Forget the Novelty, Bering Strait is a Great Band
By Crystal Caviness
Yes, Bering Strait is a Country Music band from Russia. More to the point, Bering Strait is a great Country Music band.
A listen to the band's music, including their single "You Make Lovin' Fun" (a remake of the Fleetwood Mac hit), makes it clear that Bering Strait is a group of highly talented, versatile musicians who make music worthy of the GRAMMY nomination they have received.
As the band heads into its 12th year in Nashville, with a second album released in August, the musicians are comfortable with the city they now call home and the many veteran Country Music songwriters and producers they call friends.
Carl Jackson, who produced the group's first demo during their initial trip to Tennessee in 1993, is a vocal supporter.
"They are some of the best musicians I've ever worked with," said Jackson, who has worked with Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris and produced the GRAMMY-winning Universal South Records album Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers.
Jackson produced Bering Strait's second album, Pages, which he and others agree show how the band members have matured while living in the United States.
"I've seen them mature. They were kids (when they first came to Nashville). They were all great musicians, but they were kids," Jackson said. "It's evolved into something that is wonderful."
Bering Strait's core remains Natasha Borzilova on lead vocals and acoustic guitar; Lydia Salnikova on vocals and keyboards; Alexander "Sasha" Ostrovsky on dobro, steel guitar and lap steel; Sergei "Spooky" Olkhovsky on bass; and Alexander Arzamastev on drums. Mike Kinnamon, Senior Partner, Music Central Management and owner of JMK Music, has been the band's manager for eight years.
Some of the band members have been musical colleagues since they were children in Obninsk, Russia, a town two hours from Moscow. Their parents enrolled them in music school when they were ages 6 or 7, where they received formal training in music theory, choral singing or whatever instrument they chose.
The musicians first traveled to Tennessee in 1993, to Oak Ridge, the sister city of their hometown in a cultural exchange program. One year later, they performed at the International Bluegrass Music Association convention in Kentucky, primarily because the band's instrumentation included banjo and dobro.
"Our (classical music) teacher (in Russia) wanted to improve our fingering and get us to play faster, so he introduced us to bluegrass," Ostrovsky said. "We started playing bluegrass festivals and touring Europe, but when we discovered real Country Music artists like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson, we transformed into a Country band."
Making a living playing Country Music in Russia was not an option.
"Since coming to Nashville we do get homesick, so we go back home once a year, but once we're there we can't stand it for too long," Ostrovsky said. "After I see friends and family, I miss Nashville. There's nothing going on in Russia as far as music is concerned. We're an international band that's Russian and Country, but music is the key to us. Nationality doesn't define our music. It's music that makes you who you are."
As trips to the United States became more frequent, and the visits extended for longer periods of time, the transition to living permanently in the United States occurred.
"We all realized that if you're playing Country Music, you need to come to the U.S.," Salnikova said. "I didn't really realize at first that pursing this might mean I'd have to move to America. I don't think I ever made a conscious decision, 'Okay, this is what I'm doing for a career.' It just kind of happened. I was just finding myself coming over more and more for longer periods of time, until one day I realized that succeeding with the band was my priority."
There have been bumps in the road. The band has gone through four record labels, with corporate shakeups causing the demise of deal after deal. Living arrangements have been difficult at times, with six members of the band living with Kinnamon and his wife for extended periods.
There have been rewards for all the struggling.
The group is the subject of the acclaimed documentary "The Ballad of Bering Strait," directed by Nina Gilden Seavey, which won the Audience Award at the International Documentary Association Festival. Bering Strait has been featured on "60 Minutes" and has sold more than 100,000 copies of their first album, Bering Strait.
The first album also garnered a GRAMMY nomination for best Country Instrumental Performance, making Bering Strait the first Russian band to be nominated for a GRAMMY outside of the classical categories.
"It felt like the Olympics," Salnikova said, "and it gave our parents a taste of how big this could be."
The band has high hopes for its second album.
"It's very easy to get discouraged," Salnikova said. "People who came to town at the same time (that we did) are having success. But when you have a product you're proud of and, in the long run, you are progressing, (then) creating music you're passionate about makes all the difference."
On Pages, members of the band co-wrote with a few of Music Row's top songwriters and producers. "Long Time Comin'," was co-written by Salnikova with Billy Montana, who wrote Sara Evans' hit "Suds in the Bucket;" and "It Hurts Just a Little," penned by Ostrovsky and Brent Maher, who produced Bering Strait's first album. Plus, Salnikova penned "Safe In My Lover's Arms" and Borzilova wrote "Cruel Man."
The objective on Pages Jackson said, was making a Country album while retaining the band's unique style - music influenced by Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Coldplay, Dire Straits and Sting.
"They are not the traditional Country band," Jackson said. "You can't just put them in a box."
On the Web: www.beringstraitonline.com
© 2005 CMA Close Up News Service
November 29, 2005
(l-r) Alexander "Sasha" Ostrovsky; Sergi "Spooky" Olkhovsky; Natasha Borzilova; Lydia Salnikova; and Alexander Arzamastev. © Photographer: Eric Welch
