Swedish vocals, English vocals IRG *** Like a gift from above, this album appeared without much ado in late 2023. Who would have thought it? A vintage live recording to add to your collection of glorious Mikael Ramel albums! Just like that! But... in only 200 copies on vinyl, no CD, and no streaming. It's a somewhat secretive release in general -- it's an official release, not a bootleg, but it has no record label name anywhere. (The Spinroad logo on cover and label is for the pressing plant.) It's bound to become a massive rarity which is a great shame as this is an essential album to any Ra ..read more

English vocals IRG ** Eric Bibb is a well-known name these days, hailed for his live performances and numerous albums somewhere between blues and singer/songwriter material. Born in New York City in 1951, he was given his first steel string guitar at the age of seven. Quitting his studies in Russian and psychology, he left for Paris in 1970, assumably as a draft dodger, before settling in Stockholm shortly after. Once there he got in touch with the still relatively new MNW label and MNW co-founder Roger Wallis who took him under his wings and released Bibb's first-ever album ”Ain't It Grand ..read more

Swedish vocals, English vocals IRG: ** Ronny Carlsson was a well-kept secret to most but hailed as a hero and a legend by many having heard his music. He first made his mark with the band Rockamöllan in the late 70s, and after their demise, he started Onna Taas Band before launching a long solo career. He was in possession of one of the gruffest voices ever heard on a Swedish album, strangely warbly and grainy like a gravel road. Singing in his native Southern dialect (similar to Peps Persson's) only added to the air of world-weariness. He sounded as if he had seen it all, been burnt by it al ..read more

Swedish vocals IRG: ** Ferne, or if you prefer his real name: Lars Fernebring, was one half of Risken Finns along with Gunnar Danielsson, releasing two satirical albums in the early 70s. When the duo split, Danielsson moved to Gothenburg to start Ensamma Hjärtan while Ferne remained in the southern city of Lund where he launched his solo career some years later. He was a much lauded guitar player. One could expect his first albums of his own after the demise of Risken Finns to be, well, if not masterpieces so at least better than they actually are. Well, they're not particularly bad but not p ..read more

  Swedish vocals IRG ** Where to draw the line? What is progg and what is not? I prefer to use the 'benefit of doubt' principle here on the blog, and gladly let through albums that some people sometimes deem controversially un-progg. But an ambition of mine as your humble blog owner is to widen the idea of progg, to trace influences and entwine threads in order to see patterns and relations even in unexpected places as long as they appear within the time frame of the Swedish Progg Blog. This is not as much an apology as it's a declaration of objectives. That said, I was long undecided if ..read more

  Marie Bergman is one of those artists too far from progg to belong here and too close not to do so. She's 'progg-by-association' but she's basically a singer/songwriter with the oft-hired Swedish studio mafia of the 70s backing her, granting her a couple of commercial successes in the second half of the decade. Her cover of Kate & Anna McGarrigle's ”Complainte Pour Ste-Catherine”, translated to Swedish by her good friend Ola Magnell as ”Ingen kommer undan politiken”, was a radio staple in and around 1977, and her version of Kjell Höglund's ”Lugnare vatten” was also on a rather heavy ..read more

 Instrumental IRG ***/*** Lokomotiv Konkret were formed in 1976 by Israeli-born saxophonist Dror Feiler who made his mark in more areas than just music. As an conceptual artist, he stirred up controversy with his installation ”Snow White and the Madness of Truth” in 2004 which had Israeli ambassador Zvi Mazel vandalize the work, followed by a diplomatic crisis between Sweden and Israel. Feiler is one of the driving forces behind Ship to Gaza who attained immediate international recognition in 2010 during another confrontation with Israel. As a member of Vänsterpartiet (the Swedish socia ..read more

Swedish vocals, English vocals IRG ** Perhaps one of the most peculiar albums included herein. Not because it's 'difficult' or complicated music – on the contrary, Per Forssell's songs are highly accessible – but because it's hard to say what his idea with this, his first of two privately released albums, actually was. It's side B in particular that is confusing, consisting of a series of pastiches/parodies/paraphrases, mocking various genres. ”My Sweet Sugar Baby” makes fun of the silliest 50s rock'n'roll clichés in a Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band fashion. ”Punk-plonk” is a rather funny and decided ..read more

  Swedish vocals, other languages, instrumental IRG: ** Slå Tillbaka! (”fight back”) was apparently not a record label per se, but an organisation working against unemployment, racism and drugs but released this one album. ”Vi har rätt till jobb!” (”we have the right to work”) was recorded live in Umeå 1978 during a one day festival to support the cause of the organisation. It features ten acts, none of them particularily well-known outside of this album. The best known (or should I say the least unknown) bands make up the first side of the album: TBC, Steve Roper Band (performing a cover ..read more

Swedish vocals IRG *** I don't know where this notion comes from that if something has gone unreleased for decades, that's enough reason to finally put it out there. Or for that matter where this misconception originates that if something is crappy-sounding and the musicians can tell an instrument from a muckrake by nature should be better than music performed in a comprehensible fashion. Sometimes a reissue label hits pure gold, as Subliminal Sounds did with the amazing Great Ad album, but very few archival releases can match that one. So I took Subliminal Sounds' blurb for ”Haru nånsin vari ..read more