David “Swamp” live in Finland!
Posted: January 23, 2012 Filed under: Music | Tags: beatles, finland, jukebox, kukkola, merrymakers, posies, steam of life, sweden, tornedalen, turku, vaasa Leave a commentI’m happy to announce that after my Christmas show in Madrid, Spain, and my January performances at club Wonder in Osaka, and at the Shimokitazawa three in Tokyo, Japan, it is now time for a couple of shows in my neighbor country Finland!
Starting of in Vaasa on Feb 10 at O’Malley’s acting as a “living Beatles jukebox” which is a side project I sometimes entertain myself (and hopefully the audience as well) with. The concept is I enter the stage where there’s an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and a piano – and I ask the audience: “-What do yo wanna hear?”. Then they can shout whatever Beatles title they want. And off I go – singing and banging out the song on whatever instrument I find suitable. A fun concept with many possible twists and turns in the repertoire. I never know what to expect. It can start with “Sexy Sadie” and end up with “Hey Bulldog”. Or (more likely) start off with “All my loving” and end up with “Hey Jude”. All depending on the “level” and mood of the attending crowd….
The second Finnish show will take place in Turku on March 2 at a the cool pop club Flavour of the Month (named after The Posies great song) hosted by Pikku-Torre. This time I will go back to playing only my own stuff – both from the upcoming album Soundshine but also my old songs from my time with the Merrymakers – and I look forward to meeting the audience over there and the people behind the club and the Finnish pop site One Chord To Another who seem to have an impeccable taste in music. Click the picture below to come to the event page:
Finland for me is quite exotic although I do have a special bond to the country since my father grew up in a small village called Kukkola close to the Torne river. Quoting Wikipedia: “The Finnish and Swedish sides of the river were once one cultural entity, as before 1809 they were both parts of Sweden”. As a child my father actually spoke Finnish at home and he was born with the Finnish name Suo as his last name. In the 50’s he and his brothers had their last name “translated” into Swedish and then the family name became Myhr from the Swedish word “myr”. What it means in English…? “Swamp”! How about David Swamp as my new artist name?
The last thing I have to say related to Finland for now is that you have to see the movie Steam of Life if you can get your hands on it. It’s about “Finnish men in sauna, speaking straight from the heart.”. A master piece if you ask me!
David Myhr welcomes Tom Petty to Europe by singing “Wildflowers”!
Posted: January 16, 2012 Filed under: Music | Tags: acoustic, cover, george harrison, hollywood bowl, jeff lynne, live aid, mccartney, merrymakers, sweden, tom petty, traveling wilburys, wildflowers Leave a commentLittle did I know that only three years later Tom Petty would team up with ex-Beatle George Harrison who had just made a comeback with the brilliant Cloud Nine album, and that album’s producer ex-E.L.O. genius Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison in the supergroup Traveling Wilburys. And soon after came one of my all time favorite albums – Petty’s masterpiece Full Moon Fever. I was blown away and realized he’s the coolest artist on earth, writing nothing but brilliant songs and with a taste for Beatles, Byrds, Dylan, American roots rock, British new wave á la Costello, Rickenbacker guitars, well… I could make the list longer. (No wonder another pop fanatic like Sweden’s Per Gessle of Roxette always was a big fan!) Another few years later came the album “Wildflowers” and I realized Petty is like vintage vine. Just gets better with age. (At least up ’til that point.)
I saw him live in Stockholm in ’93, and I saw him at Hollywood Bowl, L.A. (where I amazingly have played myself two times), in 2006 (with my hero Jeff Lynne as a guest!), and now it’s time again to welcome him to Europe after twenty years!
So while waiting for my solo album Soundshine due for release in Europe on Lojinx this spring I thought this was enough reason to have a go at one of my favorite Petty songs – “Wildflowers”. Just like I did with ABBA’s “Happy New Year” a couple of weeks ago I decided to keep it simple; one voice – one guitar. As I said then I’m often tempted to add layers of vocals and lots of overdubs. It’s like Jeff Lynne said in this interview “I used to think that more is more, I just loved to overdub.”.
I didn’t intend to make the song “my own” by changing it around too much which is normally recommended when making cover versions but I just think it’s perfect as it is. Sorry for that!
Hope you enjoy! Please feel free to share the YouTube clip or download a free mp3 (“arrow pointing down”) or share from the Soundcloud player above.
“Happy New Year” from David Myhr – acoustic ABBA cover
Posted: December 29, 2011 Filed under: Music | Tags: abba, happy new year, super trouper, sweden 2 CommentsSo, dear everyone! It’s the end of yet another year and I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very, very “Happy New Year” by singing a song saying just that. Just click “play” below and feel free to experiment with the “share” / “download” buttons!
For me 2011 has been a great and intense year since I’ve finished my album Soundshine ready for release in 2012, pre-released it in Japan, performed live at festivals in Sweden, London, and only yesterday in Madrid. I’m truly looking forward to the next year when I finally will be able to share my music to everyone who might be interested and I am hoping to be able to come out and play in many more places.
Like every year – looking at the big picture – 2011 has been filled with both good news and bad news. In the latter category are of course the terrible earthquake that hit Japan and the catastrophes that followed. If there’s one country – more than any other – that I wish a MUCH happier new year it’s Japan! Speaking of which, I will actually begin 2012 by flying to Japan on the first day of the year for in order to make a small promotional tour.
On my take of ABBA’s “Happy New Year” I decided for once to try a very stripped down recording – one voice – one guitar. Usually I find it very tempting whenever I record to double-track my vocal, add layers of harmony vocals, lots of guitar and keyboard overdubs. But for a change I decided to see what it sounds like with only one voice and one guitar. Scary experience of course, but it’s always good to remind yourself of that old cliché that “a good song should work even when accompanied only by an acoustic guitar”. And that certainly goes for many of the fantastic melodies of Sweden’s finest pop export ever – ABBA!
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