Arthur Kylander

Arthur Kylander [1]
Born Arthur Arkadius Kylander
February 16, 1892
Lieto, Finland
Died 1968
Occupation singer, songwriter, musician
Spouse(s) Julia Varila

Arthur Kylander (1892–1968) was a Finnish-American singer, songwriter and mandolin player.[1]

Biography

Born in Lieto, Finland, Kylander immigrated to the United States in 1914 at the age of twenty-two. There he became an itinerant laborer and worked as a carpenter and logger.

In 1925 he met his future wife Julia Varila, a pianist and accordionist with whom he began performing and touring. During the Depression the Kylanders moved to Hollywood, California, where Julia worked as a cook and Arthur was a butler and chauffeur. In 1943 they bought 240 acres of wooded land near Placerville, California and started a tree farm.[2] In 1964 Kylander was named the Outstanding Conservation Rancher of the Year.[3]

Music

Between 1927 and 1929 Kylander released twenty songs on the Victor label.[4] He also published several songbooks with the title of Humoristisia Lauluja (Comic Songs).[5]

His repertoire included Kulkuri (The Hobo), Muistojen Valssi (The Waltz of Memories) and Suomalainen ja Sauna (The Finn and the Sauna). A member of the Industrial Workers of the World, many of Kylander's songs dealt with the hardships facing immigrant workers while retaining a strong sense of wit and humor.[5] He sang in a mixture of Finnish and Finglish in a manner similar to his contemporary, Hiski Salomaa.[6]

Since the 1970s, Arthur Kylander's recordings have been reissued in both analog and digital formats.[6] [7][8]

References

  1. 1 2 Arthur Kylander. fi.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: March 12, 2013.
  2. Arthur Kylander, Finnish-American Folksinger. fingerlakesfinns.org. Retrieved: March 12, 2013.
  3. Mountain Democrat December 17, 1964.
  4. Ethnic Music on Records by Richard K. Spottswood, (University of Illinois Press, 1990) Volume 5, pp. 2581-2582.
  5. 1 2 Songs about Work by Richard A Reuss and Archie Green, (Bloomington: Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993) pp. 268-271.
  6. 1 2 Siirtolaisen Muistoja (The Immigrant's Memories) (Helsinki: Finnish RCA, 1978).
  7. Oi kuinka engeliksi mielin (We'll be angels by and by) (Kaustinen: The Folk Music Institute), 1994).
  8. Stranded in the USA (Munich: Trikont, 2004).

External links

Book excerpt

Discography

Videos

Streaming audio

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.