‘Black Is The Colour/En Vacker Vän’ is a track from my latest album, here played live at York’s FortyFive Vinyl Café. This take has an unusual history.
‘Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Hair’ is one of the most well known folk songs in the Celtic folk repertoire. The song was collected in the Appalachian mountains early in the 20^th century and the lyrics are generally thought to be Scottish, since they reference the River Clyde (also where the Scottish side of my family come from). I first heard the song from Cara Dillon at a session many years ago and I remember she said that it was her favourite song.

When I moved to Sweden I started listening to a lot of Swedish folk music, enthralled by the colours and strange melancholy of the melodies. One of the best groups is Triakel with whose singer, Emma Härdelin, I have had some small collaborations in the past. I noticed that one of their songs ‘En Vacker Vän’ (A Beautiful Friend) had almost the exact same melody as ‘Black Is The Colour’. I started trying to put the two songs together and they make a good fit, the lyrics tell of a similar situation, lost love and betrayal, but in different languages. When it came to record the album I asked Emma to sing it with me, which she did beautifully. Emma had never heard ‘Black Is The Colour’ and was astonished that it had the same tune as her Swedish song.

Later, in the summer of 2024 I was rehearsing the song with my friend the piano player Gustav Andersson. Gustav also plays organ in the church and he immidiately recognised the tune as a well known hymn! He pulled out his hymn book and said ‘there it is, number 16!’ I asked who wrote it? At the bottom of the page it read ‘Folkvisa från Skjöldinge’. Skjöldinge is a village 24 km from where I live and has a population of 657. So there you have it, the well known Celtic tune was collected from the Appalachians but originated in a small Swedish village.

It took a while for me to dare to sing in Swedish and I am still hoping for a chance to duet with Emma one day.