Vlado Kreslin is Slovenia’s most popular folk-rock musician.  While that might sound for a moment like calling someone the biggest star in Litchfield County, Connecticut, the fact that Kreslin is from a tiny central-European nation of two million tucked between Venice, Vienna, and Zagreb has not impeded his popularity, over decades, throughout the Balkans and at an international scale.  Kreslin has over a dozen albums to his name, and is a well-respected published poet (a collection of his poetry will be published in English for the first time by Guernica Editions in 2012).  The great poet Charles Simic wrote admiringly in The New York Review of Books of Kreslin’s performances during a recent poetry festival in Bosnia that they both attended.  He was made an honorary fellow at Yale University in 2009.  Michael Stipe of R.E.M. was pleased to share a stage with Kreslin, who has also performed several times with Bob Dylan.  The fact that he has achieved such acclaim while based in a little-known country is that much more impressive.

Vlado Kreslin, photo by Nejc Hotzl

Kreslin’s music is nearest in style to Bruce Springsteen, a mixture of thoughtful folk music, multi-instrumental rock, and traditional folk tunes borrowing styles and influences from throughout the former Yugoslavia.  This made something of a political statement after the war in Sarajevo, when Kreslin performed one of the earliest post-war concerts, and overtly called for unity by bringing together musicians from rival ethnic groups to perform one another’s folk ballads.  Kreslin’s lyrics are evocative and intelligent, and he politicizes without being overtly political.  He uses music to unify politically, and his songs bridge generations—teenagers know his oeuvre as well as their parents do.

Every December, Kreslin and his band (he performs with a traditional octogenarian band, Beltinska Banda, as well as a band of thirty-somethings, Mali Bogovi, the Little Gods, on the same stage) perform a series of three sold-out concerts at Cankarjev Dom, the main cultural center of Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana.  My wife (she’s Slovene) and I have attended many of these concerts (and full disclosure, Kreslin is a friend of ours, and my wife is the translator of his soon-to-be-released poetry collection), including the climactic concert this past Wednesday.

Attending one of Kreslin’s concerts is something to add to your life’s to-do list.

There is a charisma, a calm channeled passion, to truly great performers, be they stage actors, movie stars, rhetoricians, or musicians.  It combines an absolute comfort with the material, with an un-teachable aura that surrounds the performer and spreads out to the audience.  I’ve seen it on stage with great actors like Michael Gambon and John Hurt.  They step on stage and the theater quivers.  Kreslin has a similar presence and his riotous, moving three-hour concerts harness that energy.

If you’d like to sample Kreslin’s work, you can order CDs on Amazon, but the best introduction is to watch a few of his live performances on YouTube.  Below is a recommended list of performances to introduce you to his work.

A woman from Dallas, Texas once stumbled across Kreslin’s music and, not understanding a word, was nevertheless mesmerized.  She booked a flight to Slovenia to attend a concert, but the concert was suddenly cancelled.  She contacted Kreslin and he arranged for her and her husband to dine at his home, where he gave them a free, impromptu private concert in lieu of the cancelled gig.  She’s now writing Kreslin’s biography.  Hard to imagine Bruce Springsteen inviting a Slovenian fan to his house for dinner and a private concert if a big gig were cancelled—that says nothing negative about The Boss, but it does speak well of Kreslin.  If he can so inspire a Texan on first listen that she hops on a plane and decides to pen his biography, then surely he’s worth a listen.

Starter Sampler of Kreslin Performances:

Od Visine Se Zvrti (Vertiginous From the Height)

Kreslin’s epic anthem and every Slovene’s favorite love song.  This is a good one to start with.

Namesto Koga Roza Cveti (Instead of Whom Does the Flower Bloom)

A novelist friend of Kreslin’s heard this song and declared that it had an entire novel packed into it.  He promptly wrote a novel of the same title, which was later made into a film.  This songs nicely combines folk and gypsy elements with Kreslin’s unique original music.  This version includes a guest performer, the Serbian actor Rade Serbedzjia, who you might recognize from movies like Mission: Impossible and Eyes Wide Shut.

O Vrba (The Willow Tree)

Kreslin, along with his song-writing partner and guitarist Miro Tomassini, put this poem by Slovenia’s most famous Romantic poet, France Preseren, to music.  It really shows off Kreslin’s honey-coated gravel voice.

Dekle Moje (My Girl)

An example of Kreslin’s folk-inspired joyous romps.  When you’re having this much fun performing, no wonder the audience does too.

Tam v Meglicah Nad Mursko Vodo (There in the Mist by the Mura River)

Kreslin is from Prekmurje, the most remote and poorest region of Slovenia, but the region that has produced the most artists and poets (think early 20^th century Ireland).  The Mura River winds through this region, and this song produces the atmosphere of the early morning mists along the riverside.  This performance includes a guest singer in a very silly hat, but don’t let that throw you off.

Crna Kitara (Black Guitar)

Kreslin’s other great anthem, about the first guitar that his father bought with his first paycheck back in 1946.  Local gypsies used to come to his father’s country inn and ask to borrow the guitar.  This song was covered by the popular Seattle band, The Walkabouts.  This version was recorded solo at a concert held at the famous club Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.

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