FOLK/Music Paul Dahlin and the Akta Spelman (the ‘genuine fiddlers’), Swedish American fiddlers

Saturday: 1 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: 1 p.m. Railroad, 3:30 p.m. Children’s Area

Akta (?k tuh), a Swedish word meaning “genuine” or “true,” is the name of this fiddle ensemble from Minnesota dedicated to preserving traditional Swedish music. The group’s leader, Paul Dahlin, fiddler, violin repairman, composer, festival organizer and cultural spokesman, is the American “taproot” to one of Sweden’s most venerable and widely admired genres of regional music, that of the province of Dalarna. Even fiddle devotees in Sweden look to him as the principal keeper of a treasured old repertoire and performing style that has been virtually forgotten in their own homeland. While his music is archetypically Swedish, the story of his cultural inheritance and special artistic motivation is quite American.

Paul’s grandfather Ivares Edvin Jonsson left his native Rojerasen in Dalarna province in 1924 at the age of 19. When he left, his mother would not let him take his treasured fiddle with him. “You are going to America to work, not to play,” she told him. Several years later, he was reunited with his beloved instrument and spent much of the rest of his life in Minnesota passing on fiddling and fiddle-making traditions to his children and his grandson Paul. Paul took up the fiddle in 1963 at the age of 9, and by age 17, he was performing regularly with his elders at Swedish-American events.

Before his death in 1984, Paul’s grandfather was “discovered” by fiddlers from Sweden who were amazed by his faithfulness to the regional style and repertoire that was thought to have disappeared. When grandson Paul began teaching Swedish instrumental music at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, he was applauded by his Swedish colleagues as an important keeper of deep Swedish musical tradition and as a creative force in keeping the tradition alive. The ASI Spelmanslag (fiddlers group) was formed the same year, and Dahlin has served as musical director since its inception. In 1994, in recognition of his outstanding contributions as a keeper and teacher of Swedish American musical traditions, Dahlin was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The popularity of the adult spelmanslag led to the creation of a children’s fiddling group at ASI. Dahlin invests much of himself in teaching and encouraging new crops of musicians because, he says, “they are deserving.” In addition to Paul (fiddle), the Akta Spelman ensemble includes wife Marikay Dahlin (bass) and five younger members now in their 20s who grew up in the Lilla Spelmanslag: son Daniel Dahlin (fiddle), Kristen Ottoson (fiddle) and three talented sisters, Meredith Biddle (guitar) and Carina Biddle (fiddle), and Raine Biddle Nyembwe (fiddle).