IRON RANGE — While traveling down County Highway 7 just south of Southern Drive, drivers might notice a sign commemorating the late Bobby Aro. But if you weren't Finnish, didn't grow up listening to local radio or heard live music in the Northland between the 1970s and '90s, you might not be familiar with this "Finnglish" singer.
Aro was a radio DJ who grew up in Leonidas, a small community west of Eveleth. A proud Finnish-American, Aro was raised playing music with his family while growing up. According to a 1984 News Tribune & Herald story about him, Aro learned the violin first, then added guitar, keyboard and drums to his list of instruments. He served in the U.S. Navy, then went to school for radio on the GI Bill. Aro's first gig was as a country music DJ in Chicago and Texas.
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Back on the Iron Range, Aro began to DJ locally and developed his signature style. He mixed Finnish with English to make "Finn-glish" and told jokes between music spots.
"That's what I love about him, his sense of humor," said Steve Solkela, a fellow singer and polka enthusiast. "I've always been kind of a goofball, so one of my uncles gave me a Bobby Aro CD and kept on quoting him and making jokes."
One of his biggest fans, Solkela was born too late to hear Aro live on the radio but grew up listening to his relatives share their favorite jokes and songs.
"I've got one joke I always have to include when people ask about Bobby. He died in January of 1996, and I was born in July of 1996," Solkela said. "So the joke is that I'm the reincarnation of Bobby. He went to heaven for six months, and God said, 'I'm sick of this, enough of these Nordic jokes. Go on back to Earth, Bobby.' And I was born."
He started finding all of Aro's recordings that he could and created his own medley of his favorites on his album "Sauna Knight" in 2022.
"We're definitely similar. He inspired a lot of me," Solkela said. "I feel like I was born 70 years too young. I could have been in the Ranch-Aros and played with Bobby."
The Ranch-Aros was Aro's band that performed across the Northland and once as far as Finland. He was known for performing songs in six languages in his act, including Slovenian, German, Finnish and Hawaiian. He'd insert jokes into and between his songs and create medleys of similar styles. He'd also mix in his Finnglish songs such as "Kapakka in the Kaupunki," "Suomalainen Gals" and "Donald Maki," a remake of "Old MacDonald."
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His songs became somewhat of a cult favorite in Finland, which Solkela said still persists.
"I was on tour in January and they were still asking for Bobby songs in Finland in 2024," Solkela said. "He was such a uniting figure who knew how to make everybody dance and laugh. If I have a career even 10% as cool as Bobby, I'll be proud of myself."
Solkela's personal favorites of Aro are "Hoom-pum Billi Billi" because he said it's like a "Gatling gun of jokes, one after another" and Aro's third rendition of "Highway No. 7."
"The first one was pretty simple. It served as his theme song for many years, and it's the one everyone might know," Solkela said. "The second is a parody of 'She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain,' but it's 'She'll Be Coming Down Highway 7 When She Comes.' The third one is more sentimental. It's the last one he wrote, and you can feel it."
Aro suffered a heart attack while performing in Mountain Iron in December 1988, but returned to the stage a few months later and kept performing. Aro died Jan. 19, 1996, at age 69. His son, Casey Aro, also became a performer in the region, though he had a different style than his father. The St. Louis County Board of Commissioners approved renaming County Highway 7 in honor of Aro in 2008.
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