Flying Norwegians – New Day LP

New Day – the debut album from Flying Norwegians is first truly remarkable country rock album from Norway – it’s the first album to be convincingly good in a genre that we believed, until 1974, to solely be the domain of American artists with mud on their boots and whiskey on their person. The band, which was given the self-evident name Flying Norwegians, can be traced back to the end of the 1960s. Rune Walle known from Oriental Sunshine, Hole In The Wall and Saft had longstanding dream of his own: to start a pure country rock band. He brought with him Gunnar Bergstrøm from Saft, while adding three experienced young men from the music scene in Bergen, Western Norway: Cato Sanden, Jarle Zimmerman and Johannes Torkelsen. The songs found on the band’s first album were composed and rehearsed on an abandoned farm in Denmark. This setting would result in an album steaming with pure-to-the-roots American country, coupled with all the Scandinavian fervour that five virile men, armed with instruments, could muster. It sounded American, but it was evident from the cover art that it was, in fact, Norwegian. The artist, Arve Håland, most likely had Roald Amundsen in mind when he drew an airship hanging over rolling clouds, coupled with the modest title “New Day”. But this was anything but modest. This was convincing. “New Day” proved that authentic country rock could be made in Norway. Originally released in 1974, remastered from the original master tapes by Morten Lund.