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
