"57 Låtar efter Byss-Kalle Utgivna av Uplands Spelmansförbund" Uplands spelmansförbund 2023.
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Anders Andersson was born on October 1, 1841, in Söderby, Börstil Parish, the son of farmers Anders Persson and Anna Pehrsdotter. From a young age, his talent for music was clear, and his parents arranged for him to study with the well-regarded nyckelharpa player Jan Nilsson in nearby Norrskedika. Under Nilsson’s guidance, Anders developed into a skilled and expressive musician.
As a young man, Anders moved to the village of Ånö in Hökhuvud Parish, where he worked as a farmhand and later married Johanna Maria Jansdotter. He bought a small homestead and balanced a life of farming with music. Known for his gentle nature and love of the nyckelharpa, he played regularly for village dances and gatherings, often playing all night without pause. His playing was steady, lyrical, and technically refined—marked by trills and flourishes reminiscent of his teacher’s style. Anders generally played solo, though he sometimes performed with fiddler Per Ersson from Björsta. At a nyckelharpa competition in Vigelsbo, Anders won first prize for his elegant and masterful performance, impressing both the jury and the crowd with his flawless technique and musicality. Later in life, he moved to a cottage in Syltbo and devoted more time to music. His reputation grew in the local area, but his quiet personality and rural life kept him from becoming widely known outside the region. Around 1900, two of Anders’s sons emigrated to America. A few years later, one of them returned and persuaded their father to follow. Although hesitant to leave his homeland, Anders eventually agreed and sailed for America on October 8, 1907. Shortly before his departure, his nyckelharpa was damaged at a dance, and he initially didn’t plan to replace it, saying, “I will never play over there anyway.” But fellow fiddler Emil Sjulander of Östhammar insisted he take a loaned instrument with him, so that “the Americans can hear what a nyckelharpa sounds like.” Anders Andersson passed away in the United States around 1912. Though his tunes are mostly lost to time, his memory lives on in the Uppland villages where he once played, and in the legacy of the nyckelharpa tradition he helped sustain. Credit to "Uppländske spelmän, under 4 århundraden" by Lars Erik Larsson. Upplands Grafiska, Uppsala. 1980. Also to Per-Ulf Allmo, Sweden for providing valuable information for this story.
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