There's something cheesy about a lot of
what Merit Hemmingson has released over the years, but when her blend
of Hammond jazz, pop and Swedish traditional music worked in her
favour, it certainly has an appeal that is hard to resist.
Hemmingson began her recording career
in the 60's, releasing a few albums including two on RCA Camden.
Songs like ”A Taste of Honey”, ”Watermelon Man”, ”Can't
Take My Eyes Off You” and ”Little Green Apples” saw her trying
to make a name for herself in the instrumental soul jazz/easy
listening mould. It wasn't until her first album for EMI that she
found the folk music based style that made her popular act in Sweden with numerous TV appearances and respectable album sales. Her best albums are still highly rated by quite a few, and she even had a bit of a renaissance in recent years, and did a few shows with Kebnekajse.
Huvva! – Svensk folkmusik på beat
(EMI Columbia, 1971)
Instrumental, wordless vocals
International relevance: ***
With the help from illuminaries such as
Jojje Wadenius, Slim Borgudd, renaissance musician Sven Berger and
noted folk fiddler Ole Hjort, Merit Hemmingson brought her vision to
life. Leaving the crowd pleasing easy listening chestnuts behind in
favour of exclusively traditional tunes, she carved out a niche that
at the time was entirely her own. Her reputation of being the groove
queen of Sweden began here, with swinging renditions of ”Gånglåt
från Ovanåker” and the much loved ”Gammal jämtländsk
brudmarsch”. But ”Huvva!” (a word in northern dialects roughly
meaning ”crikey!”) has a fair amount of reflective moments too –
the short ”Gammalståschans hjärtesuck” is laced with mournful
wordless vocals, and ”Vindarna sucka uti skogarna” touches on
Hansson & Karlsson at their most sombre.
Although ”Huvva!” is her fourth
album, it feels like her debut. And a strong 'debut' it is.
Trollskog (Mer svensk folkmusik på
beat) (EMI Columbia, 1972)
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, wordless
vocals
International relevance: ***
”Trollskog” continues where
”Huvva!” left off, taking some of predecessor's musicians along.
Added to the studio line-up is Björn J:son Lindh on flute, guitar
wiz Janne Schaffer and percussionist Sabu Martinez and others. The
partial personnel changes made for a somewhat funkier style, and even
attributed a psychedelic tinge to some of the tracks. Almost as good as "Huvva!".
Bergtagen (EMI, 1973)
International relevance: ***
Instrumental, wordless vocals
After
releasing ”Det for två vita duvor – folkton i Vikens kapell”
together with impossible-to-pinpoint larger-than-life
comedian/poet/childrens' TV host/thinker/eccentric Beppe Wolgers
earlier in 1973, (Wolgers also appears on a couple of tracks on "Trollskog".) Hemmingson returned with an album made with newly
formed three-piece backing band Folkmusikgruppen. It's a self-assured
album and she obviously feels at ease with having her own band as
opposed to working with seasoned studio musicians, but at the same
time the concept was slowly beginning to wear thin. The sense of
pioneering exploration that made her first two proper folk albums so
appealing is waning off (she even re-recorded ”Gammal jämtländsk
brudmarsch” or the album), and the prevalent jazz influences are
oddly enough stifling to the music. ”Bergtagen” has a couple of
fine tracks (including the contageously groove ”Domaredansen”)
but it's far too uneven to compete with ”Huvva!” and ”Trollskog”. Having said that, I still think it's an OK album to have, especially to complete the informal trio of folk albums that began with "Huvva!".
Balsam (EMI, 1975)
Instrumental, English vocals, wordless
vocals
International relevance: **
By the time of ”Balsam”, Hemmingson
obviously realized she couldn't take the hitherto successful concept much further without repeating herself too much. Bringing
more scat singing, harmonica, synthesizers, strings etc, plus a more
expensive sounding production to the table, ”Balsam” is in some
way a return to her pre-”Huvva!” years, with a greater emphasize
on easy listening, only grander in scope. Unfortunately it meant a step completely in the wrong directions, with Hemmingson losing her tracka altogether. An
atrocious discofied version of soul classic ”I Heard It Through the
Grapevine” proves my point well enough.
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