Lee Hazlewood – Cowboy in Sweden (1970) album art, movie poster (2016)

Cowboy in Sweden is a Swedish film from 1970, directed by Torbjörn Axelman.

The film portrays a cowboy (Lee Hazlewood) who is guided around Sweden by a young blonde Swedish girl (Nina Lizell). — Wikipedia

Just so the viewer doesn’t forget that he is the Cowboy In Sweden, Lee Hazlewood sports a black stetson and cowboy boots. He wanders through a series of dreamscape. They’re akin to a series of individual videos rather than part of a cohesive film. However, this adds to the surreal, lysergic nature of the film. So do the absurdist skits, and the sight of Lee Hazlewood sitting discussing both Swedish culture and weather between songs. Critics wondered if this was an ill-fated attempt at comedy? They also wondered why the music seemed to bear no relation to the scenes in Cowboy In Sweden? — Derek Anderson

Hazlewood (1929–2007) also recorded an album of the same name. Originally published on his own LHI label, it was reissued in 2016 by Light in the Attic Records, with additional bonus tracks and unchanged album art.

The Deluxe Edition comes with a vinyl record in “Swedish Blue”, a DVD of the restored film, and a folded film poster by Jay Shaw (Mondo/Death Waltz). The poster is also available individually. For the design, Shaw stuck to the typeface used for the original album art: It’s Skjald, a Victorian display face first cast by the Dickinson Type Foundery in Boston around 1890. Here it had probably been picked for its Scandinavian name: skjald is the Danish form of skald.