garden, where the homepage says it began. In 2025 Engen called the 24 to 27 April weekend at the Clarion Hotel the 26th. If 2000 is year one, 2019 is the 20th and 2025 the 26th: the counts line up. The homepage, after a pause, leaves a date notice for an April back at the Royal Garden. That year does not come in here. It is not counted as a night already lived.

In 2019 an airline strike complicated the anniversary. Engen told Freddy Toresen that only two artists did not arrive: the Belgian Guy Verlinde and the Swede Roffe Wikström. They had 10 or 12 at risk and started changing flights three or four days before. The transport chief, new that year, worked day and night. He put the extra cost at up to 70,000 kroner. The Rhythm Kings stepped into Wikström's slot, with a soul repertoire. On Friday 1,600 people came through the Royal Garden, and as many on Saturday. Four stages. On Friday morning, blues for older people in the congress hall, white tablecloths, open sandwiches and coffee: Jolly Jumper, who is Kjell Inge Brovoll, and Big Moe and The Jimbo Jambo Band. A crew brings that audience in from their homes. On Saturday morning, blues for children, free, with the Trondheim Storband and the big hits from The Blues Brothers films. Rob Paparozzi, from New Jersey, the voice of The Original Blues Brothers Band, had rehearsed three songs and ended up singing about ten. He said Steve Cropper called him to sing and play harmonica, and that you do not say no. He had been there five years earlier and seen the setup for the children.

Andy Fairweather Low, from Wales, opened in the congress hall with the first guitar riff he learned as a teenager: the intro of Route 66, the way Keith Richards played it on the first Rolling Stones album. The set ran from early English blues rock to blue jazz and to sixties soul. On the solos, less is more. The Black Sorrows, Joe Camilleri and his band, were the most requested reunion. The Chosen Ones and Harley and Rose were played. The high point for Toresen was Do I Move You, from the album Citizen Joe. Booker T. Jones and some young musicians served the Stax package, with no single title in the note. Mud Morganfield, Muddy Waters's son, has no closed song either. Ruthie Foster brought Hadden Sayers on guitar and Scottie Miller on keys. On the acoustic stage, Eric Bibb and Staffan Astner turned the volume down. During a break in the interview Engen's favourite song was playing, and the note does not name it. Bottleneck John is Johan Eliasson, with his Delta Trio. My Baby, from the Netherlands, was argued about in the corridors: Daniel Johnston, from New Zealand, on guitar, with no title. The photos from that April are by Arve Reistad.

From 24 to 27 April 2025 the hotel was the Clarion. Jan Erik Moe tells it on 2 May. Advance sales were poor: Engen thought Trondheim had spent too much at the ski world championships. Then it turned. D.K. Harrell, from Ruston, Louisiana, opened the listening corner with the journalist Øyvind Rønning. His Gibson Lucille was damaged on the plane. The technician Marius lent him another Lucille. Then he did the show on the Riis stage. SuperCharger Duo, Ernst Wiggo Sandbakk on drums and Eirik S. Tveten on piano, got a standing ovation. Early Friday, Lowlife Brotherhood, with Rick Hauchman, from North Carolina. Then Dr. Feelgood, with Robert Kane, English pub rock: the original members are gone. Nine Below Zero, Dennis Greaves and Mark Feltham, began as Stan's Bluesband in 1977 and took the name two years later. The crowd sang with both bands. Shawn Pittman, from Dallas, on the Foraas stage, with The Özdemirs and Erkan Øzdemir on bass. Bottleneck John came back with the Delta Trio. Ola Buan Øien and Vise Menn, Håvard Sterten on drums and Kåre Andreas Lund on bass, put out the album Blå that Saturday, on vinyl and digital.

Therese Ulvan, from Trondheim, came in with no title. Los Angeles Women in Music had named her best singer-songwriter, and describes her music as pop with soul and a Nordic breeze. Jesper Lindell, from Ludvika, with Brunnsvik Sound and Horns, leaves no song in the note either. Alice Armstrong, winner of the European Blues Challenge, on the Riis stage: Moe had seen her in Östersund the previous October. Adam Douglas, from Oklahoma, in Norway since 2008, with the drummer who sings, Torjus Nevland. They call themselves the smallest biggest band in the world. Tad Robinson, harmonica, on Saturday on the Riis stage: he was in Dave Specter's band from 1990. Ida Nielsen and The Funkbots, on the Foraas stage: Prince had her on bass for six years. D.K. Harrell closed that Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, at Vår Frue kirke, Earl Thomas and The Gospel Ambassadors, 500 tickets, a cold late-April afternoon. The older people's blues, that year, was Kongelaget: Dr. Bekken, Brovoll, Halvard Andresen and Arne Skognes. They had to do two sittings. The photos are by Moe.

It remains the hotel weekend by the river, with the congress hall, the Riis, the Foraas and, at the close of 2025, the church. The titles that were walked are the 2019 ones: the Route 66 intro, The Chosen Ones, Harley and Rose and Do I Move You. The homepage leaves the April notice. That notice is not a night that was told.