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Now he is one of Norway's biggest artists - so big that he can serve up nine new songs, which no one had heard before, and others which he had changed so they were almost unrecognizable, at the first of his present concert tour.
And then he brought the band around him to do a bluegrass version of "Rise To The Occasion" and "Singing the Song", and let the banjo player play more than a B-part in the pop hit "She's So High". It was a fresh, upbeat, different and liberatingly unpretentious show.
And Kurt Nilsen is a completely jovial fellow, who loves to stand on stage - and it shows. It makes one want to tap one's foot along to a band that is top notch.
"It's still great," said Nilsen about being back out on the road again through the autumn and into the winter, just before he got on the tour bus for Oppdal. In his luggage up to the mountains he had with him nine new, Norwegian songs, just a couple known from earlier.

GOOSEBUMPS
The Oppdal public had had a little foretaste of one of them on opp.no, "Svaret Er Det Samme", which OPP had put out a video of from Nilsen's brief visit to the town two weeks ago, and that was a highlight for many in the audience. Not least the parents with young children who could totally relate to the lyrics to this song written about Kurt's six year old son.
The new Norwegian album will be released in the new year, but all the new songs weren't as good as others. A couple of them were a little featureless and anonymous, and had trouble living up to the many top hits Kurt has had in his song catalogue up to now.
But "I Kveld" really hit the spot with the prophetic line "I Kveld venter jeg paa at noe magisk skal skjer" (Tonight I'm waiting for something magical to happen). The same can be said when the tenacious rocker sang "Si Det Rett Ut" (Just Say What You Mean) and with "Du Sa" (You Said), where Kurt Nilsen hit the spot just like a Roger Whittaker, who also whistled his way to a hit.
Nilsen sings like a god, and on some of the new, Norwegian songs we think, in fact, that his voice is not getting enough to work with. That's why it was good to get an extra number with just his voice and a piano accompaniment of Daniel Hovik in "Never Easy". Then, on the late October evening in Oppdal, the goose bumps came.
"I have been looking forward to this for a long time," Nilsen told us as he opened the show and the audience of around 280 answered with a roof lifting and standing ovation after an hour and a half on the stage. Nilsen rewarded them with 2 extra numbers, and afterwards, when he met OPP, he told us how pleased he was with the tour start, before climbing back on board his tour bus which would take him and the band onto Bjugn and over 50 other places in Norway.
"It was good to get started, and we all really enjoyed ourselves on stage. I've just come straight from 14-15 hours of Idol auditions in Bergen, so I was beginning to go a bit stir crazy. But today has really helped and it's really good to get going!"
Per Roar Bekken
perroar@opp.no

Now he is one of Norway's biggest artists - so big that he can serve up nine new songs, which no one had heard before, and others which he had changed so they were almost unrecognizable, at the first of his present concert tour.
And then he brought the band around him to do a bluegrass version of "Rise To The Occasion" and "Singing the Song", and let the banjo player play more than a B-part in the pop hit "She's So High". It was a fresh, upbeat, different and liberatingly unpretentious show.
And Kurt Nilsen is a completely jovial fellow, who loves to stand on stage - and it shows. It makes one want to tap one's foot along to a band that is top notch.
"It's still great," said Nilsen about being back out on the road again through the autumn and into the winter, just before he got on the tour bus for Oppdal. In his luggage up to the mountains he had with him nine new, Norwegian songs, just a couple known from earlier.

GOOSEBUMPS
The Oppdal public had had a little foretaste of one of them on opp.no, "Svaret Er Det Samme", which OPP had put out a video of from Nilsen's brief visit to the town two weeks ago, and that was a highlight for many in the audience. Not least the parents with young children who could totally relate to the lyrics to this song written about Kurt's six year old son.
The new Norwegian album will be released in the new year, but all the new songs weren't as good as others. A couple of them were a little featureless and anonymous, and had trouble living up to the many top hits Kurt has had in his song catalogue up to now.
But "I Kveld" really hit the spot with the prophetic line "I Kveld venter jeg paa at noe magisk skal skjer" (Tonight I'm waiting for something magical to happen). The same can be said when the tenacious rocker sang "Si Det Rett Ut" (Just Say What You Mean) and with "Du Sa" (You Said), where Kurt Nilsen hit the spot just like a Roger Whittaker, who also whistled his way to a hit.
Nilsen sings like a god, and on some of the new, Norwegian songs we think, in fact, that his voice is not getting enough to work with. That's why it was good to get an extra number with just his voice and a piano accompaniment of Daniel Hovik in "Never Easy". Then, on the late October evening in Oppdal, the goose bumps came.
"I have been looking forward to this for a long time," Nilsen told us as he opened the show and the audience of around 280 answered with a roof lifting and standing ovation after an hour and a half on the stage. Nilsen rewarded them with 2 extra numbers, and afterwards, when he met OPP, he told us how pleased he was with the tour start, before climbing back on board his tour bus which would take him and the band onto Bjugn and over 50 other places in Norway.
"It was good to get started, and we all really enjoyed ourselves on stage. I've just come straight from 14-15 hours of Idol auditions in Bergen, so I was beginning to go a bit stir crazy. But today has really helped and it's really good to get going!"
Per Roar Bekken
perroar@opp.no

Now he is one of Norway's biggest artists - so big that he can serve up nine new songs, which no one had heard before, and others which he had changed so they were almost unrecognizable, at the first of his present concert tour.
And then he brought the band around him to do a bluegrass version of "Rise To The Occasion" and "Singing the Song", and let the banjo player play more than a B-part in the pop hit "She's So High". It was a fresh, upbeat, different and liberatingly unpretentious show.
And Kurt Nilsen is a completely jovial fellow, who loves to stand on stage - and it shows. It makes one want to tap one's foot along to a band that is top notch.
"It's still great," said Nilsen about being back out on the road again through the autumn and into the winter, just before he got on the tour bus for Oppdal. In his luggage up to the mountains he had with him nine new, Norwegian songs, just a couple known from earlier.

GOOSEBUMPS
The Oppdal public had had a little foretaste of one of them on opp.no, "Svaret Er Det Samme", which OPP had put out a video of from Nilsen's brief visit to the town two weeks ago, and that was a highlight for many in the audience. Not least the parents with young children who could totally relate to the lyrics to this song written about Kurt's six year old son.
The new Norwegian album will be released in the new year, but all the new songs weren't as good as others. A couple of them were a little featureless and anonymous, and had trouble living up to the many top hits Kurt has had in his song catalogue up to now.
But "I Kveld" really hit the spot with the prophetic line "I Kveld venter jeg paa at noe magisk skal skjer" (Tonight I'm waiting for something magical to happen). The same can be said when the tenacious rocker sang "Si Det Rett Ut" (Just Say What You Mean) and with "Du Sa" (You Said), where Kurt Nilsen hit the spot just like a Roger Whittaker, who also whistled his way to a hit.
Nilsen sings like a god, and on some of the new, Norwegian songs we think, in fact, that his voice is not getting enough to work with. That's why it was good to get an extra number with just his voice and a piano accompaniment of Daniel Hovik in "Never Easy". Then, on the late October evening in Oppdal, the goose bumps came.
"I have been looking forward to this for a long time," Nilsen told us as he opened the show and the audience of around 280 answered with a roof lifting and standing ovation after an hour and a half on the stage. Nilsen rewarded them with 2 extra numbers, and afterwards, when he met OPP, he told us how pleased he was with the tour start, before climbing back on board his tour bus which would take him and the band onto Bjugn and over 50 other places in Norway.
"It was good to get started, and we all really enjoyed ourselves on stage. I've just come straight from 14-15 hours of Idol auditions in Bergen, so I was beginning to go a bit stir crazy. But today has really helped and it's really good to get going!"
Per Roar Bekken
perroar@opp.no