Folk Club 10 - Pix

Oh mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...
but, only in deed... not in thought or word...
well...

I forgot, in all of the pre-Christmas chaos, to charge my camera battery. And, therefore missed more than half of Folk Club 10. Very, very sorry SilverSigh, David and Ingrid. I hope John Hurd will post some of his fotos that will give us a more complete view of the evening. But, none-the-less, here are a few that I was able to get before the camera died.


As has now become quite usual, we had a good crowd, of mixed musical interests and most remarkably of mixed ages.


On this evening, the average age was drastically lower than ever before! Our first Floor Spot - z.D.: Boden Fleck? - Mulled Claret (oder Glühwein) - brought their Fans along, who not only supported their favorite act, but seemed to enjoy an evening of acoustic music as much as the rest of us oldies.


John with his traditional opening, reminding us of our Folk Club "roots" in the English FC tradition.


Mulled Claret gave us some sweet original compositions in English and then as the crowd cried for more, another in German.




As our special guests SilverSigh were taking the stage my battery crashed...
this shot was actually just a test to see if I had the zoom right..
alas, alas, again very sorry...

I will just say in closing that SilverSigh was absolutely brilliant, a feast for eyes and ears. Hope to have them again sometime.

They will be in the Harmonie on the 12th of December, but it is already sold out. So keep watching here on the FC blog, we will keep you informed with links to their future events.

folkfully yours,

B.

Next Meet 3rd December 2010 with Special Guests SILVERSIGH

(for English scroll down)

Liebe "Folkers!"

In November veranstalteten wir ein erfolgreich und mit über 60 Leute, gut besuchte, wenn auch etwas gruselige, “Singers' Night”, durch die Halloween Kulissen aus der Woche zuvor, also bitte nicht sich beim Betrachten der wirklich Furcht erregende Bilder zu sehr erschrecken!
Pix of Folk Club 09

Für die Geschichte von Guy Fawkes waren die aber genau passend. Guido Fawkes, wäre laut eigener Aussage bereit gewesen, der erste, und bestimmt heute noch berühmteste fundamentalreligiöse, Selbstmordattentäter alle Zeiten zu werden, wenn er nicht fünf Minuten vor der Entdeckung des Sprengstoffs im Parlamentskeller, am Morgen der Parlamentseröffnung nach einer langen Nachtwache auf dem Pulver, gerade Brötchen holen gegangen wäre und dann erst bei seiner Rückkehr die Soldaten des Königs vorfand. Sachen gibt's!

Danach haben wir die Kulissen einfach ignoriert und gespielt und gesungen, wie man in den Bericht von Detlef lesen kann.
Detlefs Bericht hier lesen

In Dezember haben wir wieder ein "Special Guest" und zwar:

SIVERSIGH

Das sind Esther Oberle(voc), Bernd Heunemann(git) und Helga Lukas(backingvoc.)

Die Songs von SILVERSIGH bewegen sich zwischen Himmel und Erde, sind geliehen
(z.B. von Amos Lee, KD Lang, Tina Dico und anderen)
oder selbstgemacht und setzen sich schon mal auf einen Ast im Baum.

Sind nachdenklich, natürlich, frech, fröhlich, feierlich,
in der Singer-Songwriter-Tradition verwurzelt aber selbst gegossen.

Viel Spaß bei der akustischen Ernte wünscht

SILVERSIGH

Im Januar am 07.01.11 haben wir wieder ein "SINGERS' NIGHT", und Barry hatte wieder ein blendende Idee, künftig bei Singers' Nights ein "featured instrument" zu haben. d.H. ein Instrument das an den Abend besonders vorgestellt werden soll, und bei jeder Spot, mindestens in einem Lied vorkommt. Um sanft anzufangen haben wir für Januar den "Kazoo" ausgesucht, so jetzt wißt Ihr was Ihr euch vom Weihnachtsmann wünscht!

bis bald,

John Harrison & Barry L. Roshto et al.


- E N G L I S H -

Belated greetings dear "Folkers" !

In November we had a successful, and with over 60 people, well attended, "Singers' Night", albeit a somewhat gruesome one, due to the wall and ceiling decorations from the Halloween party the previous week still being in situ on the folk night. So be prepared, and don't get too frightened when you look at the November evening's scarier photos on the blog.
Pix of Folk Club 09

However, as it was the 5th of November, the decor was just right for at least the first story of the evening. Guido Fawkes was, by his own admission, prepared to be the first, and probably even still today, if the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 had been successful, most notorious fundamental religious suicide bomber of all times, if he hadn't after a long and lonely night vigil watching over the gunpowder, decided to pop out for some breakfast only five minutes before the explosives were discovered in the cellars of parliament by the King's soldiers, and upon his return it was too late, the game was up.

So afterwards, we just ignored the backdrops, and played and sang as one can read in the wonderful review by Detlef Stachetzki, which is unfortunately only in German. We try to maintain bi-linguality as far as possible, but because both Barry and I are English mother speakers there is normally a bit more English than German, so Detlef's review is only in German as a way of compensation. (and it's so good it would be too difficult to translate Detlef!)
Read Detlef's review in German
Review of FC 09 in English

We hope that all of you will come along next week to Folk Club 10, to sing, listen and/or play. Please feel free to broadcast this to family and friends! So we'll look forward to seeing you in December when we have as "Special Guest" the much acclaimed trio "SilverSigh".

Here something from them to whet the appetite:

SILVERSIGH

That is Esther Oberle (voc), Bernd Heunemann (git) und Helga Lukas (backing voc.)

The songs from SILVERSIGH swirl between heaven and earth and are borrowed from
(e.g. von Amos Lee, KD Lang, Tina Dico and others)
or their own compositions, which are of a similar ilk and in a similar vein to the aforementioned composers.

They are thought provoking, yet natural, sometimes cheeky, but mainly happy and cheery and in the Singer-Songwriter-Tradition, true to their roots but still individually crafted.

Much fun with the acoustic harvest wishes,

SILVERSIGH


So that's nice.

In January 07.01.2011 we are reverting back to a "SINGERS' NIGHT" and Barry has had another blinding idea, that in future we should have a "featured Instrument" at each "Singers' Night" . This is an instrument which must be featured in at least one song, and hopefully more, in every one's spot. To break everyone in gently we've chosen the Kazoo for January, so now you all know what to wish for in your Christmas stocking, or to place silently smiling in someone else's! :-)

See you all soon,


John Harrison & Barry L. Roshto et al.

"Folk is great - Bier ist gut - and people are crazy"

Andy Irvine in Concert - FIF Bad Honnef

A review of folk legend Andy Irvine's recent concert at the “Feurschlößchen” in Bad Honnef on the Bonn English Network, written by our own legend, John Harrison:

http://www.english-network.de/folk-invasion-andy-irvine

You can hear Andy Irvine in Concert
the 18th of January 2011 at 8.05 pm (20.05 Uhr)
on WDR 3 Konzert

A short review in German
AND...
a bit of the concert, can be seen
and heard on the WDR 3 website

http://www.wdr3.de/konzert/details/artikel/zitherpartie-a-lorientale.html

OpenMic in der Mausefalle 33 1/3 John & Paolo rock the house

Sometimes you don't know what you have until you lose it. Don't want to go there actually, I mean the (potential) problems that we have had / or could have had with our venue in Graurheindorf... When we begin to look around...for example on 20. Nov 2010 at the OpenMic evening in the Mausefalle 33 1/3, we realise immediately that we are very, very lucky to be in the place that we are... 3 mal hoch.... Furthermore, I actually have nothing personally against someone smoking in a pub, but in a Smoking Club, underaged people must be excluded... too bad, we would really miss our younger members at the Folk Club.

Just to be brief, John and Paolo, two infamous Folk-Clubbers, rocked the house.

For a full review of the evening check here:

OpenMic November 2010

and then come around to FC10 on the 3rd of December...

Review of FC 09 in English

Folk Club Nr. 9 was quite a diverse evening, as usual. Detlef Stachetzki wrote a wonderful review, which is unfortunately (for some of you maybe)only in German. We try to maintain bi-linguality as far as possible, but because both Barry and John are English mother speakers there is normally a bit more English than German, so Detlef's review is only in German as a way of compensation. (and it's so good it would be too difficult to translate Detlef!)

Nonetheless, we thought it might be good to do an alternative in English.

So John penned the following passages:

Suffice to say Christine Moos played some tremendous violin accompanying me on four songs in the first set with a wonderful rendition of the traditional instumental piece "Oran". So music from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England with a song from a famous musical and a negro spiritual for good measure. Hopefully Christine will be coming again soon with a klezmer vocalist.

First floor spot of the evening was Andreas who played the guitar and sang. The first Dylan we've had for a while. Andreas, was actually at the previous folk club and did an "involuntary" floor spot as Reiner Weiss asked for a volunteer from the floor from someone who had never had any piano tuition before, and he was roped in by Reiner to learn and eventually play "Faustus" before the audience. Well something worked (and this must be another folk club first) because I heard last week that he had since bought a piano and is now learning a new instrument! Andreas was than accompanied first by Gabi on vocals and then also by Lothar Wosny. Nice one guys.

Next up for a short set were our now regular visitors Muriel Paris and Gerhard Haug who form 40% of a jazz band called "Oldies GmbH", and who take as much pleasure in performing purely acoustic and "unplugged" for us, as we do hearing them. You Tubers (or " Du Röhrers" as Detlef insists on calling them :-) will easily be able to hear Muriel's singing and Gerhard's piano online with the full backing of the band.

After the break Barry opens the second half and rocks our souls, with what we now realise is seemingly much desired - viz more audience participation on the choruses. Barry is continually "upping his game" each month, so much so that I'm beginning to suffer from vertigo trying to keep up with him! Bringing in Shawn Spicer on guitar and vocals on "Boulder to Birmingham" by Emmilou Harris, is a master stroke as Shawn is from Alabama and actually knows the places that he is singing about, and you just can't fake that.
I'd been pleading in vain for a violin in the hall for the first 6 folk clubs, and now by 09 we have two on one evening as Barry's wife Christiane joins with Barry and Shawn and plays the fiddle on "The Water is Wide". My initial assumption was correct, the acoustics of the hall are just predestined for the violin. Another stroke of genius was to finish an all-American set of songs with "Imagine" written by Liverpool's most famous son, John Lennon, who was so famous that they even re-named the airport after him and stole the 4th line of the song " Above us only sky " for their advertising slogan. The words of this song are just so good and are still as relevant now, as when they were first written, if not even more so. Well chosen Barry!

IMAGINE John Lennon

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

The world could certainly do with a few more John Lennons, but don't be down hearted that he was born a "Brit" Barry, at least he was shot by an American!

Anyway a very tough act to follow, I wouldn't have liked to follow it, I don't know anyone who would.
........

For "You Tube" lovers here's a wonderful old classic US TV clip of Mahalia Jackson linking George Gershwin's "Summertime" seamlessly to "Motherless Child" and re-claiming it without doubt as a negro spiritual. Listen to the end where Dean Martin is talking to Frank Sinatra about what they should sing after Mahalia finishes..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBVaRpNEgE

The clip is from Frank Sinatra's own TV show and after both of them compliment Mahaliah, on her singing being so good and beautiful. Frank then with a sense of duty says to Dean, "Well I guess now we go to work?
To which Dean Martin replies, " SIng now after that ? ....No Sir! I wouldn't do it !", to which Frank finally concedes, "Yeah guess you're right, a little tough to follow"

........

Well, this was exactly the position that our next floor spot was in, Joachim a busker who Barry had "brought in from the cold". Not only did he have to follow Barry and Shawn's magnificent rendering of "Imagine" but he also had to get used to the fact that the faces in front of him were still there halfway though the song, and all of them were even still there at the end of the song!
What a dilemma ! Joachim's first song was, as was to be expected, a little wobbly, but he quickly got used to his static, yet attentive, audience and the off-putting backdrops and got his guitar and his voice together, and ended his spot with a resounding folk club applause! Well done Joachim! you're braver than Dean Martin.

Once again Muriel Paris and Gerhard Haug are back again, thus qualifying almost for "Special Guest" status. Muriel's rendering of Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" in French is tear-jerking and there are many jazz standards sung in her other mother tongue such as Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife" which was popularised by Satchmo. Bravo!

So another wonderful evening of such different and diverse musical genres. Many sincere thanks to all the many participants for making this possible.

At the end of the evening all the singers come up to the front and sing the old Scottish traditional folk club song "Jock Stewart". (There is an Irish version of this song, but in that version, instead of getting taken out for a walk, tha dog gets taken out to be shot and the rivers are renamed. So we stick with the Scottish version) and we all go home happy, content and exhausted.

NB - Actually Shawn chose all the songs in our set except for the Rock a' My Soul spiritual. I was really accompanying HIM!

Bericht vom November Treffen von Detlef Stachetzki

Folk Club im November

Eigentlich hatte John vor diesem neunten(!) Treffen des Graurheindorfer Folk Clubs schon den Eindruck verbreitet, nahezu Alles allein bestreiten zu müssen. Keine Special Guests in Sicht und auch sonst ein wenig Flaute mit dem Interesse der Aktiven. Wer hätte gedacht, dass sich der Abend am 5. November zu einem der schönsten und gefühlvollsten der bisherigen Sessions mausern sollte.

John verstand es wieder einmal, mit seinem unvergleichlichen, humorvollen Warm Up, den Saal in Stimmung zu bringen, der sich erst langsam und dann heftig füllte.

Zunächst gab es eine kleine Auffrischung der Schulkenntnisse, denn es jährte sich zum 405. Mal der Tag (Anno 1605), an dem der „Terrorist“ Guy Fawkes (damals war es ein katholischer, oder sollte man besser sagen ein „katholistischer“?) und seine Kumpanen beim Versuch ertappt worden waren, das englische Parlament mitsamt dem protestantischen König Jakob I. in die Luft zu sprengen. Die Jungs wurden nach der damals in England üblichen Strafe für Hochverrat gehängt, ausgweidet und gevierteilt („hung, drawn and quartered“). Also deklamierte John das bekannte Gedicht „Remember, remember, the fifth of November“, dessen gruseliger Inhalt gut zu den nicht minder gruseligen Deko-Hinterlassenschaften der Halloween-Party ein paar Tage zuvor passte (Grrrrr!).

Nach einer witzigen Eigenkomposition (Albert McTavish’s Brand New Frigidaire) schwenkte John auf die Lieder mit „Gefühl“ um (u.a. „Bee’s Wing“ von Richard Thompson und das Spiritual „Motherless Child“) und wurde dabei professionell und einfühlsam von Christine Moos auf der Geige begleitet.

Als ob sich alle Floor spot-Musiker abgesprochen hatten, ging es munter weiter mit den Liedern fürs Gemüt – Andreas Nick mit Sängerin Gabi und einer kleinen, improvisierten, aber hörenswerten Gesangsunterstützung durch Lothar Wosny waren ein echter Ohrenschmaus. Besonders „Freight Train“ von Elizabeth Cotten erzeugte eine kleine Gänsehaut und blieb als verflixter Ohrwurm hängen.

Nach der Pause musste auch das Publikum ran und zusammen mit Barry Roshto den Refrain zum Spiritual „Rock my Soul“ singen. Die Begeisterung war groß aber auch die Enttäuschung darüber, dass dies Barrys einziges Mitmachlied war. Barry muss seinen „Bildungsauftrag“ als Musikschullehrer ernster nehmen! Entschädigt wurden alle durch die folgenden großartigen Lieder, die Barry mit seinem Musikschul-Kollegen Shawn Spicer vortrug (Emmilou Harris „Boulder to Birmingham“, Jackson Brownes „These Days“ und John Lennons „Imagine“). Shawn überzeugte dabei sowohl als Sänger wie auch als Gitarrist, obwohl sein Hausinstrument das Saxophon ist (Wann hören wir das denn mal??). Zum Weinen schön wurde es, als Barry mit seiner weichen, intonationssicheren Stimme begleitet von Shawn auf der Gitarre und Barrys Frau Christiane auf der Geige die Ballade „The Water is Wide“ vortrug. Das ging unter die Haut – mehr davon!!

Eine kleine Überraschung war der Straßenmusiker Joachim, den Barry nach der letzten Session beim Heimweg in der Stadt aufgegabelt und überredet hatte, in Graurheindorf aufzutreten. Er spielte seine Nervosität weg und bekam begeisternden Beifall.

Als letzten Floor spot gab es Chansons von Muriel Paris, die am Klavier von unserem Stammpianisten Gerhard Haug begleitet wurde, der bereits vor der Pause mit einigen Solostücken geglänzt hatte. Muriel begeisterte mit ihrer swingenden Altstimme bei „Mack the Knife“ und „La vie en Rose“. Ein großes Dankeschön zudem an Gerhard für seinen wiederholten fachmännischen Einsatz, das Klavier am Beginn der Sessions richtig in „Stimmung“ zu bringen.

Zum Abschluss kam nochmals das Publikum zum Zuge, um John bei seinem Rausschmeißer, dem Lied über Jock Stewart, dem „man, you don’t meet every day“, beim Refrain tat- bzw. stimmkräftig zu unterstützen.

Die Glückshormone mussten nun leider wieder eingepackt werden und müssen bis zum 3. Dezember warten, wenn es eine neue Session gibt, diesmal wieder mit einem Special Guest.

Errata / Corrigendum

Hi Folk Clubbers!
Was just trying to make clear with the title, that I speak Swiss...
uh.....anyway...
John thought, and Andreas also commented, that the back drops for our recent "unbelievably-so-good-that-it's-scary" FC evening, provided our photo documetation with photos that really ARE scary, or at least leave the uninitiated reader to wonder, "what the.....Folk...?"

so

Statement from John (and I must add, it is quite grand that we had the FC evening on GF night.BLR)

"On Friday the 5th of November we had our "Horrible History" folk club event commemorating "Guy Fawkes Night" and the Gunpowder Plot which was a failed attempt by religious fundamentalists to blow up the English and Scottish King James I along with his family and parliament in 1605. Wicked tongues have rumoured that this is how people end up who attend the folk club, and either do not join in the choruses, or sing the choruses, but out of tune. This is of course, not the case and the extremely frightening and realistically macabre back drops to the last meeting were in fact a leftover from the Halloween Party the week before. Even Guido Fawkes himself did not suffer this fate, although his fellow conspirators did, when they were hanged, drawn and quartered for their crime. Guido "got lucky" in the end, as the last to be hanged, and as his final act, simply threw himself off the scaffold and merely broke his neck, thus sparing himself from a fate, "much worse than death itself".

Other wicked tongues have rumoured however, and especially in recent times following the political scandals of false expense claims by so many members of parliament, that neither in the time before 1605 or in the centuries afterwards has any man or woman ever entered through the doors of parliament with such "honest intent" as Guy Fawkes, whose effigy to this day is still ceremoniously burnt on bonfires throughout the land."

We couldn't possibly comment on that one!
(However, now you know the reason for the strange backgrounds on some of the photos. Hopefully Beethoven will be back soon to cast his watchful eye over us again.)

MORE PHOTOS from the November Meet:

















Finale - All the singers back on stage for a resounding
"When your drinkin' with me..."

Well Done! John and all those singing clubbers....
WELL DONE all you "Guy's"
Fawke!!!