Linda Carlsson, the young Swedish musician who has created a prolific persona known as Miss Li, lists influences as wide-ranging as Django Reinhart, Kate Bush, Hank Williams, and Edith Piaf. Since late 2006, she's  released four full-length albums, nine singles, and a double-disc greatest hits compilation, all while touring relentlessly throughout Scandinavia and Europe  and recording the next batches of new material. Live, Miss Li is the proverbial ball of fire, leading a tight, manic ensemble of fellow musicians through a constantly evolving musical landscape.

As Miss Li composes (in English) on piano, her songs are filled with bright musical color and witty arrangements. Instrumentally, her combo often works the terrain where cabaret, jazz and Klezmer intersect, providing humor and drama to diverse songs about optimism and suicide, infatuation, rejection, and deep longing. The music is more akin to Tom Waits or Joni Mitchell than most current Swedish pop.

Lyrically, Miss Li is direct, even simple at times, infusing her songs with an irrepressible spirit and  a  sweet, shivering voice that can enfold in honey or strip to bone in velvety sarcasm. Miss Li's personality and emotions are always at the forefront of her music – particularly when she's falling madly in love  or perching on the verge of a crushing disappointment. Not one to sit around moping, though, she's already out  looking for the next opportunity to give away her heart.

Success has already caught  up to her as her albums have steadily climbed the Swedish charts. Her latest album, the expansive Dancing The Whole Way Home, reached a career high of #8, while past singles, such as her #1 duet with Lars Winnerbäck, "Om du lämnade mig nu," and "Ba Ba Ba" have made her a festival favorite. "Don't Try To Fool Me," from
her second album, God Put a Rainbow in the Sky, has been featured on the television programs Weeds and Grey's Anatomy.

On Miss Li has said, "I haven't got any rules that I want to follow… To be honest, I don't care what I sound like as long as it's fun! And the day it ain’t fun making music, I'll quit." From the evidence of the momentum she's riding now, that day seems far distant indeed.

~ Stephen M.H. Braitman