What I Tell My Friends, Vol. 1: The Busking Years

Most people know Lief Sorbye as the founder and frontman of the seminal Celtic Rock band Tempest, which has been going strong since 1988 and has produced more than a dozen highly acclaimed studio albums.

But there’s a lot more to Lief’s story than his time at the helm of Tempest. His formative years in Norway and his time busking in Europe, Ireland, the U.K., and the United States were essential to his future success. Inspired by the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and The Incredible String Band, he began developing his signature sound, blending folk music and progressive rock, while fronting local bands in Oslo. He played the youth club circuit, hitchhiked around Europe, studied art, and embraced Transcendental Meditation.

He encountered the likes of folk legends Robin Williamson and Richard Thompson, master luthier Andy Manson (from whom he purchased his custom stringed instruments), cult members who tried unsuccessfully to recruit him, and San Francisco dancer Carol Doda. He provided security at a Hollywood Christmas tree lot, played at pubs in Dublin and Galway, and was wrongly detained by Immigration in a Texas jail. Through it all, he kept his hair long-most of the time-and his mind open. His adventures set the stage for his time in the folk band Golden Bough and, eventually, the founding of Tempest.