Although his albums aren't uniformly
excellent, it's absolutely impossible to overrate Peps Persson. Not
only is he a top-notch performer, an excellent lyricist (and
translator) and in possession of one of the greatest backing bands
ever to come out of Sweden, he's also a highly influential character
who more or less single-handedly introduced blues and reggae to
Swedish audiences. His first band was rock & roll and instro band Pop Penders Kvartett. In 1966-67 he made a name for himself locally with blues and rhythm & blues band Down Beat Crowd. Around that time, Peps left Hässleholm in Skåne in the south of Sweden and moved to Stockholm where he hung out in the legendary psychedelic underground Club Filips. He released a couple of unimpressive singles for the Olga label before his career took on. His discography is vast and varied, also including
production work and collaborations with other artists.
Blues Connection (Gazell, 1968)
as
Linkin' Louisiana Peps
English vocals
International relevance: **
After the
Olga Records 45's released as Linkin' Louisiana Peps (named so
after a misunderstanding; it should have been Limpin', not Linkin'),
he made his album debut with this pedestrian set of Chicago blues.
Peps was simply too derivative in his early days, the song choices – all covers – are
unimaginative in retrospect.
Sweet Mary Jane (Sonet, 1969)
as Peps & Blues Quality
English vocals
International relevance: ***
Peps teamed up with Örebro band Blues Quality for one album. (They later
evolved into
Nature.) ”Sweet Mary Jane” is much more interesting
than his debut but it's pretty fuzzy around the edges. Even magnificent drummer
and long-time Peps cohort Bosse Skoglund plays surprisingly sloppy, and I suspect that the band
had gotten a bit too friendly with the Mary Jane of the album title and Sture Johannesson's cover art... (The 70's reissue was housed in a less controversial cover, see below.)
After "Sweet Mary Jane", Peps returned down south to Skåne.
The Week Peps Came to Chicago (Sonet,
1972)
English vocals
International relevance: **
Any non-American Chicago blues singer
would have been extremely delighted by a trip to Windy City to play
with some of the city's top blues names including guitarist Mighty
Joe Young and pianist Sunnyland Slim. So was Peps, but ”The Week
Peps Came to Chicago” proved to have an entirely different long
term effect on him. He realized it was a bit silly coming from Sweden
to the U.S. to play the blues to the people who were basically born
into the genre. Peps realized he wasn't adding anything original
singing the blues in English. He had to do it in his native tongue.
While Peps had developed into a very good singer at this point, the
album is indeed redundant compared the the sound of the original
artists. ”The Week Peps Came to Chicago” was the end of an era,
and the beginning of another.
Peps Blodsband (Sonet, 1974)
as Peps Blodsband
Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***
Ranked #10 on the blog's Top 25
Suddenly, everything fell into place.
With Peps switching to Swedish lyrics, his music became so much more
powerful. It's still blues in the classic urban style, but now Peps
step inside the words and music in a much more credible way. The two
translated covers (Don Nix penned ”It's the Same Old Blues” and
Elmore James' ”The Sky Is Crying”) fit in seamlessly with Peps'
original material, and everything's delivered with so much conviction
and prowess that the results are absolutely irrefutable. The lyrics
are often political but descriptive, never proselytizing. Peps shares
his brilliant observations of the capitalist society but trusts the
listener with his/her own conclusions. With not one single inferior
track, ”Peps Blodsband” is a 24 carat masterpiece, still as
relevant as when originally released. And so it will remain as long
as greed and egotism run the world.
Blues på svenska (Sonet, 1975)
as Peps och Slim
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **
An album split with pianist Per 'Slim'
Notini; five tracks by each, all translated covers of blues standards
by the likes of Muddy Waters, Eddie Boyd, Elmore James, Willie Dixon,
and Lowell Fulson. Although Peps' contributions are fine enough, the
LP's a bit disappointing following the perfect ”Peps Blodsband”.
Slim Notini's also better with his Blues Gang on the 1971 album ”
The
Blues Ain't Strange”. In short, a little too mediocre to be fully
recommendable.
"Progglådan" features a 1973 Tonkraft recording with Peps and Blues Set.
from Blues Connection