Thomas Denver Jonsson - Barely Touching It (2005)

Born in 1979, Swedish singer/songwriter Thomas Denver Jonsson didn't start playing guitar until he was 20 years old, but he's been furiously making up for lost time ever since. By the end of 2002, Jonsson had already assembled a superb backing band, the September Sunrise, and had put out four-self-released EPs of original songs he sold at his gigs. Jonsson's powerful yet emotionally intimate songs and performing style, which suggest the influence of Neil Young and Will Oldham, attracted the attention of Kite Records, and in 2003 they released his first full-length album, Hope to Her. Critical response was enthusiastic in Sweden and abroad, and in 2004 Jonsson released a live EP, First in Line, which featured contributions from Damien Jurado and Rosie Thomas, while Jonsson also made his United States performing debut that year with a well-received set at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX. Jonsson's second full-length album, Barely Touching It, recorded with the participation of Ned Oldham and Swedish alt-country star Nina Kinert, was released in 2005. In 2006, Jonsson contributed a cover of the Byrds' "Set You Free This Time" to The World Turns All Around Him, a tribute to singer and songwriter Gene Clark. A third Jonsson album, The Lake Acts Like an Ocean, is slated for release in 2007. A prolific songwriter who is driven to make music, Jonsson also has several side projects, including the Topeka Twins, A Perfect Friend, and Liepãja, and runs a vinyl-only independent label, Going Places Records. ~ Mark Deming