Once you've heard Theresa Andersson, you'd never guess this woman from New Orleans spent the first half of her life in Sweden. The World's Marco Werman has our Global Hit.
She moved to New Orleans for love she says nearly two decades ago. But the folks from her native Sweden still feel she's one of them. You could see that at last month's South by Southwest music conference in Austin.
She still speaks Swedish, but Theresa Andersson says she's become a New Orleanian. One musical cue she has not picked up from New Orleans though is playing in a large ensemble, the Dixieland jazz template. Theresa Andersson makes her big-band sound...all on her own.
Take one of her songs like "Na Na Na." Andersson begins by setting up a loop from a real drum kit. Then she adds the vocal hook. And once Andersson gets all the parts moving, she heads live into the first verse.
TA: You know I grew up in Sweden, I spent 18 years there, and then I moved to New Orleans. So New Orleans is home now.
MW: Hence like almost complete absence of any accent.
TA: Until I've had a drink or two.
On stage though, Andersson drinks water. You've got to keep your wits about you when you're a one person band. The title of her new CD is "Hummingbird Go!"
There's a track called "Birds Fly Away." Even Theresa Andersson's voice is birdlike. She says all these bird references are about flight: her own from Sweden to New Orleans. And in the time since Katrina, she says, it's also about standing your ground, about not leaving.
Through the record, in the music, and in the words, you can really feel a sense of taking ownership of where you are, and there's a very hopeful vibe to the record. You know "Birds Fly Away," also talks about flight, and it also talks about standing your ground, having roots, and being proud of who you are.
Theresa Andersson begins that tune "Birds Fly Away" with a sample from her new hometown...that bit that goes boom-dah-boom-dah-boom-boom.
“I sampled a New Orleans drummer called Smokey Johnson. And it's a piece of vinyl that I found, cause they've got some awesome vinyl shops in New Orleans, and you can dig around and find all sorts of cool stuff. And it's from a song called "I Can't Help It." So I called him up, and like hey, can I use this. And then I built the whole song around it.
The bounce and the groove are so great to sing over. Like that's how the whole melody came about. Just bouncing off of those drums.â€
And just to remind you, the instrumentation you're hearing is all Theresa Andersson.
