It was bound chronologically speaking to be the best Folk Club Bonn Meeting so far in 2025, but that the January meet could also go down in the record books as having the all-time largest attendance was not something I had anticipated when I arrived at Dotty’s in Dottendorf at 6 pm. However, as the minutes to ‘Ladies and Gentlemen,…’ ticked down, things began looking unusually hectic. First of all, people just kept coming in. Then, they started coming in with chairs from the bar. Finally, they started actually raiding the dressing room for chairs…

The evening’s theme was ‘Spain’ which was fortuitous since our guests Ismael di Barcelona and Thomas Monnerjahn are the best Flamenco duo this side of the Iberian Peninsula . A duo in fact with a freshly cut live CD from the Brotfabrik (with a 3songsbonn cover picture!) already available, and with a Harmonie concert on 6 February. Tonight it was possible to get a taster of their music, and for free. Maybe that explains the invasion of chair-wielding music-lovers?

When John Harrison finally steps up to say ‘Ladies and Gentlemen…!’ he fills the last bit of available space in the room. He must be breathing a sigh of relief that tonight’s bill is empty of chairs, large bands, or even someone wanting to play the piano. It’s even looking a bit doubtful if Ismael and Thomas will be able to play on a stage thathas so shrunk in size as to become a musical phone-box.

While John’s set-list this evening doesn’t refer at all to Spain, the songs on it do all share something in common – they make no reference to Spain. Rather than think about that little bit of tautology I suggest you make a pulling down motion with your hand and a gentle ‘shoosh!’ sound instead. John’s first song, Fred Wedlock’s ‘The Folker’ is based on Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Boxer’ melody but has had an extra toilet flush or two added to the chorus.

John was obviously expecting different weather when he put his set-list together as his next number was ‘The snows they melt the soonest‘. Typically for us English – we spend all day discussing the weather we are having, but are useless at guessing what it will be. Something John Harrison does get right as always though is his Blues. He finishes with some excellent bluesy finger-picking on Robert Johnson’s ‘Rambling Blues’ and quickly introduces the next act before vacating the space he has managed to keep as a stage.

Caroline Bernotat needs to be quick if she is to prevent chairs being put in the space that John has so recently vacated. She is quick, and even manages to find space for a music stand. Three enjoyable songs from Caroline’s own pen sung in a gentle tone, with Spain only featuring as a part of her between-song banter. No extra points for being on topic then. I did enjoy particularly ‘Waiting by the phone’ as it took me back to those days before WhatsApp, Twitter and video conferencing etc when hearing a voice from far away still had an element of magic in it. A time when, in some cases ‘waiting by the phone’ actually meant waiting by the phone BOX – often in a queue…

The lack of things Spanish was very much put to right by our next guest though. In fact Miguel Garcia Gonzalez had us all down a rabbit hole so to speak trying to identify the roots of his three contributions. They had Latin American backgrounds and were sung in Spanish. I can however now safely say that ‘La llorona’ is a legend stemming from Hispanic American and Mayan folklore and features a ghost which, according to oral tradition, is the pain-laden soul of a woman who drowned her children. She, then, repentant and cursed, searches for them at night in rivers, towns and cities, frightening those who see or hear her at night with her overwhelming cry. It’s a legend retold in various cultures and with various lyrics specific to different geographical regions. Another song with a history is ‘Luna’, a self-written love story from Miguel. The final song ‘Senor’ is also a kind of love song – dedicated to a dog of that name by the songs writer Dany Henri Carpentero. Miguel then gets 5 stars for being on topic and an extra star for his interesting song explanations.

Andreas Kulik missed out on singing at a previous meeting so is excused for two songs not in Spanish but instead in Polish (will there be a polish evening you ask?). The songs originated from Stare Dobre Malzenstwo who began as a popular “student music” formation before moving towards what can be described as acoustic blues. That sounds simple enough, however, wiki tells me that they often use poems of the ‘forgotten poet’ Jan Rybowicz whose work addressed important questions about human existence. No, I am not going to go any deeper into that musical well (or rabbit hole?) Andreas has a disarming way of presentation that I enjoy and if I didn’t understand the words there was always his third song to enjoy and interpret – ‘Turn the World upside down’, which actually has nothing to do with the English Civil War but actually Andreas’ thoughts on the dreaded Covid time of more recent history.

So much already to think about – and here we have Gerd Schinkel, who is always a man for whom texts are not just words but political weapons. Today though, despite the peace sign on his guitar, Gerd is singing songs that he has translated into German from the Spanish folk rockstar Joaquin Sabina. He certainly got everyone’s attention when he mentioned the songs had an ‘Erotic’ nature. Fear not, there was nothing to hide from young ears. Another quick visit to Wikipedia tells me that Sabina’s songs “usually treat love, heartbreaks and society with significant use of literary figures as in the baroque-literature style”.

“I’ve never been to Spain and I’ve never played this song in public before. So the song can be associated with Spain by the word ‘Never'”. Nice try Mario Dompke! 🙂 ‘Der Gläubige’ (The Believer’ and ‘Der Tyrann’ (The Tyrant) certainly made welcome changes, title-wise at least from the complicated nature of what was played earlier in the evening. Well-expressed lyrics all the same and, although I’ve said it before, I think Mario’s fingerpicking guitar playing is of a high order that all too easily gets overlooked due to his affable stage presentation.

And finally, we have Ismael de Barcelona and Thomas Monnerjahn. 2024 was really a special year for the duo. Anyone who has heard either gentleman play in Bonn these last few years will know how good they are. I was quite shocked to find that Thomas played a blinder of a set with Werner Krotz-Vogel and Frank-Olaf Nägel at Haus Müllestümpe as far back as 2015. He’s now clearly found the perfect ‘partner in crime’ for stealing our attention. The combination of Ismael’s showmanship as he steps enthusiastically from his chair to literally play to the audience against Thomas with his rock-steady rhythm and pokerface is a joy to watch.

But of course, watching is only the tiniest part of the enjoyment you get from this duo. That explosiveness in Ismael’s movement is reflected in his guitar playing. Right from the opening percussive flurry of Paco de Lucia’s ‘Entre dos Aos Aquas’ through to the duos’ finale ‘Concierto de Aranjuez (part) ‘ the evening is a musical tour de force. The duos musical quality is also a good reminder of how high the bar is often raised at Bonn Folk Club.

Thomas and Ismael were playing to packed houses in 2024. I remember listeners assembling outside of Trinkpavilion just to hear the music inside. If you want to hear how good they are then I suggest grabbing a copy of their live from Brotfabrik CD recorded at a sold out hall last year. I make no apologies for admitting that when I was asked to shoot the cover picture for the CD at the Kurpark ‘Musikmuschel’ I let the duo continue playing live long after I had my shots in the bag. I still remember the delighted faces of passers-by as they played. Which brings me to another special note about the evening at Folk Club Bonn – It’s a pleasure to hear acoustic music, especially of this standard, played without amplification. It’s also a pleasure for there to be a location where such music can be played in front of 100+ people who don’t talk, rattle glasses or disturb in any way. A tribute then to Folk Club and to tonight’s special guests.

If you weren’t one of the lucky 100+ listeners last Friday and my review has given you the feeling you missed something special then don’t despair. You can still get tickets for that Harmonie concert on 6 February!