Meet Jameson

Jameson Foster is an ethnomusicology PhD student at CU Boulder exploring the ways in which music is used to construct identity in and of the Nordic countries, including traditional music styles, heavy metal, and the growing pagan music scene arising out of Viking market gatherings in Scandinavia. Jameson's current focus is on the ethnographic study of pagan music festivals as counter-memory in both Scandinavia and the United States, including Midgardsblot (Norway), Cascadian Midsummer (Washington), and Fire in the Mountains (Montana).

Jameson has a complimentary passion in ecological ethic and ecomusicology, with much of his work reflecting concern for how music works with or against attitudes of environmentalism, particularly how animist cosmology manifests in contemporary Nordic and pagan music practice, His teaching experience includes Music Appreciation, Vikings, and Norse Mythology CU, as well as 20th Century Music and Western Art Music at Johns Hopkins and Peabody Conservatory during his master's degree when working on his thesis focused on Edvard Grieg's influence on Belle Epoque Paris. Jameson’s scholarship shows a passion for music regardless of genre or style, with extensive knowledge in classical, heavy metal, and folk traditions, refusing to confine himself into one corner of musicology.

Longtime followers of the Nordic Sound will tell you that part of what makes the Nordic Sound special is the fact that Jameson himself is also a versatile and experienced musician. While most known for his eccentric pagan banjo persona “Scuzzlebutt”, Jameson is also trained in jazz and classical double bass, and is a long time performer of both Nordic and American folk genres on guitar, mandolin, and banjo as well.