Windoof, Linux, Zoom, SDHC - a fraternity of horrors
What was actually going on at the start of the harvest
month of September? Illness? Still on holiday? It doesn't matter - in
any case, a few artists cancelled their performances, but this was
made up for in artistic style by the willingness of the remaining
acts to play more and longer. Yes, and then the sound recordings - as
you all know, we have been recording the Folk Club for years.
Firstly, to document the development for the organisers, and
secondly, to provide the performing artists with their performance
afterwards (hearing yourself often fills you with pride, but is
sometimes also a good source of starting points for improvement).
Another reason for the recordings is to help the columnists remember
their report (i.e. Detlef or me). Accustomed to being able to listen
to the Folk Club again, I don't take notes during the event - Detlef,
and I thank him for that, does. Well, what does this explanation have
to do with the headline or with this report? Very simple - or very
complicated. The recording device is a Zoom R24 with a proprietary
operating system (a Linux derivative). The recording medium is a 32
GB SDHC card and the monitoring/editing device (the so-called DAW) is
a software that used to run on my Linux computer. Now I have a new
computer that is equipped with Windows - I thought to myself, ok, use
Windows again after many years. But as soon as the SDHC card was inserted
into the computer, a familiar message appeared: "The card has an
error - repair or continue without intervention" (the message
has a slightly different name, but says exactly that). Since I know
that repair is identical to format and everything is gone afterwards,
I did not choose this option. I was able to load all the recordings
into the software without any problems and listened to some excerpts
of the concert. Afterwards, I shut down the computer and wanted to
start editing and writing reports the next day - however, the next
day the card was no longer readable - neither on the Windows
computer, nor on the Linux computer, nor in the Zoom recorder. As a
person with prejudices and the need to always find someone to blame instead of myself, from now on the operating software Windows is
called "Windoof", again for me.
So, but now the whole mess has
positively led to my finding an entertaining introduction to
reporting - from now on, as always:
"Laaaddiees
and Gentlemeeeeeen......", John Harrison, the Master of Folk
Club invites you to the music round. He opened this with a song from
his own pen, which he intoned with his frequent fellow musician
Christoph Thiebes on the harmonica in a familiar manner. "Flan
(Kieran Patrick Flannery)" a sad song, describing the early
death of a friend of John. In keeping with the theme of the evening
("Old Trees"), the next song played by the two was "Green
Man" by Martin Donnelly. In Celtic cultural circles, the Green
Man is actually not a "man" at all, but the embodiment of
the renewal of nature and energy - and thus naturally responsible for
old and new trees. Surely you can imagine that there is not only one
song about Green Men - and so John and Christoph immediately brought
another one to the willing ears of the inclined audience. "The Green
Man" by Malcolm Guite also showed how perfectly both musicians
are in tune with each other and what virtuosity each of them brings
to the stage.
To honour the theme of the evening, John recited two
poems by his favourite poet John Clare, "The Shepherd's Tree"
and "The Wind And Trees". John Clare, we learned from John,
was the first poet in England who was not of noble or other wealthy
birth, but the son of a simple farm labourer.
Next, "El Gato con Botas" or as the Rhinelander would say "Der gestiefelte Kater" (Puss in Boots) mounted the stage. Not the name itself, but the language of the name already referred to the type of music. South American, Spanish, Portuguese or French - all, as it turned out, with a jazzy touch, they very virtuously told stories from all over the world. Stories that told of love (the spirit of the beginning of life, so to speak) as well as of death - everyday stories :-). With the musicians Patrick Büchel - double bass, Mika Wagner - vocals and percussion and Arno Fleckenstein - guitar, an absolute experience of the evening manifested itself. Unfortunately, the "Puss in Boots" didn't say that much about the content of their songs, but the performance compensated the audience all the more. Starting with the Colombian song by Marta Gomes "La Ronda", they led into a soulful world of musical expression. Continuing with the Edith Piaf song "Dans ma rue", the journey made a stopover in France. The journey then continued into the world of the Jungle Book. This made it easy to pick up the motto of the evening, because the song is set in a tree. In German the title is "Vertraue mir!", in English "Trust In Me", you know, the evil snake Kaa wants to catch and eat Mogli. But Mika sang it in the Portuguese version, "Confie em mim". The song is beautiful no matter where it is sung, and in El Gato con Botas' arrangement it is the opening of a new world of emotions. The group said goodbye to the first half with something snappy - "Dos Gardeňas", which may be familiar to one or the other from Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club), the world tour stops in Cuba for the time being.
But let's jump back to the first half of Folk Club. Of course, it is always difficult to write about oneself, but since I belong to the group Fomiander and it was their turn, I have no other choice. I'll make it short: we were outstanding, what more is there to say? Joking aside. Of course, there is hardly a performance by any group where one thing or another doesn't go wrong - fortunately, the audience often doesn't even notice, and that's why we shouldn't talk about it. But now to us. Fomiander was almost completely on stage again for a long time - and this time with a new face. Karin Thomas, a flutist who is a great asset to Fomiander, made her Fomiander stage debut. We started with a song from my pen and went into the medieval genre of our name (Fomiander that is folk, medieval and other beautiful songs). "Peasants' Sorrow" is about the peasants' duty to serve their liege lord as soldiers in case of war. Now some may get the idea and correct me by pointing out that such services only appeared in the 16th/17th century. In contrast, I can only exclaim: what is offered today as medieval music does not really have anything to do with the Middle Ages and, moreover, the boundaries of the world are very fluid. In Spanish-Italian circles, for example, the end of the Middle Ages is dated to the middle of the 19th century.
In Spanish-Italian regions, for example, the end of the Middle Ages is placed in the middle of the 14th to the beginning of the 15th century, but in Germany, life in the 16th century is often still historically described as medieval. In any case, this song describes the suffering of being torn from the peasantry to do military service for the prince. In the meantime, not only the harvest is left behind at home, but often the wife and children also die/disappear. The song was interpreted on the Irish bouzouki with both rhythmic accompaniment and built-in melody playing. The transitions of the verses, masterfully sung by Sonja Daniels, were shaped and decorated by Karin Thomas' flute. It continued with an experiment - here, unfortunately, the Spanish guitar of the absent guitarist was missing. "One More Cup Of Coffee" by Bob Dylan is actually a Spanish-influenced piece. Fomiander turned it into an interplay between lyrical ballad and groovy rock 'n' roll. The flute provided melodic interludes in Jethro Tull style.
Another
piece from my pen is the song "Tailwind". A painting drawn
with wind, which describes that there are moments of reflection,
devotion and sometimes regret - however, these should never obscure
the fact that the importance in life always lies in the present and
the future. The past cannot be changed.
Before the break, the
theme of the evening came into full play once again. A short but very
informative lecture by Andreas Theves of the Bonn tree guardians (Baum Wächter) made
many people sit up and take notice. After all, a single tree with its
almost 600,000 leaves manages to provide fresh air. It is easy to
guess who has to worry when such a tree is felled. For further
reflection after this lecture, a break came just in time.
Freshly attuned to music, the audience soon settled back into their seats to listen to John Harrison and Christoph Thiebes' introduction to the second half. With a great arrangement of the Rolling Stones classic "Honkey Tonk Women", the two carried the audience away. A super harmonica solo by Christoph showed everyone his virtuosity. The title of the piece is different from the original, "Country Honk" and is an adaptation with slightly modified lyrics. It continued no less virtuoso with "Keep Your Hands Off Her" by the blues singer Lead Belly. I don't want to repeat myself, but again the interplay with the solo elements between John and Christoph was terrific. The carpet spot (a.k.a. floor spot) ended with Robert Johnson's "I Got Rambling On My Mind" - again with furious solos.
I have already written about Wolfgang Schriefer's stories above, so now it's time for another report: Fomiander also gave a second performance (to compensate for the absence of other musicians). With a thought-provoking song "The answer only the wind knows", the topics of nature, politics, child rearing and general coexistence were taken up. The melody fingerpicking on the guitar was supported this time with counter melodies on the flute. For the following song, the flute had a break, with Karin using this to support the rhythm of the song "Wenn ich dann gestorben bin" with small percussion. Even though this is a song that I sing myself with guitar accompaniment, its harmonies cannot do without Sonja's second voice. In terms of content, the song points to the "nonsense" of paralysing grief. Life is finite, everyone knows that, and mourning should be a reminder of the good times and not a paralysis of continuing life. But wise words enough, for now it continued with the wisdom that it is not worth thinking about death at a young age "Zähle doch nicht schon in jungen Jahren" ("Don't count at a young age"), subtitled "Das Versicherungslied" ("The Insurance Song"), is a snappy chanson that tells of life's attempt to achieve absolute security - and then comes one little thing that is just not secured and the whole house of cards collapses. . ("wobbly as the cords of the expander is the safety on which you dance"). Now it became political once again at the end. Sonja and I created the song "Der Winterwald" (The Winter Forest), which tells of the seduction of ideologies and ultimately comes to the conclusion: Only thinking for yourself and acting in your own sense makes sense. Never follow other ideologies. This was the end of the Fomiander performance, but not of the evening.
Because
now came a special highlight for me personally. Anke and Jörg
Bohnsack - the musician couple that combines the fun of music with
physical agility until venerable age. The two, who for me are a
symbol of "it will be good if I put my personal joy into the
music", are as North German as ever and interpreted the song of
"Lütt Matten de Haas" who wanted to learn to dance out of
pure joy of life, but unfortunately looked for the wrong teacher,
because Reinke de Voss taught him only a little, but he em dot. A
wonderful story by the local poet Klaus Groth, but also a parable not
to be too gullible. Yes, and then came the secret national anthem of
Hamburg. "Tüddelband", a song which was big and popular in
times of National Socialism - to the annoyance of the same, because
the Wolff brothers, who created this song and also ran a theater,
were Jews - only everything they did was so quintessentially German
that nothing was done to them for a long time - one more reason to
hold this song in honor in all times. With their last song, my two
favorite musicians became a little less Northern German. With the
swing piece "Side By Side" they said goodbye.
Now
once again for the brilliant finale of the evening El Gato con Botas.
Yes, this group also spontaneously agreed to play another floor spot
due to the absence of other musicians - and this, to say it in
advance, turned into a multi-part encore evening. But one after the
other. They started their second part with "Alfonsina y el mar".
A piece from Argentina that was performed in Portuguese. As in the
first part, guitar, voice and bass alternated with solo interludes
and rhythmically accompanied the band colleagues in the remaining
time. It remains to say that Mika's mini percussions were also used
again. A small table with modest percussion instruments in wood and
brass. With the next piece, the three stayed in Argentina. "Volver"
a song by the famous tango singer Carlos Gardel with lyrics by
Alfredo Le Pera, which takes up typical tango mood and sings of
homesickness. How far is it from Argentina to Turkey? In any case,
both are countries with great cultures but unfortunately also
terrible political pasts and present times. The song "Kardeşin
Duymaz" by the Turkish singer-songwriter Zülfü Livaneli tells
us that a brother does not always listen in times of need, but a
stranger can show recognition. Now that we have arrived back in
Europe, we went once more to France. The group said goodbye with the
song "Je Veux" by Zaz. Of course as a joint song with the
audience, who sang along with the Papalapapapala. Did I say the group
was saying goodbye? Of course they didn't, because the encores
"Sympathique (je ne veux pas travailler)" and "Meu
mundo é hoje" were still on the agenda. The applause would have
been enough to call for more pieces.
But every evening comes to an end - and so does the Folk Club. And? Was it too late for Jock Stewart? - of course not, because no Folk Club comes to an end without paying homage to the patron.
And remember: After the last Folk Club comes the next Folk Club!
Johnny Campbell from Yorkshire is coming as "Featured Artist"in October.
It will undoubtedly be another wonderful folk club evening, and we occasionally also sometimes have a surprise up our sleeves!
With this in mind
"Out
of the Bedroom"
Your
Mario
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