Folk Club June with David Blair

This month’s guest at Folk Club Bonn, David Blair, is a thug. No need to call the police though. David is a self-confessed ‘Hug Thug’ which he explains thus: “A hug thug is just a fun term for someone who enjoys hugging and often initiates hugging and respectfully connecting with people through a hug. Anyone who likes hugging is a friend of mine! I love hugging because it’s a fun way to say hello and welcome and goodbye with a lot of love for my fellow man!” Join me then at Dotty’s in Dottendorf for an evening of music, song and… hugs.

The theme for this evening is ‘Starting all over again’, which, not accidentally, is also the theme of David Blair’s current tour. To prove it, there’s a big banner picturing the man and the sentiment at the stageside. John Harrison was standing under the said banner when he got the theme on track with his own composition where ‘Mr Solitaire’ is smoking a cigarette and reflecting on starting over after becoming “Mr solitaire again”. The protagonist in ‘St James Infirmary’ is also going to have to start over again, since his girl is lying dead in the hospital “stretched out on a long white table. So cold, so sweet, so fair”. John’s third offering, the John Clare poem entitled ‘Hunting Song’, stretches the theme a bit – our fox certainly will not be “Starting all over again” unless he comes back in the next life (as a fox hunter perhaps?). Did I mention Christoph Thebes adding tasteful harmonica to John’s set? I should have because he really is the Club ‘go-to-guy’ for adding extra colour to sets that make them come alive. I can attest to that – more later.

Any Fleetwood Mac fans out there? You would have enjoyed the set by Schon viel Schönes (Lisa Ose, Wolfgang Koch and Wolfgang Schmell) which included Mac’s classic ‘Dreams’ and a couple of own compositions in a similarly relaxed and gentle vein.

Wolfgang Schriefer was next up so that’s three Wolfgangs to challenge us John’s as the most commonly heard name on FCB evenings. This particular Wolfgang stretched his single floor spot to the max by tying a handful of famous songs together under the Starting Over banner by tying in love songs to the theme with the flimsy excuse that “In love, one is always starting over!”. 10/10 for inventiveness on that front, and also for the effortless way he made everything seem to naturally lead to everything else. He certainly redefined the definition of ‘One song’.

After all those Wolfgangs it was time for the Johns to strike back, with a new song by John Hay, ‘Brunnenband’, inspired by a small spring that runs through Kessenich if my memory of his intro serves me correctly. I seem to remember when i lived down that way reading there was a veritable brook running through the area many years ago. As Mr Dylan astutely observed – the times they are a-changing. Would be nice to think that such scenery could start all over again. If wishes were fishes…

Nick Nuttall was once a Passionate Penguin. I think he abandoned that band name on the evening it was created. He started all over again after moving from Bonn to Berlin but we were fortunate that he made a return visit on Friday to introduce the title track from his album ‘Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows’. It’s a theme close to Nick’s heart too, from his many years as press spokesman for Climate Change at the UN. He was also starting over in a manner by playing the song for the first time without a band. “So I’m nervous as s**t!” he confided. Groundlessly as it turned out.

My observations on Van Demian (Jacob) are short as I was tuning my guitar in the next room during his set. I do recall that his self-composition got a very loud round of applause that made me feel like I was Russell Crowe emerging from the underground cells at the Colosseum to face a lion and certain death.

My fears were ‘Halb so Wild’ though. John Harrison is a big fan of Doc Watson, from whom I selected my song of the evening ”Ready for the times to get better’. Spurred on by the fact that I was, for the first time, on-theme with my song choice and I had Christoph blowing a tasteful harmonica backdrop, I tried to get a sing-along going on the chorus. For those who joined in – I salute you! I salute Christoph too, who only had two minutes backstage to pick out a suitable harp from his big box of musical tricks. My mission to introduce the music of Doc Watson accomplished, I quickly vacated the stage area for our star guest of the evening to weave his musical magic for the first of two sets.

David Blair is so effusive over the recent past that ‘Starting all over again’ seems somewhat understated. ‘Born Again’ would give a better impression of his life changes. It certainly all began to change, he explained, with a move from Canada to Germany in 2013 and success in ‘The Voice of Germany’ on TV in 2017. An audience of five million and YouTube hits of two million. The real starting all over again though began in 2018 with a wife and family. Overcoming a life-long addiction is also alluded to on David’s blog. It all sounds very heavy, but David’s upbeat persona and friendly smile onstage reveal the outcome is a very positive one. Much of his fame is built on talent shows in Canada and Germany with covers from other people such as ‘Wonderful World’ which he closed the second set with. His own compositions though are also excellent. David reached the top 100 in the German radio charts with ‘Alone Together’ in 2014, and his song ‘Stronger, Higher, Faster’ was the theme tune for athletes in the Olympic Village in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The present tour, says David, “Represents my focus on the joy of writing, recording, and sharing the songs both online and live in concert and transforming my fears into excitement. The tour is part of my growth”. It’s nice to hear that Bonn Folk Club isn’t just a place for keen amateur musicians to ‘grow’ their music – but also seen as such by accomplished professionals like David.

So many musicians and so much music takes a toll on time and amazingly my review is only at the end of part one. Please take a quick break for a beer and I’ll see you in the next paragraph…

“Ladies & Gentlemen…” Settle down for some serious harp playing. Harfenlicht are Uwe Jendricke and Antje ten Hooevel who play what I can only describe as synchronized stand up wooden harps. I can’t believe there are many places they can play to a big audience that is so instantly quiet and attentive as here at Dotty’s. Time to take a sip of the beer you just bought and close your eyes. Falling serenely asleep is permissable but not advisable as you would have missed the four-piece Fliegende Füße (Flying Feet) and some excellent music that also included own compositions. We have clearly been well-blessed with fresh self-written material this evening – and wonderful it is that so many people out there are writing songs!

Hofjebräu don’t so much write songs as re-write them. The duo comprising Michael Pfeil and Axel Meyer have a wonderful knack for taking predominantly popular german pop/rock songs and giving them a fresh coat of paint via lyrics in Kölsch dialect – Marius Müller Westernhagen’s ‘Margarethe’ and Stoppok’s ‘Ärger’ for example. My favourite this evening is their spirited ‘Nobbie Brown’, based (very) loosely on Zappa’s ‘Bobby Brown’. Which, if you know the original, is just as well. When the duo are in full flight musically, and smiling happily, they really are a joy to behold. Let their infectious enthusiasm take you along, and if you can manage to penetrate the dialect and catch the witty lyrics, so much the better. A perfect pub duo for sure.

The hour is really starting to get late by the time David Blair is telling us “What a wonderful world this would be”, and it would indeed be wonderful if we could all beam back home in an instant Star Trek style. As it is, I am on my way to the tram stop when ‘Jock Stewart’ brings the evening to a dual harp close courtesy of Uwe and Antje. As always, a veritable cornucopia of musical entertainment. See you on 5 July for an A Capella evening. Get there early for a seat!