If A Tree Falls

Open mic origins to local stages with Folk-rooted storytelling, emotion & exploration. Have you ever heard a Swedish Nyckelharpa? Here's your chance! If a Tree Falls is a Berkeley-based folk trio featuring Mark Walstrom and daughter Jennie Walstrom - who together do that epic Everly brothers harmonizing - along with musical pal Bernie Lenhoff. Together they play the nyckelharpa, the dobro, guitar, and mandolin and sing beautiful traditional songs. Many know Mark through his work at his shop, Timbre Folk & Baroque, where he sells and repairs stringed instruments. The trio are regulars at the HOOT! "The sound this trio makes isn’t heard, it’s felt — like a pang of love, or longing, or loss. And their alchemy not only carries you through such emotions, but leaves you in a place somewhere beyond them. This is sound that purifies." - Jxo A nyckelharpa has 16 strings: 3 melody strings, one drone string, and 12 sympathetic vibration (or resonance) strings. It has about 37 wooden keys arranged to slide under the strings. Each key has a tangent that reaches up and stops (frets) a string to make a particular note. The player uses a short bow with the right hand, and pushes on the keys with the left. It has a 3 octave range (from the same low “G” as a fiddle’s 4th string) and sounds something like a fiddle, only with lots more resonance. Join us in person, by live-stream, OR on-demand! (For on-demand viewing, simply purchase a live-stream only ticket, and then watch the recording at your leisure anytime in the following two weeks.) WE GUARANTEE ALL OF OUR PERFORMERS A MINIMUM FAIR WAGE - thanks to support from people like you! Very best, Calliope: East Bay Music & Arts Board of Directors Artist Profiles Bernie Lenhoff (Guitar, dobro, voice) Classically trained on guitar, Bernie found more in common with the singer/songwriters of the 60s & 70s. Inspired by the improvisation of the Grateful Dead, he taught himself electric bass and lead guitar. Moving to the Bay Area in the 90s, Bernie returned to his roots in acoustic guitar-driven Americana/folk/rock/pop, often covering other artists with fresh inventive arrangements. His latest tangent is learning dobro, inspired by its melodic expressiveness. Bernie considers his beloved dobro (“The Mighty Beard”) to be the fourth member of IATF. Mark Walstrom (Guitar, mandolin, nyckelharpa, voice) Mark started playing guitar in High School (wow so long ago!) to spite his older sister and monopolize her instrument. When he was growing up his family moved around Wisconsin and Minnesota and he later spent two years working in northern Wisconsin cranberry bogs to earn his master’s in Botany. He then moved to Oregon where he worked in commercial plant propagation and joined an Irish music band. He worked at UC Berkeley as their plant collector for 20 years before retiring to open Timbre Folk and Baroque in Berkeley where he builds, repairs and sells musical instruments. Jennie Walstrom (voice, nyckelharpa) Mark’s daughter, Jennie has been singing with Mark since before she was old enough to understand what she was doing. Together, Mark and Jennie like to play and sing Swedish folk music. Mark taught Jennie how to play nyckelharpa (Swedish key fiddle) from the time she was in High School and now they play at local Swedish gatherings and festivals including Lucia Day and Midsommar. Like her father, Jennie is interested in science and plants as well as knitting and crafting. She is now a High School chemistry teacher at Holy Names High School in Rockridge. Her favorite lab demonstration is the exploding pumpkin.