Jonas Fjeld

Jonas Fjeld is a four-time Spellemannprisen award-winning Norwegian country-rock singer/songwriter and guitarist whose career spans several decades, beginning in the 1970s and carrying on well into the new millennium. In addition to his critical accolades, he also enjoyed commercial success, hitting the upper reaches of the Norwegian albums chart with regularity. Born Terje Jensen on September 24, 1952, in Drammen, Norway, Fjeld made his album debut in 1973 with Jonas Fjeld Rock & Rolf Band, an eponymous release sung in both English and Norwegian that was named after his band at the time. After a couple more bilingual albums with the Jonas Fjeld Rock & Rolf Band, plus the English-language solo album Take Two Asprins and Call Me in the Morning (1975), he founded the Jonas Fjeld Band and began releasing strictly English-language efforts. The first Jonas Fjeld Band effort, The Tennessee Tapes (1977), was his first release to reach the Top Ten of the Norwegian albums chart. Following another solo album, Living for the Weekend (1983), the Jonas Fjeld Band released the critically acclaimed albums Neck 'n' Neck (1985) and Time & Motion (1986), both of which won Spellemannprisen (i.e., Norwegian Grammy) awards for Best Rock Album of the Year. In the wake of this success, Fjeld released a few Norwegian-language albums in collaboration with others: Neonlys På Wergeland (1987), Etterlatte Sanger (1988), and Svaert Nok for Meg (1990). The latter album, a collaboration with songwriter Ole Paus, was particularly successful. A commercial blockbuster as well as a critical favorite, Svaert Nok for Meg went all the way to number two on the albums chart and led to an ongoing partnership between the two artists under the name To Rustne Herrer that extended to further albums in later years, in addition to concert performances. Fjeld's subsequent full-length release, Danko/Fjeld/Andersen (1991) — another collaboration, this one with country-rock legend Rick Danko of the Band and folk singer/songwriter Eric Andersen, both Americans — was likewise successful from a critical standpoint and led to further albums by the trio. Danko/Fjeld/Andersen won him his third Spellemannprisen award, and he won his fourth a few years later with Nerven I Min Sang (1994). Rounding up a double-disc summary of his career highlights to date, Jonas Fjelds Beste (1999), was another major success, reaching number three on the albums chart. After the turn of the century, Fjeld remained active as a recording artist, and his popularity was remarkably steady as he reached the Top Five with albums including Tidevann (2001), Mårrakvist (2006), Amerikabesøk (2007), and Brother of Song (2009).