Artist: Gustaf Wennman
Author: trad./Anders Fryxell/Fredrik August Dahlgren
Label: Berliner
Year: 1899
Reissued on double album The First Gramophone Recordings in Sweden (2013 - Sterling). Melody first published as Värmlandsvisan in Värmlandssangen, a Swedish folksong collection from 1822. Landscape songs are big in Sweden; every province has its own repertoire. Värmland is a woody province in the west. The melody is similar to Dutch 16th century song O Nederland Let Op U Saeck, a warning against the unreliability of the Spanish, published in 1626 in Valerius' Gedenck Clanck. The melody of another Lowlands original, Ik Zag Cecilia Komen, also comes close.
Covers:
Otto Bergman [instrumental field recording; sounds as if he's whistling on grass; reissued on Folk Music From Sweden box set]
Joel Mossberg [as Värmelandsvisan]
Stan Getz [as Dear Old Stockholm, recorded in Sweden (Roost Records EP); he took credit for the arrangement]
Miles Davis [idem]
Chet Baker [idem]
Kenny Burrell [idem]
John Coltrane [idem]
Zarah Leander [that's where her family came from; she started her career in the Värmland opera house]
Esther & Abi Ofarim [soundtrack for a tourism commercial for Sweden in the late 90s]
Toots Thielemans [as Dear Old Stockholm]
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)