Folkmusik

Vaggvisan är en uråldrig visgenre, troligen en av våra äldsta. I boken ger författaren, som är en av vårt lands främsta visforskare, en bred introduktion till ämnet. Orden »Sov mitt lilla hjärta« är lånade ur en vaggvisa som sjöngs för över 250 år sedan.

This is the story of a folk rock band called Scafell Pike, The Stockholmbased group, which formed in 1972, originally consisted of three young Englishmen and one Swede. The story begins with the arrival of keyboard player David Hynes at Stockholm Central in the bitter cold of a February evening in 1964, armed with nothing but a suitcase and an oboe. He relates the band’s trajectory from rehearsals in a pub cellar, to cramped stages in bars and clubs, through recording studios to bigger venues and concert tours and to Poland to play and win at the Eastern Bloc’s equivalent of the Eurovision Song Contest. But this was not always a smooth ride. From dizzy heights the band also experienced dismal depths, not least a catastrophic appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1976. Four young men with music, ambition and no clear plan. What follows is not the familiar story of instant success, but something slower, stranger and more real. From the pubs of Stockholm’s Old Town to the folk parks and festival stages, Scafell Pike built their reputation the hard way: one venue and audience at a time. Their sound, an unlikely blend of English folkmusic and Swedish classics, found an audience where none previously existed. For a few years in the 1970s, they were one of the most distinctive live acts in Sweden. But bands are fragile things. Behind the success lies a world of late-night drives, cash-in-hand deals, shifting management, conflicting ambitions and the slow erosion of certainty. As the music industry changes and new opportunities appear, the band begins to lose its sense of direction. What once held them together, chemistry, instinct and a shared purpose, gradually gives way to doubt, compromise and drift. Told through the voices of those who were there with previously unpublished photographs, this is not a conventional rock biography. It is a portrait of the life of a band as it was actually lived: messy, episodic, often funny, sometimes tragic, and always human. Blending sharp British humour with Scandinavian melancholy, this is more than a rock biography. It is an evocative portrait of a vanished world, of the Scandinavian light, and the enduring power of songs that, for whatever reason, made perfect sense at the time.

The authorized biography of singer-songwriter Justin Townes EarleWhen Justin Townes Earle died in 2020 at the age of 38 of an overdose, alone in a sparsely furnished apartment in Nashville, his death sent waves of grief through the country-Americana music community. The son of alt-country hellraiser Steve Earle, partially named after the Texas troubadour and patron saint of substance-fueled despair Townes Van Zandt, he had long struggled with mental illness and various addictions. Some weren't shocked at his passing, but everyone had hoped Justin could beat his demons. There had been encouraging periods of long-term sobriety and active recovery in his adult life, including the years that led up to his career peak when he released the 2010 masterpiece Harlem River Blues, a career-making album of rambling folk blues set to Southern Gospel. He sang of cramped Brooklyn apartments and crippling hangovers, about emotional displacement, economic anxiety, and the wandering that characterized his feral, formative years as a rootless kid rambling around Nashville, developing his own unique guitar style and absorbing the musical influences that surrounded him. He appeared on Letterman, was named one of the 25 "most stylish men in the world" by GQ, and was anointed by critics as the next coming of the authentic troubadour. By the time of his death, he'd recorded and released eight albums, creating a striking and original body of work.Rolling Stone journalist Jonathan Bernstein, with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, unravels in these pages a short but incredibly creative life, and reveals the backstories behind Justin's greatest songs ("Mama's Eyes," "White Gardenias") and what happened when it all fell apart while also capturing a shadow world of the neglected children of Nashville legends who wrestle with the legacies of their hard-living, road-weary, often absent parents. Justin's journey to near-stardom is a harrowing story shot through with moments of clarity and promise, including his marriage to his wife Jenn Marie Earle and the birth of their daughter. But what Earle called "the myth"- the idea that one must suffer for one's art - proved to be too powerful. This heartbreaking, deeply researched tale is an exemplary music biography.

Rob Young's Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music is a seminal book on British music and cultural heritage, that spans the visionary classical and folk tradition from the nineteenth-century to the present day. 'A thoroughly enjoyable read and likely to remain the best-written overview for a long time.'GUARDIAN'A perfectly timed, perfectly pitched alternative history of English folk music . . . wide-ranging, insightful, authoritative, thoroughly entertaining.'NEW STATESMAN'A stunning achievement.'SIMON REYNOLDS'A masterpiece.' CAUGHT BY THE RIVER'Excellent . . . blissfully quotable.' NEW YORK TIMES'An authoritative account.' THE TIMES'Consistently absorbing.' INDEPENDENT'An impassioned and infectious rallying cry of a book.' SUNDAY TIMESIn this groundbreaking survey of more than a century of music making in the British Isles, Rob Young investigates how the idea of folk has been handed down and transformed by successive generations - song collectors, composers, Marxist revivalists, folk-rockers, psychedelic voyagers, free festival-goers, experimental pop stars and electronic innovators.In a sweeping panorama of Albion's soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp; the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd; the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Shirley Collins, John Martyn and Pentangle; the bucolic psychedelia of The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and Pink Floyd; the acid folk of Comus, Forest, Mr Fox and Trees; The Wicker Man and occult folklore; the early Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals; and the visionary pop of Kate Bush, Julian Cope and Talk Talk, Electric Eden maps out a native British musical voice that reflects the complex relationships between town and country, progress and nostalgia, radicalism and conservatism.An attempt to isolate the 'Britishness' of British music - a wild combination of pagan echoes, spiritual quest, imaginative time-travel, pastoral innocence and electrified creativity - Electric Eden will be treasured by anyone interested in the tangled story of Britain's folk music and Arcadian dreams.'A treat.' TIME OUT'Young is a fine writer.' MOJO'Young's immense narrative is both educative and gripping.' UNCUT'A multitudinous, fascinating and beautifully written account.' TLS

Utgiven av Svenskt visarkiv. Åren kring sekelskiftet 1900 reste studenten Einar Övergaard genom Sverige för att dokumentera folkmusik. Under sina resor i bland annat Dalsland, Värmland, Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad och Norge samlade han in 840 låtar och visor. Denna digra samling gavs ut 1982 av Dialekt- och folkminnesarkivet i Uppsala och med Svenskt visarkiv, kommenterad av Märta Ramsten.

Fäboddrift är en form av boskapsskötsel som är speciell för Skandinavien. I fjällregionerna har människan i flera hundra år utnyttjat skog och mark utanför gårdens ägor som betesmark för djuren. En speciell herdekultur har utvecklats, i vilken kvinnorna under sommarhalvåret flyttade till fäboden/sätern med uppgift att sköta djuren, valla dem och även ta hand om mjölken och framställa smör och ost för gårdens vinterbehov. Arbetet krävde också att djuren hölls samman vid vallningen medelst lockrop och att rovdjur (björn och varg) hölls på avstånd med signaler på horn och lur. Speciella musikaliska traditioner har utformats i samband med dessa rop och signaler. Det är denna ”fäbodmusik” som behandlas i föreliggande skrift, i första hand de vokala lockropen som i modern klädsel fått beteckningen ”kulning”. Musikforskaren och sedermera professorn i musikvetenskap, Anna Ivarsdotter (1938–2024), ägnade en stor del av sin forskning åt just fäboddriftens musiktraditioner, dels i sin magisteruppsats från 1972, Svenska locklåtar i nutidstradition (utgående från fältinspelningar), dels i doktorsavhandlingen Sången i skogen 1986. Avhandlingen kom dock inte att publiceras, då hennes avsikt var att komplettera studien med fler kapitel, bland annat om lockropens omvandling i samtiden. Långvarig ohälsa medförde att hennes planer måste skrinläggas. Den forskning som Anna Ivarsdotter hann bedriva står sig likväl som ett grundläggande och uppslagsrikt arbete, en given utgångspunkt för såväl vidare forskning som nya former av utövande. Det är mot denna bakgrund som Svenskt visarkiv och Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur publicerar hennes avhandling och magisteruppsats i denna samlingsutgåva med kommentar av musiketnologen Märta Ramsten.

Dolly Parton All the Songs is an album-by-album, track-by-track deep dive into the almost 60 year career of a musical icon. This completist's guide features more than 400 photographs, and tells the little-known stories behind how each of Dolly's albums came together, including behind-the-scenes details about the recording of each track, the musicians involved, and the songwriting process.Organized chronologically, and covering every album and every song that Dolly has ever released, Dolly Parton All the Songs is the result of years of research by three Dolly megafans and longtime music journalists. Beginning with a childhood famously spent making music with her family in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, Dolly Parton All the Songs follows along as the country music superstar conquers Nashville, Hollywood, and then the world with her captivating music, unforgettable style, and unmatched humor and kindness. At 608 pages, Dolly Parton All the Songs is filled with amazing photographs of Dolly in all her glory, and it features tons of fascinating details about Dolly's recording process, including which musicians appeared on each track, and little-known details about her working relationship with Porter Wagoner (she wrote the classic track "I Will Always Love You" about him), as well as looking at her forays into film stardom with appearances in classic movies like 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias, and the recent Netflix series, Heartstrings. This is a must-have book for any fan of Dolly Parton and country music.

Polskan, i alla dess olika former, var den dominerande musiken och dansen hos den svenska allmogen i närmare 300 år. Under andra namn var den också populär i Norge och Finland, samt delvis i Danmark. Namnet röjer kopplingar till Polen och i denna avhandling gör spelmannen och musikforskaren Magnus Gustafsson (f. 1955) ett försök att teckna dess historia mot bakgrund av bevarade handskrivna notböcker (s.k. spelmansböcker).

In Kentucky Traveler, Ricky Skaggs, the music legend who revived modern bluegrass music, gives a warm, honest, one-of-a-kind memoir of forty years in music-along with the Ten Commandments of Bluegrass, as handed down by Ricky's mentor Bill Monroe; the Essential Guide to Bedrock Country Songs, a lovingly compiled walk through the songs that have moved Skaggs the most throughout his life; Songs the Lord Taught Us, a primer on Skaggs's most essential gospel songs; and a bevy of personal snapshots of his musical heroes. For readers of Johnny Cash's autobiography, lovers of O Brother Where Art Thou, and fans of country music and bluegrass, Kentucky Traveler is a priceless look at America's most cherished and vibrant musical tradition through the eyes of someone who has lived it.

What if you had the chance to tell your hero just how much they meant to you?If Nick Drake came to my houseand knocked upon the doorI’m sure I’d be more happythan I’ve ever been before…In If Nick Drake Came to My House, Mackenzie Crook – the creator of Detectorists and Worzel Gummidge – explores the power of art to impact our lives, expressed through verse and image depicting an imaginary visit from the late, great singer-songwriter. A tender homage to a classic book by Joan Gale Thomas, Crook’s first book for adults is infused with his characteristic warm humour, both in the short yet powerful story and his own beautiful illustrations. It’s a book for anyone who has ever wished they had the chance to tell their hero how much they meant to them.

In 2016 it was announced that Bob Dylan had sold his personal archive to the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly for $22 million. As the boxes started to arrive, the Foundation asked Clinton Heylin - author of the acclaimed Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades and 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan' (Rolling Stone) - to assess the material they had been given. What he found in Tulsa - as well as what he gleaned from other papers he had recently been given access to by Sony and the Dylan office - so changed his understanding of the artist, especially of his creative process, that he became convinced that a whole new biography was needed. It turns out that much of what previous biographers - Dylan himself included - have said is wrong; often as not, a case of, Print the Legend.This is the second instalment of the definitive biography (following A Restless Hungry Feeling) of one contemporary culture's most iconic and mysterious figures - musical revolutionary, Nobel Prize-winner, chart-topping recording artist.Clinton Heylin's meticulously researched, all-encompassing and consistently revelatory account of these fascinating early years is the closest we will ever get to a definitive life of an artist who has been the lodestar of popular culture for six decades.

Discover the roots of country music with Vintage Country—an illustrated journey through 100+ pioneering artists, styles, and essential recordings. Vintage Country is the first illustrated book to explore the rural and urban roots of country music, tracing its evolution from early recordings and radio days to its 1940s–1950s rise, before Nashville’s dominance. Written by renowned historian Tony Russell, it profiles over 100 key artists and bands, including Jimmie Rodgers, Doc Boggs, Taylor’s Kentucky Boys, Red Foley, DeZurik Sisters, Carl T. Sprague, Hackberry Ramblers, Hank Williams, Molly O’Day, Merle Travis, and the Louvin Brothers. The book is organized into six chapters by style and era: pre-Depression “Old Time” music, Radio Years stars (1930s–WWII), cowboy & western music, Western swing, honky-tonk, and bluegrass. Each entry highlights the artist’s history, influences, and career, with an “essential recordings” list for quick reference. Richly illustrated with posters, sheet music, and artifacts, Vintage Country brings the genre’s origins to life through evocative visuals and expert storytelling, making it a compelling resource for music lovers and historians alike.

Utgiven av Svenskt visarkiv. Denna notbok innehåller 20 låtar som nedtecknats efter flöjtspelmannen Olof Jönsson från Härjedalen. Repertoaren spänner över flera genrer såsom skillingtrycksvisor, danslåtar och andliga sånger. Låtboken är utgiven av spelmannen Emma Grut och Svenskt visarkiv och förutom låtar kan man ta del av historik kring spelpipan i text och bild.

“A treasure trove of wonderful images from the Bard’s early years and an absolute must for his fans everywhere.” (Booklist starred review)Bob Dylan’s early work and emergence in the Greenwich Village music scene come to life through exclusive and unseen images and revelatory reporting by a bestselling historian and Dylan aficionado.Bob Dylan: Through the Open Window, 1956–1963 is a revelatory journey through Dylan’s early life and meteoric rise, written and conceived by acclaimed historian and Bob Dylan in America author Sean Wilentz.An illustrated account of Dylan and his early work, from his origins in Minnesota to his time in Greenwich Village to the concert at Carnegie Hall that marked the end of the beginning of his career, the book traces his meteoric rise with expert commentary and an astounding collection of rare photographs and ephemera, many never before published.The text is a substantial expansion of Wilentz’s liner notes to Dylan’s bootleg album box set of the same name, which offers a unique aural record—rare outtakes, informal tapes, and the full Carnegie Hall concert. Here the narrative is enriched with additional commentary and special sections that illuminate both well-known and hidden facets of Dylan’s early career.Wilentz, who grew up the son of an independent bookseller in the heart of the Greenwich Village bohemia, brings an insider’s perspective to Dylan’s arrival on the New York City music scene in the early sixties, tracing the transformation of traditional folk tunes into enduring classics like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” He connects past and present, inviting readers—whether lifelong Dylan fanatics or those just discovering his story—to experience the artist’s first important strides and emergence as one of the greatest songwriters America has produced.Bob Dylan: Through the Open Window, 1956–1963 is an essential addition to any Dylan collection—and the perfect entry point for new fans ready to explore the roots of a cultural icon.

Utgiven av Svenskt visarkiv. Detta är ett praktiskt studiematerial för den som vill lära sig folklig sång. Här finns en mängd övningar och visor samt ljudexempel på medföljande CD. Författaren Ulrika Gunnarsson, etablerad sångerska och pedagog inom folklig sång, ger också en gedigen introduktion till gehörsmusik med idéer och tips på hur man kan arbeta med den folkliga sångens medel.

Since she stepped onstage unannounced at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, Joan Baez has occupied a singular place in popular music. Within three years, she had recorded three best-selling albums and had embarked on a tour of southern US campuses, playing to integrated audiences in an era of segregation. When Time magazine chronicled the folk revival in November 1962, her portrait was on the cover. Her voice was "as lustrous and rich as old gold." She has mentored generations of singer-songwriters, most famously Bob Dylan.But Joan Baez has always been much more than simply a singer. Even before she stood on the podium beside Dr Martin Luther King at the March on Washington, her voice was raised in sorrow and anger as well as in song. The causes for which she has campaigned are legion and it's no surprise that she was chosen to open Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985. In 1993, amid the siege of Bosnia, she donned a flak jacket to sing for the citizens of Sarajevo offering, as so many times before and since, "an act of love, sharing, witness and music".Now approaching 80, Baez has stepped down from the stage following a worldwide farewell tour and a final Grammy-nominated album. The Last Leaf is a celebration of a timeless figure whose music and influence will endure long after her voice is silenced. The Discography is by Grammy-nominated music historian Arthur Levy.Joan Baez is the recipient of the 2020 Woody Guthrie Prize.

Winner, 2016 the Belmont Book Award, Sponsored by the International Country Music ConferenceFor more than forty years, Guy Clark wrote and recorded unforgettable songs. His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him. He has served as model, mentor, supporter, and friend to at least two generations of the world’s most talented and influential singer-songwriters. In Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, writer, producer, and music industry insider Tamara Saviano chronicles the story of this legendary artist from her unique vantage point as his former publicist and producer of the Grammy-nominated album This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. Part memoir, part biography, Saviano’s skillfully constructed narrative weaves together the extraordinary songs, larger-than-life characters, previously untold stories, and riveting  emotions that make up the life of this modern-day poet and troubadour.

Written from the perspective of a scholar and performer, Traditional Music and Irish Society investigates the relation of traditional music to Irish modernity. The opening chapter integrates a thorough survey of the early sources of Irish music with recent work on Irish social history in the eighteenth century to explore the question of the antiquity of the tradition and the class locations of its origins. Dowling argues in the second chapter that the formation of what is today called Irish traditional music occurred alongside the economic and political modernization of European society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dowling goes on to illustrate the public discourse on music during the Irish revival in newspapers and journals from the 1880s to the First World War, also drawing on the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Lacan to place the field of music within the public sphere of nationalist politics and cultural revival in these decades. The situation of music and song in the Irish literary revival is then reflected and interpreted in the life and work of James Joyce, and Dowling includes treatment of Joyce’s short stories A Mother and The Dead and the 'Sirens' chapter of Ulysses. Dowling conducted field work with Northern Irish musicians during 2004 and 2005, and also reflects directly on his own experience performing and working with musicians and arts organizations in order to conclude with an assessment of the current state of traditional music and cultural negotiation in Northern Ireland in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

"Take the backroads, not the highways," Minnie Pearl often said—a sentiment that captures her life's winding, unpredictable journey. Born Sarah Ophelia Colley in 1912, she grew up in Centerville, Tennessee. This small-town upbringing inspired her imagined hometown of Grinder's Switch.During the Great Depression, Sarah moved to Nashville to study theater at the Ward-Belmont School. After graduating, she joined a touring theater company and performed throughout the Southeast. It was on the road, in 1936, that she met and stayed with Mattie Burden. Mattie became the inspiration for Minnie Pearl's iconic persona—a witty country girl known for her signature greeting and straw hat with a dangling price tag.Minnie Pearl's big break came in 1940 when a friend of a WSM radio executive saw her perform and recommended her for the Grand Ole Opry. Her debut marked the beginning of a career that spanned more than fifty years. Garth Brooks later remarked, "When she walked out, everybody waited for the 'How-dee!' It's just two syllables, one word, but every time she said it—it felt like it was just for you."At the Opry, the "Queen of Country Comedy" shared the spotlight with legends like Patsy Cline and Hank Williams. After World War II, she became a mentor and matriarch, befriending a young June Carter and warming up the crowd for Johnny Cash's Opry debut in 1955.Throughout her career, Cannon skillfully balanced her dual roles as Minnie and Sarah. Whether at the Opry, on the road, or on Hee Haw, Minnie remained a trusted friend to female performers like Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, and Reba McEntire. As k.d. lang noted, "Minnie understood where country music needed to go and who it needed to embrace. She was a visionary."Rich with 155 historic photographs, this definitive biography covers the many chapters of Sarah Cannon's life. Drawing from archives and interviews with those who knew her, Howdy! The Minnie Pearl Story, captures not only Cannon's enduring humor and impact, but also the woman behind the laughter.

First published in 1943, this autobiography is also a superb portrait of America''s Depression years, by the folk singer, activist, and man who saw it all.Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma and traveled this whole country over—not by jet or motorcycle, but by boxcar, thumb, and foot. During the journey of discovery that was his life, he composed and sang words and music that have become a national heritage. His songs, however, are but part of his legacy. Behind him Woody Guthrie left a remarkable autobiography that vividly brings to life both his vibrant personality and a vision of America we cannot afford to let die. “Even readers who never heard Woody or his songs will understand the current esteem in which he’s held after reading just a few pages… Always shockingly immediate and real, as if Woody were telling it out loud… A book to make novelists and sociologists jealous.”—The NationFrom the Trade Paperback edition.