Oi Dai
Oi Daiis the album that catapulted Värttinä to international fame, a  meaty, beaty, big, and bouncy collection of Finnish folk tunes driven by the polyphonic  Finno-Ugric harmonies of the female singers and the sprightly, acoustic picking of their  backing band. The album kicks in with Marilaulu, a sprightly hoe-down driven by an  effervescent pennywhistle, thumping bassline, and the charming, slightly dissonant vocals of the band's five frontwomen. If the Bulgarian Women's Choir was backed by  Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, they might sound something like Värttinä. Several tunes  here are based on bawdy folk tunes, which may partly explain the album's staggering  popularity--within weeks of its release it became the biggest selling folk music album in  the history of the Finnish music business.--j. poet