Magnus Carlson

When Weeping Willows took time out after their second album, Endless Night, the singer Magnus Carlson seized the moment and released his solo debut. Sentimentality was still the main element, just as with Weeping Willows. But where the former group gave tribute to the American '50s and '60s, this was European pop and the result was quite different. With lyrics about loneliness (of course), small-town life, car rides in the dark, and with no ironic layers whatsoever, Carlson was even said to have revived a long dead genre: the sentimental schlager.

Magnus Carlson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1968. He played drums in some minor bands and eventually started singing rockabilly covers in clubs around Stockholm. In 1993, he and percussionist Thomas Sundgren got together with Apache, the backing band of singer/songwriter Stefan Sundström, and in 1994 the project was named Weeping Willows. Their debut album was a huge success, and although they did not play country, the band rode on the same wave that saw revived acceptance for country music and sentimentality in Sweden in the mid- to late '90s. After two albums, the band took a break and Carlson released Allt Är Bara Du, Du, Du, backed by names like Håkan Hellström, Mick Jones, and Joakim Thåström. This album was an instant success in Sweden and Carlson became a popular person to portray in the media, much thanks to his common-man attitude and outspoken, down-to-earth socialism. In 2001, Weeping Willows released a third album, Into the Light, which borrowed some attributes from Allt Är Bara Du, Du, Du. ~ Lars Lovén