Tofte

Torill and Olav Tofte have been on stage together since 1988. In 1994 they started the band “Don’t mess with Alice”, which was changed to “Tofte” in 2001, playing mostly Olav’s songs – a mix of acoustic ballads and -70’s southern outlaw. They played in bars, clubs, larger events and country festivals in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Their songs “Living man”, “Down by the river” and “The one to pay” were released by 4 indie labels in the US - The Country Gazette, Comstock Records, Nite Sky Records and Hill Topper Records. Which lead to air play in the US, Australia, New Zealand and 10 European countries. They have also participated in 2 Norwegian compilation CD’s, have released 3 Maxi single CD’s and 1 CD production between 1994 and 2006. They have had the opportunity to work with some of the best country musicians in Norway. In this period they also played at the same festivals in Norway as Willie Nelson, Marty Stewart, Paul Overstreet, Hal Ketchum and Steve Earle. They also happened to meet Scotty Moore (RIP), Elvis’s first guitar player, who became a good friend after several meetings in Norway and Nashville. He liked Torill’s voice a lot, and said he could be quoted on that. At the end of 2006 the couple decided to take a break from the music business.

They had their comeback 4 years later, and chose to do charity-, cultural- and church concerts. In 2014 their daughter Pernille (vocals) and Henning their son in law (drums), joined the band. And together with two longtime friends they band became the family band Tofte. In 2016 they released an album with 3 psalms and 7 of Olav’s songs on Mudistore. The album were recorded live in their home, and was released almost “as is”. Tofte then did several various concerts, including tribute concerts arranged by Norwegian Americana Forum.

In September 2017 Torill and Olav recorded 3 of Olav’s songs at the 515 studio in Nashville – “The star”, “Answered prayers” and “Pray, work and stand tall”. They got great assistance from Erik Halbig – guitars, lap steel, mandolin, banjo (Lonestar, Collin Rae), Jay Weaver - bass (Dolly Parton, Mavericks), Tim Grogan - drums (Desert Rose Band, Tanya Tucker) and Billy Nobel – organ, piano (Tim McGraw). The songs were made digital available in December 2017 to July 2018 on Spotify, iTunes, Wimp/Tidal, and others by Indigoboom, and was heard live at their concerts. “The star” and “Answered prayers” were also promoted and released by NiteSky Records, USA in 2018 and 2019.

During the autumn of 2019 Tofte got a one page review in the magazine Country Music Europe. And, even more important, they were signed at FAJo Music, Norway, that will promote and release a new album. The album has been recorded during the spring of 2020, at Kleiva Studio, Halden. With Freddy Holm as a producer (also guitars, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, lap steel, pedal steel, citar and keys), Eivind Kløverød (drums and percusion), and Finn Tore Tokle (bass). The album / CD "Coming home" was made available for purchase 05.08.2020. The record company, FAJo Music,will release the album digitally in November 2020.