Mario's report from Folk Club Bonn # 164 on 16 January 2026

 In 2026, it's once again ‘Ladies and gentlemen...’

 Although not on the first Friday of the month, the Folk Club Bonn invited guests to its first evening of 2026 on the first possible Friday in January. On the first Friday in January, the club's home – Dotty's – is closed for holidays. But the third Friday was well attended by loyal Folk Club visitors as well as newcomers, and so master of ceremonies John Harrison was able to delight around 100 visitors with his familiar greeting. After his welcome, he continued to entertain the audience, accompanied by Christoph Thiebes, by opening the evening musically with the song ‘In The Wee Midnight Hour’. With this song, he expressed his sympathy for all those who suffer from insomnia for various reasons. John's second song also had a specific background. ‘Bring Me Flowers When I'm Living’ is both a true insight and a tribute to our long-time companion, folk club visitor and activist from the very beginning, Günter Peters, who sadly passed away in December. It is wonderful to see and hear that the Folk Club forms a family-like community that remembers its members even beyond their lifetime. The first floor spot ended with the song ‘The Hunting Song/ The Fox Must Die’, which was probably chosen by Christoph Thiebes because a fox had eaten some of his chickens – Christoph will now have to do without his breakfast egg for a while and indulge only in muesli – how happy he is about this situation was evident from the emotion with which he sang the line ‘The Fox must die’. 

After this song, the members of the group Fomiander were back on stage, this time in full force. They had to cancel in December due to illness and were grateful that an alternative date could be found so quickly. This made it possible to continue with their programme from December and to honour the winter season with the song ‘Winter, heut' hab' ich dich tanzen gesehen’ (Winter, today I saw you dancing) by the great Knut Kiesewetter. But winter is also the dark season, not only because of the short days and long nights, but also in the minds of many people. This emotional state was expressed in the song ‘Wenn die Seele Trauer trägt’ (When the soul carries sorrow).

 However, the last song by Fomiander, ‘Lichte den Anker’ (Raise the Anchor), attempted to describe how it is possible to crawl out of such depressive holes, for example by not living the socially prescribed life, but by following your own path, and by not swallowing your emotions, but shouting them out. 

Fomiander had already introduced the German language into the song repertoire, but now Tom Kannmacher perfected this by presenting ancient German cultural heritage in German. Tom Kannmacher is known to us all as the one who constantly unearths new folk songs and brings them to life in the most authentic form possible on his bass lute. This was also the case at the 164th Folk Club, where he described a trait shared by many people (men?) who have a different ‘sweetheart’ in every city and on every side of the Rhine due to their travels in ‘Schiffer auf dem blanken Rhein’ (Sailor on the Shiny Rhine). 

I will refrain from further comment on this. With a song describing the liberation of three travelling boys from captivity in Amsterdam – ‘Es reisten drei Knaben (Flucht aus Amsterdam)’ (Three boys travelled (Escape from Amsterdam)) – he addressed another aspect of the dangers of travelling. In earlier times, poverty often left people with only one option – to become soldiers – but this always went hand in hand with the worry of the family left behind as to whether war or even just drill would allow a healthy man to return home at some point. This is also described in the song ‘Ich hab ein Schatz’ (I have a sweetheart). And because it was so beautiful, a double song was added, in which Tom described the worries of a housewife (known in the Eifel region as the ‘Hilisch Lied’ and sung at weddings) and then evoked the same worries in a nightingale in ‘Der Nachtigall Klage’ (The Nightingale's Lament). 

Why do these songs belong together? There are still many mysteries in this world. 

Now it was back to English. The featured artist of the evening, Steve Crawford, returned to the Folk Club with his guitar and many of his own and traditional songs. So 2026 began as 2025 ended, with a Scottish songwriter. 

But that wasn't all, because Steve brought along his Scottish schoolmate Pete Coutts, who had already delighted us as featured artist in November. Of course, neither of them had just popped over from Scotland, as Steve now lives in Bonn and Pete in Remagen-Kripp – the Rhineland seems to exert a great attraction on Scots. The round dance began 

Now it was back to English. The featured artist of the evening, Steve Crawford, returned to the Folk Club with his guitar and many of his own and traditional songs. Thus, the year 2026 began as 2025 had ended, namely with a Scottish songwriter. But that wasn't all, because Steve brought along his Scottish schoolmate Pete Coutts, who had already delighted us as featured artist in November. Of course, neither of them had just popped over from Scotland, as Steve now lives in Bonn and Pete in Remagen-Kripp – the Rhineland seems to exert a great attraction on Scots. The round began as a soloist with the piece ‘A Hard And A Heavy Rain’. Please forgive me for not saying too much about the content of Steve's songs, because Steve's Scottish accent, combined with my rather unpractised English, prompted me to pay more attention to the musical impression. And that was magnificent in all of his pieces. The ease with which Steve played the guitar, both fingerpicking and strumming, and how he mastered both the soft and loud notes of the vocal parts with his powerful voice was impressive. When you make music yourself, you often view the musical performances of others on a different basis. You know how difficult it is to be relaxed when the technique of the performance demands maximum performance.     

                    

You know how much skill it takes to convey your own enjoyment of the music while still concentrating on conjuring up a clean interpretation, and you know how difficult it is not to be distracted by minor and major environmental influences (chips deliveries, toilet breaks and sometimes disruptive conversations among the audience). Although such distractions are rather rare at the Folk Club Bonn, it is still a great achievement to demonstrate such professionalism as Steve Crawford does. But now back to the basics of this argument. With more of his own songs, ‘After The Ceilidh’ and “Rules”, and the traditional ‘The Barngates Of Delgaty’, Steve demonstrated his musical interpretation skills as well as his ability to pour experiences into songs and thus tell stories. As already mentioned, Pete Coutts joined him on stage for the song ‘Empty Skies’ and accompanied it with wonderful mandolin playing. It was clear that this wasn't the first time the two had played together – in fact, they had formed their first band together when they were still at school. Although there was a break after this piece, it was put to good use, because as a true Scotsman, Steve upholds traditions. And one of these traditions is selling CDs, even though there are fewer and fewer CD players these days. After the break, other artists took to the stage, but I would like to mention the second part of the featured artist gig, during which Steve not only performed his own songs as a soloist (‘Glandestry’ and ‘Hope Remains’), but was also accompanied again in part by Pete Coutts (‘5 am’) and received further support from his long-time musician colleague from the band Le Clou, Johannes Epremian, who accompanied him on the violin for the cover song ‘Loose Future’ by Courtney Marie Andrews. 

As a trio (again with Pete Coutts), they played the song ‘The Moonshine Is Glowing on Your Soul Tonight’. The finale came with an encore demanded by the audience. 

With ‘Bright As You Can’, the three proved that they can achieve brilliant ensemble playing even without much rehearsal. 

But let's jump back to the beginning of the second half of the programme. John Harrison proved with a short poem that poetic fun is a great art form, and so Ogden Nash's poems ‘The Duck’ and ‘The Cow’ proved that a duck is not a chicken and eats underwater, and immediately afterwards that a cow says moo at the front and gives milk at the back (fortunately, no musical interpretation of the cow's rear end was given). 

After John, things quietened down for a while, with Reminder (whose real name is Daniel Habermann) performing three of his own compositions. ‘Two More Days’ and ‘February Of The Canaries’ describe Daniel's experiences and desires. 

With the song ‘Mind Your Thoughts’, he also explained his stage name Reminder, 

because by processing his experiences with music, they become eternal and he can remember them again and again. 

A familiar face with a new fellow musician now came on stage as Heidi's Brothers (Helge Kirscht, Ulrich Bünseler) – the group's name was to be explained later, but this was apparently lost in the general merriment caused by their performance. Heidi's brothers have set themselves the task of preserving humour – even, or especially, the offbeat kind. So they began with a cover of ‘Religion’ by Celina Bostic, in which enjoying the moment is elevated to an art form. ‘Die dicksten Eier der Welt’ (The Biggest Balls in the World) is certainly not everyone's cup of tea in terms of content, but it spiced up the evening with wonderfully suggestive humour – and this song by Christian Steiffen provided recurring points of reference throughout the rest of the evening. 

In the same genre of celebration, self-assertion and fun, the evening continued with an interpretation of the Deichkind song ‘Krawall und Remmidemmi’ (Riot and Ruckus), culminating in a brilliant accompaniment of the duo by the audience. 

Yes, I had already described the second part of Steve Crawford's performance, and so the Folk Club came to an end – although, no, as always, the finale was the jointly sung and played anthem to the patron of the Folk Club Bonn, ‘Jock Stewart’. And because this is always the case, recurring in every Folk Club, it also reminds us that after the Folk Club is before the Folk Club. In February as Singers Night. Well then:

Out of the bedroom – cu at the Folk Club

 

Yours, Mario