REVIEWS
English
Sweidsh
SVENSSON & DAFGÅRD
Rootation (DUSTCD23)
This duo has been playing together for three years but has achieved a lot in the blues and country community for a number of years. Guitarist and singer Marcus Svensson released his first solo acoustic blues CD Knuckleduster blues on Last Buzz Records three years ago. Last year the country band Pilgrim, where Marcus plays Dobro, made its first CD. Pilgrim was also released on the Dusty Records label and was elected best Scandinavian country album in 2005. Stefan Dafgard was for many years the harmonica player and singer in The Instigators, one of the hottest blues acts in Scandinavia. The band made three albums before they broke up three years ago. Stefan has also played with The Dominators, Bluelight and Bluebirds and toured with blues artist Rusty Zinn.
On Rootation Svensson & Dafgard has brought together everything they know about traditional American music into a varied acoustic CD. On the album there are six originals written by Marcus and Stefan and six interpretations of blues songs from the thirties and fifties. A bit unexpectedly the Jimi Hendrix classic Voodo Chile is turned into a delta blues. The duo has not felt the need to recreate a sound or to be as true to the originals as possible, but has rather let the song decide the direction. Svensson & Dafgard approach a song written by an obscure delta blues singer in the thirties - like Willie Brown - in pretty much the same way that they take on a rock classic from the sixties. The same goes for the other material, which ranges from country and soul to gospel. On the album there are also Scandinavian traces as Marcus continues the job he started on Knuckleduster Blues to make music about his own ancestors. Those who have heard Stefan's songs before know that Stefan has a fling for the sound of New Orleans. Different styles are not foreign to the duo as long as it swings and suit the instrumentation of vocals, guitar, harp and washboard. Two musicians who take tradition seriously but are not afraid of reshaping it into something fresh.
However, the duo is not completely alone on Rootation. They have the help of four of Gothenburg's finest musicians: Mikael Fahleryd and Sara Edwardsson-Ehrnborg on acoustic bass, Michael Edlund on percussion and Johan Kullberg on accordion. Together with Svensson & Dafgard these musicians make good music. They have made Rootation.