Folk Club No. 159 in July 2025 – Travel
The theme of the evening for the Folk Club in July clearly provided numerous points of reference for the artists. In any case, there were numerous contributions on the subject.
As always, John Harrison opened the evening, this time with the blues song ‘Sporting Life’ by Brownie McGhee. Does wandering around also count as travelling? You could interpret it that way. The song is about the narrator wanting to give up his old unsettled life of wandering around at night and finally get married and settle down. ‘Take This Hammer’ is also a blues song and is considered a traditional song. It is a song that was sung by prisoners at work, e.g. when building new railway lines. Here, too, the reference to travelling is clear. John sang the song a cappella, just as the prisoners would have sung it. Although it has ‘blues’ in the title, the song ‘St Louis Blues’ by W.C. Handy, which became famous in the interpretations of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, is not really a blues song. Glenn Miller even turned it into a march. John put all his skill into the song – superbly played and sung – and received much applause.
Stephan Westphal then left your chronicler pondering. What had been announced was ‘A short journey into the world of the violin between classical and folk’. However, there was no sign of this in his contribution. It remained a mystery, and we will leave it at that.
Another delight was the performance by Iris Brück, Carsten Exner and Steffi Sawatzki, who had already enriched the Folk Club in May. In the meantime, they have given their group the name ‘Die Motitones’. If you're wondering about the name, the three of them work at a children's aid organisation called ‘Motiviva’. The two women shone with wonderful two-part vocals on ‘Say Something’ from Christina Aguilera's album ‘A Great Big World’. As usual, Carsten contributed delicate and soulful fingerpicking on his guitar. Iris shone with her impressive jazz voice on ‘Nothing Real But Love’, known in Rebecca Ferguson's interpretation. Steffi complemented the ‘background chorus’. The three concluded with ‘Locomotive Breath’ by Jethro Tull, or more precisely by Ian Anderson, the leader of the band. This time Carsten took the lead vocals, supported by the two women on the ‘Schubidu’ – beautifully sung and played! Keep up the good work and honour the Folk Club with another visit soon!
He is actually an old acquaintance, but hasn't played
at the Folk Club for a long time: Uwe Gillert, this time together
with Bernd Sachs. The two have been making music together for a year.
Uwe's song ‘Reif für die Insel’ (Ready for the Island) fits
perfectly with the theme of the evening: just get away from here and
find peace on the island – wonderfully translated into music and
lyrics by Uwe and his duo partner. Uwe's song ‘Meine Rose’ (My
Rose) is a touching declaration of love to his wife. ‘There's
always a way, life goes on,’ goes one line of the chorus, and
further on, ‘You are the most beautiful woman in the world to me’
– that's nice to hear!
The song ‘Sie weiß nicht, dass sie
schön ist’ (She doesn't know she's beautiful) is about a blind
woman. Perhaps the song could also be titled ‘Nur Deine Stimme
zählt’ (Only your voice counts). The blind woman sees the world
with other senses – lots of applause for Uwe and Bernd.
Ute Brüggemann is a real discovery for the Folk Club. With ‘Rising For The Moon’ by Fairport Convention from 1975, she immediately made her mark – what a clear and powerful voice to accompany the unpretentious guitar playing! The singer Sandy Denny from the band at that time was surely applauding from heaven. In keeping with the season, she sang George Gershwin's immortal ‘Summertime’ a cappella. A cappella singing is usually a bit tricky, as there are no instruments available to prevent slipping into other keys. But Ute doesn't need that. Incidentally, this song is not primarily about summer, but about travelling – to the afterlife, in fact. Well attuned to Ute's singing, the audience was given something to sing along to: Reinhard Mey's ‘Über den Wolken’ (Above the Clouds) didn't take much persuading. The applause demanded an encore, and that came in the form of ‘Rollbrett’ (Skateboard) by Bläck Fööss – which also has to do with movement and is really fun! Dear Ute, we hope to see you again soon at the Folk Club and, above all, hear you sing again.
Darren Cross, the featured artist of the evening, symbolises the theme of the evening simply through his Australian origins. As he played exclusively instrumental pieces, a lot of imagination was required to visualise the titles of his pieces in the music. The first piece immediately required some imagination: ‘International Bury The Hatchet Day’ is the title. Huh? Some may have wondered. Quite simply, Darren is proclaiming the International Day for Burying the Hatchet with this song. Your reporter didn't have the word ‘hatchet’ in his vocabulary either. But that's not really necessary when you simply surrender to Darren's wonderful melodies and his spectacular guitar artistry. ‘Drugged Up, Madonna’ is the title of the second, rather quiet piece. Madonna refers to the famous singer, not the Virgin Mary. What or whom Darren wants to address with ‘First Itch (Highly Strung)’ remains his secret. In any case, it's about the first itch of someone who is quite hypersensitive. ‘Edward River – Deniliquin Flow’ describes the Edward River, which flows in New South Wales in southeastern Australia. According to Darren, there is a lot of crime and violence in the area. If you close your eyes and surrender to the melody, you can sense it – wonderful!
With these impressions, we went into the break.
Wolfgang Schriefer always has interesting ideas for song lyrics and poems. This time, he had been thinking about how someone can end up homeless on the streets. The result is the ‘Song about Social Decline,’ which Wolfgang performed to a ‘borrowed melody’ (‘Wild Thing,’ known among other things from the Troggs' interpretation).
Hans Ihnen had chosen three songs that fit the theme of ‘travel’. ‘Far, Far Away’ by Slade needs no special explanation. ‘Four Strong Winds’ regularly gives your reporter goose bumps. The 1961 song by Canadian Ian Tyson was one of the favourite pieces of our friend Steve Perry, who sadly passed away three years ago. Somehow, it has become a kind of anthem in Canada, especially in the province of Alberta (mentioned in the song as a travel destination). In any case, it is performed every year at the end of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and numerous musicians have or had it in their repertoire. Johnny Cash, mentioned by Hans, is just one of many. ‘Love's Been Good To Me’ is about someone who travels a lot (the song begins with the line ‘I've been a rover’) – also a form of travelling. Frank Sinatra once made this beautiful song immortal. Much applause for Hans.
Petra Sigmund also has a long history with the folk club. She is one of those who were already there at Haus Müllestumpe in Graurheindorf. This time she performed with her wife Ragna as the group ‘Gedankenspiel’. The two presented songs they had written themselves. ‘Das Schicksal spielt sein eigenes Spiel’ (Fate plays its own game) is a tender song about the unpredictability of events in life. Petra accompanied her singing with sparse but wonderfully harmonious fingerpicking on the guitar, and Ragna supported her on the cajon. ‘Es ist niemals zu spät’ (It's never too late) is an encouragement to everyone to start something new, even late in life. Here, Petra sang with much more emphasis than before and used a strumming technique on her guitar to emphasise the emphasis. ‘Hilfe, Hilfe’ deals with the baggage we carry around with us. Unfortunately, dreams are often in distress and threaten to sink. It's time to set sail again. Dear Gedankenspiel women, great lyrics and wonderful melodies, sung and played with such intensity – a real enrichment for the Folk Club.
Richard Limbert is also an
old acquaintance of the Folk Club. When he first performed here, he
was still a schoolboy; now he is a musicologist trained in Leipzig
and works as an archivist in Eisenach. It's hard to believe, but he
is the master of Germany's only music archive dedicated specifically
to jazz, blues and popular music from the German-speaking world
(Lippmann+Rau Music Archive). There is another jazz archive in
Darmstadt. He says it's his dream job. We're happy to believe him,
because even during his first performance at the Folk Club, he was
already involved with blues and folk – very unusual for a schoolboy
at the time. But he's not only a musicologist, he's also an excellent
songwriter and an equally talented guitarist and singer.
He gave a
somewhat convoluted explanation for the first song: When he couldn't
think of anything suitable, he met a musician who told him about a
boxing match in Las Vegas. This gave him the idea of writing a song
about a boxing match: a boxing match between eight billion people and
the world. You have to think of that first: ‘Song About The Current
State Of The World’. And off he went with rapid fingerpicking and a
lively melody. The song is somewhat reminiscent of the style of
Hannes Wader.
Richard's introduction to the song ‘Folk, Folk,
Folk’ is no less bizarre. According to his story, he came up with
the song after meeting a scientist (Wolfgang Leyn) who had written a
monograph on folk music in the GDR entitled ‘Volkes Lied und Vater
Staat’ (The People's Song and Father State) – exciting. The
encounter doesn't really have anything to do with the song, but never
mind, the lyrics sing about the healing power of folk, and that's
very positive. If you're feeling down, folk will help you –
wonderful!
The origin of the song ‘Dr. Hermann Dunker’ is also
pretty crazy: Richard and his friend are standing at a bus stop in
Leipzig late at night, slightly tipsy, and another bus arrives in
front of theirs with the inscription ‘Dr.-Hermann-Duncker-Straße’.
They wonder who this man might be and invent a wild story, which is
reflected in Richard's funny song: The bus is only used to pick up
clueless and disoriented night owls and dump them somewhere on the
outskirts of Leipzig in a dark corner – wonderfully bizarre! The
melody is provided by the well-known joke song ‘Schmidtchen
Schleicher’ – hilarious!
Of course, an encore was in order.
For a change, Richard reached into his cover song repertoire. There's
a story behind his choice of a Dave van Ronk song: Richard was
commissioned to write an article about Dave van Ronk for a compendium
of music history (‘MGG – Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart’ –
Music in History and the Present) – what an honour! ‘Losers’
may not be the most appropriate title in such a situation, but at
least the song has something to do with travelling: it was composed
on a Greyhound bus trip. John Harrison insisted on accompanying
Richard on the harmonica for the blues number. Magnificent!
Congratulations to Richard and many thanks for the performance.
At
the end of the evening, it was Darren Cross's turn once again, and he
enchanted the audience with his melodies. ‘Brumby Revisited’
deals with the wild – actually feral – horses that roam freely in
Australia and are called brumbies there. The piece begins very
slowly, but after a few bars it captures the wildness and speed of
the horses living in freedom. ‘The Regicide Of Daniel Ek Made No
Sound’ is the somewhat long title for a piece about the imagined
‘regicide’ of Daniel Ek. He is the ruler of Spotify, the music
portal that is hated by all folk musicians (at least all those who
have performed at the Folk Club so far). Spotify's royalties are so
low that only musicians with very high download numbers earn money
from the portal. In addition, Spotify is ensuring that fewer and
fewer music lovers are buying and using CDs – bad times for
musicians like Darren who sell CDs. Unfortunately, we didn't find out
what crazy (harebrained) adventure the amateur shaman experienced in
‘A Harebrained Adventure Of An Amateur Shaman’. However, there is
a beautiful music video for the song (as for many others by Darren)
in which a ‘shaman’ walks from the seashore to a skateboard park
where young people show off their skills. The song ‘Sunflower River
Blues’ was not written by Darren, but by John Fahey, an American
fingerstyle guitarist who died in 2001. Richard Limbert, who is of
course familiar with the American guitar artist, cheered from the
background at the choice of piece – masterfully played by Darren.
Fahey was obviously a source of inspiration for many guitarists,
including Darren and Richard. Darren concluded with one of his own
compositions: ‘No Trouble’ describes the peaceful mood he felt
when sitting with his dog on the terrace behind his house in
Australia – a beautiful piece at the end of a wonderful evening
with many artists worth listening to and new or rediscovered talents
for future folk club evenings.
Of course, the evening did not end
without a collective musical tribute to Jock Stewart, the patron of
the Folk Club.
See you on 5 September with Midnight Fyre aka Butterfly Moon
(Ashleigh and Gareth from England) as featured artists and numerous
artists from the region. The theme of the upcoming Folk Club evening
is ‘Magic’.
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