Episode #99 – Julida Alter “The Blacksmith’s Daughters”

BlacksmitHER Radio

Julida Alter is the youngest of 6 in a strong Polish Catholic family where her father and two brothers are blacksmiths. Julida and her sister are part of a 4-person band called “The Blacksmith’s Daughters”, they are located outside of Minneapolis Minnesota. Recently formed in 2015, The Blacksmith's Daughters (a family folk/pop band) believe that music should inspire the best in each other. That is why they create music that makes people happy. Many times this happiness comes out through authentic love songs with soaring melodies, intense harmonies and intertwined guitar and ukulele.

What We Talked About

• Julida comes from a family of blacksmiths, 4 generations in fact! Her father, Boleslaw Kochanowski, is a well-known blacksmith in the Wisconsin and Chicago area.
• Her father has visited his native country, Poland, to research his genealogy and how it ties to the blacksmith craft. He has found business records from the early 1900’s of family members running a blacksmith business.
• Her grandfather was fighting in World War II and was captured by the Nazis, when he declared (he knew how to speak German) that he was a blacksmith the Nazis spared his life and put him to work on a farm in Germany.
• The four pillars of the band are the two sisters, Annella Platta and Julida Alter, and their iron clad musicians (and also husbands), Brent Platta and Sean Alter.
• Two other regulars in the band are Jeremy Swider on violin and Krista Swider on viola (who also happen to be married). Jeremy and Krista teach private violin and viola lessons and also perform in the ensemble Sonorous Strings.
• Each of the band members have a background tied to music, A band teacher, a choir director, a piano teacher and professional viola and violin players.
• Every member of the band writes their own lyrics and music and they like to use hand percussion instruments such as: hand shakers, Castanets, Cajon box drum and bass drums.
• They are planning to release two albums in 2017, one in June and hopefully a Christmas album.

Guest Links

• The Blacksmith’s Daughters website - http://www.theblacksmithsdaughters.com/
• Band’s YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPfufg98AbRBicWU8wojXdw
• Boleslaw Kochowski - http://www.boleslawkochanowski.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Southern Blacksmith Association, Their bi-annual conference May 18th - 21st.

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