Dansar Edvard Jonsson

Swedish folk singer, born 18 August 1893 in Grimsåker, Malung, died 29 June 1976 in Malung parish. He has had a great influence on later generations of folk singers as a role model, despite the fact that only a very limited number of recordings were available until 2008. Dancer Edvard worked during his youth in the forest together with his father Dansar Jonas, and later as a leather tailor for many years. The family had a summer residence where the summers were spent working in agriculture, with animal husbandry and leather sewing. From mother Pä Kerstin he learned as a child to lure the animals on the summer pasture, to "cool" or "huja", and from his father he learned many songs after his grandmother Tor Britta. Dancer Edvard was married to Jommo Maria from Östra Fors, Malung, and they had a daughter Kerstin. Sometimes Dansar Edvard sang fragments of longer songs, perhaps just a sentence, which can be seen as a comment or illustration of something he told. In longer songs he put in so much emotion that he sometimes almost bursts into tears. His way of singing was very personal, at a rather slow pace, with very blue tones and ripples, in a relatively high pitch. He seldom sang a song the same from time to time, but typically his way of sinking to the final note was in a phrase.