The Wikipedia page Swedish country groups is not cheerful reading.

The fact that Rednex is included under the letter R at all says it all.

If you look for country in Swedish, the names are even fewer.

No wonder then that David Ritschard has gone from obscure to big favorite in just a few years.

The country genre's frankness and popular everyday stories are a nice counterweight to much else on the charts today.

The album "Blåbärkungen"

from last year had a clear class perspective.

Now it is less explicit but still heard among smuggled cigarettes and "wine of Spain" which one suspects is closer to Castillo de Gredos than expensive Rioja.

The romanticism of the hometown, however, is not overlooked.

We get heartbreak and soul rock in Rosenlund and free church gogo games and romance south of Slussen.

There are soulful choirs, cozy Hammond organ and fancy trumpet.

Ritschard doesn't have the prettiest

singing voice but makes the most of what he has, especially in the dramatic "Fyra möder" about relapse.

Otherwise, he compensates with emotion, storytelling joy and both stylish and funny lyrics.

As in the title track about approaching the bottom: "Damn no one has seen it, must be a handsome wreck, like the Vasa ship, you become a habit".

Well, there will be a lot of unrequited love, depression and bad living, of course.

A romanticizing that at some point slips into self-pity.

The duet "Rockbotten" with Henric Hammarbäck is, despite nice lines about the Vasaskeppet, a guy's duel in feeling sorry for himself the most.

But is that even a problem

, one wonders, when the song with the same name sounded out.

Because if a country song is to be straight and unadorned and revolve around love problems, it is hardly possible to think of a better subject than a couple who have stopped sleeping with each other.

Ritschard sings about touching someone who resembles a corpse and accidentally seeing her search history while the pedal steel guitar wraps itself tighter around the neck.

Swedish country will hardly reach higher heights.

Hear an excerpt from the song "Nya Slussen" in the clip.