Jon Strider is a very experienced musician and has worked with artists like Van Morrison, Boz Skaggs, Mink DeVille, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker to mention a few. As a solo artist he has released 5 albums, and recently I have been listening to the album “White Wings” which was released two years ago.

Jon Strider calls his music Rhythm N’ Folk, which feels rather appropriate. It’s quite pleasant to listen to the album, bringing a positive soft rock with influences from americana, blues and country. I can hear a little of Jackson Browne, some Eagles, Cat Stevens and a lot of vibes from the american early seventies. It’s a really good album with a lot of variation.

If you want to read and listen more you should visit Jon Strider’s site.

Here’s a couple of songs from “White Wings”:

At the Way Station
Coming Alive

Excuse the little break this week, but now I’m back again, and I and others will continue to present great music on this page. And I think it’s perfect to start with Moose Trail. We have written about Ulf Ljusberg before, and this time we see him in the company of Tobias Thun in Moose Trail, a band they have continuously developed beside their other projects.

In 2005 they released an EP, and now they are following this with the release of the song “Oh Lord”, which you can listen to here below. And I wouldn’t mind if this country and americana inspired music, with a nice touch of Nick Cave’s darkness, would lead to a full length album. According to plans, they will have Moose Trail have it’s live debut in the near future. To keep yourself informed of this, you can visit Moose Trail’s Myspace page, where you also can listen to more tracks.

Oh Lord
Return of the King
Hard to

Silver Saddle maybe isn’t that unknown to many of you. 2004 they released their debut album “Four Miles From Here” (Bubba Music / In The Sticks Records), an album that won quite some recognition. Since then they have also released the album “Northern Skyline”.

The music is a calm, warm and mellow americana, which feels so natural and basic that it’s hard to believe that this band originates from the south of Sweden. Listen for yourself in these tracks:

Radio Song
Gone
Don’t Give a Damn

If you’d like to listen more you can visit Silver Saddle’s site or their Myspace page.

Niklas Lindkvists manages to recreate the nice feeling from the seventies when CSN&Y, Neil Young and Tom Petty gave birth to a lot of classics. And first of all it’s the spirit of Neil Young that I feel hovers in the background of Niklas Lindkvist’s music.

Here’s a nice live feeling with nicely disted massive guitars, an underlying energy, a drive and a musical playfulness that I like. Niklas Lindkvist’s voice summarises it all with his naked honesty, as far from artificial perfection as you can go.

Niklas Lindkvist has released three albums before and is now working on a fourth. If you want to listen more, you should go to Niklas Lindkvist’s Myspace page.

Enjoy two tracks:

With Your Friends
Don’t You Shake

Kim Stranne is a happy angry man. He has picked up the somewhat abandoned Swedish prog rock pen and sharpened it. He doesn’t forget, though, to sometimes pick up a softer brush instead, to celebrate life, people and love.

The music has a lot of variation; from softer ballads, to more dramatic rock to folk music inspired prog rock. Nice melodies, but he doesn’t complicate things, because the main purpose is to bring the message forward in a distinct and interesting way. And I think he succeds in this. The finishing touch is Kim’s voice that has that extra glow that can catch fire if needed and make the song ignite.

The lyrics are carefully written, and there is a poetic vein here that closes in on the subject in a different way than just pressing down opinions down the listener’s throat. And he has a good feeling for those frases and interesting titles that makes you want to listen more, and, if you like, take it with you afterwards.

Last year Kim Stranne & Kollektivet released their first album “Svart på vitt” and they are now in the studio recording the sequel, planned to be released in spring next year.
Here you can listen to and download two songs from “Svart på vitt”, “Aldrig” (“Never”) and “Jag litar inte på folk” (“I don’t trust people”), where the chorus line of the last song very well could serve as a slogan for the current intense Swedish debate over the IPRED law: “Jag litar inte på folk som inte litar på folk” (“I don’t trust people who don’t trust people”).

Aldrig
Jag litar inte på folk

Read more at Kim Stranne & Kollektivet’s site or go  to Myspace to listen more.