ABOUT US Tante Friedl is Magdalena Kriss from Bavaria and Dan Wall from Hudson, New York. We met through music in Sweden and Slovenia and again where our two Tante Friedl's spent their teenage years - in Salzburg region, Austria.
WHAT WE PLAY Magdalena grew up playing the classical flute and as her interest in the folk sound grew, she picked up the accordion to support her vocal work. Dan mainly sings and plays the 5 string open back banjo in a strange kind of clawhammer style. From time to time he’ll also pull out the fiddle, a blues harp or a Tambourine.
WHAT WE PLAY Magdalena grew up playing the classical flute and as her interest in the folk sound grew, she picked up the accordion to support her vocal work. Dan mainly sings and plays the 5 string open back banjo in a strange kind of clawhammer style. From time to time he’ll also pull out the fiddle, a blues harp or a Tambourine.
WHAT WE PLAY Magdalena grew up playing the classical flute and as her interest in the folk sound grew, she picked up the accordion to support her vocal work. Dan mainly sings and plays the 5 string open back banjo in a strange kind of clawhammer style. From time to time he’ll also pull out the fiddle, a blues harp or a Tambourine.
WHERE DID THE NAME TANTE FRIEDL COME FROM? Tante Friedl could be a larger than life MC or DJ rocking a gold chain, or a Bavarian cooking show on TV. Fate would have it that reaching off of the matriarchal branches of their family tree, are two lovely Tante (aunt) Friedls’. Their mother’s aunts. Fate would also have it that they grew up not too far from each other straddling the German Bavarian and Austrian Salzburgerland border. One, a stern yet warmhearted kindergarten teacher who refused to wear dark and dreary clothing, loved to tell a good story and swore that water was to blame for her weight. The other, an amazing artist who is still painting her brilliant works on glass, carries an eternal curiosity and can bring lightness and joy into any room. Both strong female figures in our lives whose playful, creative and nurturing energy greatly influences our style.
WHERE DID THE NAME TANTE FRIEDL COME FROM? Tante Friedl could be a larger than life MC or DJ rocking a gold chain, or a Bavarian cooking show on TV. Fate would have it that reaching off of the matriarchal branches of their family tree, are two lovely Tante (aunt) Friedls’. Their mother’s aunts. Fate would also have it that they grew up not too far from each other straddling the German Bavarian and Austrian Salzburgerland border. One, a stern yet warmhearted kindergarten teacher who refused to wear dark and dreary clothing, loved to tell a good story and swore that water was to blame for her weight. The other, an amazing artist who is still painting her brilliant works on glass, carries an eternal curiosity and can bring lightness and joy into any room. Both strong female figures in our lives whose playful, creative and nurturing energy greatly influences our style.
FOLK MUSIC
We Believe that our folk music is not only a dinosaur from the past, but a living and breathing reflection of modern times with a healthy dose of a historical cultural context that informs the present and future. Our music excepts the wonder and the burden of how cultures influenced each other in melody, meter and rhyme over hundreds of years, often through cultural appropriation and oppression. But this music has shown us that through celebrating each others cultures we can empower each other and at the same time strengthen our sense of identity in a heathy way.
TANDEM MUSIC TOUR
TANDEM MUSIC TOUR
TANDEM MUSIC TOUR
We hope that people enjoy listening to the music of international folk as much as we do playing it!
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