While they have only once before appeared in NMC I well remember The Northern Belle. They were the last band I wrote about before I set up NMC in October 2021 and they always made an impression on me as purveyors of serious yet enjoyable Americana.
I’ll attempt to explain what I mean by that. There are so many variations on country music and on Americana generally. The two I most frequently encounter are:
- The traditional Nashville version. A song with a title like this one, ‘There’s a party tonight’, might concern for example a heartbroken woman invited to a party to get over a lost love only to find him there cheating on her again with a chick whose other half is a truck driver who is intent on shooting his closet boyfriend who is seeing his mother, who has just buried her husband who worked himself to death on the family farm during the depression. Or something equally convoluted and arcane;
Or
- Nordicana. Misery. Misery. Misery. And then more misery.
Not so I’m glad to say with The Northern Belle and this sample track from their sixth album. There’s melancholy a-plenty alright but it’s positive melancholy if you can imagine such a thing. And it is delivered articulately and eruditely.
It is about over-thinking, emotional overload, and the painful struggle between wanting to connect with others and feeling the need to isolate yourself. The dichotomy between “God, I hate being alone” and making a fool of yourself when you choose company (“acting like a clown, punch line of every joke”).
The entire non-event is perfectly summarised in the lines,
“Can’t remember if I got an invite/but I’m on my way/I will screw up…that’s just how I roll…
…Why didn’t I just stay at home?”
Towards the end it does start to take on the mantle of the traditional Country story. There is another person present, perhaps many, who can “see it, in my face”; there’s a drinking problem and an early hint of a drugs one too; she can’t stop falling for the wrong person but the right one is there, hiding in plain sight; she’ll lose her chance if she doesn’t stop dithering.
And in classic Country style there is no resolution. The problem isn’t going away any time soon but she’ll keep on trying to get past it, starting with that party next week. Until then the sun might shine but she’ll sit in the shade all the same.
That said, it does end on a disturbing note with the thrice-repeated lines “I hold back/hide from the shame/I can’t stand the pain”, which does suggest vulnerability and that the mental trauma is much more than skin deep.
Musically it’s a little gem of a thing; light, airy, melodic, catchy even. Quite a contrast from the subject matter but then that’s what differentiates the genre from most of the others.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
The Northern Belle work with an A-list of Norway’s musicians, in the past with Nordicana luminaries like Louien and Signe Marie Rustad and with guest spots on this album from Embla and the Karidotters and Feber, and there is a cover version of Chappell Roan’s ‘The Subway’.
Core band members are:
Stine Andreassen (vocals, guitar)
Bjørnar Ekse Brandseth (guitars, pedal steel)
Johanne Flottorp (Hardanger fiddle, backing vocals)
Trym Gjermundbo (drums)
Ole-André Sjøgren (guitars, backing vocals)
Marie Tveiten (backing vocals)
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNorthernBelleMusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenorthernbelle_official/
Bandcamp (album): https://thenorthernbelle.bandcamp.com/album/even-cowgirls-get-sad
