You would be excused for thinking that you were at this year’s Blues Caravan show. Particularly since most of the evening’s acts could be found on the RUF Records roster. But no – this venture was put together by guitarist Krissy Matthews who thought it “would be nice to go out on the road with some friends” and to put on a show exactly how THEY wanted to do it. Krissy obviously has a lot of female friends too as the list of guests proved: Dani Wilde, Kim Jennett and Heidi Solheim were announce in advance. In addition,Somewhere along the way New Jersey’s Katie Henry got to join the party too. The result was an evening at Bonn Harmonie of great music and pure enthusiasm, an evening enjoyed by both band and audience alike – and proof that women really are a force to be reckoned with on today’s Blues/Rock scene.
If you love Blues music in the Bonn area then you are probably already familiar with the name and guitar skills of Krissy Matthews. Whether with his own band or as lead guitarslinger for Layla Zoe or Hamburg Blues Band Krissy manages the seemingly impossible of always fitting in yet also always standing out. With so many guests tonight you would think he could relax a bit. Think again. The show started early just to fit it all in, and along with drummer Gerry Reynders, Krissy was onstage for the full almost three hour show (bassist Slawek Semeniuk had a short reprieve when Slavica Tucakov took bass for Katie Henry).
To business, and it was Krissy and a dinstinctly hard rock powered band who got things underway at 7.30 pm on the dot. With ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldier’ and ‘Mayday’. A powerful start for sure, but for my money the show really got started when Stephanie Doherty joined the proceedings for ‘The Man Said No’ wwith her alto sax powerfully punching out the melody. Kudos to Stephanie as its not every tour manager who can step in and play like she’s been a band member all her life. Her contribution to the evening’s music was fantastic.
With such a long list of top singers already onboard it was something of a surprise to hear that Katie Henry was also joining the party this evening. Blues Caravan visitors will know Katie is a quality act, especially when seated at her Nord Electric 2 keyboard playing my KH favourite ‘Love Like Kerosene’. The addition on base of Slavica Tucakov was certainly more than just eye catching as she added some funky riffs to ‘Use Me’ whilst Katie herself delivered some great barrelhouse piano. Proof of how much of a musical blur the evening became is that I came across a video of her delivering a powerful ‘Voodoo Woman’ away from her keyboard and it wasn’t even on the setlist.
Next to be introduced by Krissy was Dani Wilde. It’s a toss-up who was youngest when I first saw them. Krissy Matthews was just 19 in 2011 when he supported Greg Allmann and Derek Trucks on Bonn’s Museumsmile. I first saw Dani in 2008 on probably her first European Tour. Alongside Candye Kane and Deborah Coleman, so I was particularly moved when she introduced the song ‘Bumblebee’ and dedicated it, not just to its original singer Memphis Minnie, but also to Candye and Deborah. It was a fine performance as always by the girl from Brighton. Especially her powerful solo performance of Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’ which she followed with ‘Learn to live with the Blues’ which was a polar opposite in terms of style but still a powerful performance, sans guitar this time but with a full band. I love the way Dani stepped up to the plate for this one, as Katie Henry did on ‘Voodoo Woman’. Almost like they were spur of the moment song allocations played for fun and all the more enjoyable for it. Two very talented ladies and also two very nice human beings. I’m starting to understand how Krissy can take this show on the road without a nervous breakdown.
As leader of the very successful Norwegian Hardrock outfit ‘Pristine ‘Heidi Solheim probably needs no introduction to fans of harder rock music in Europe. She delivered one of the standout tracks on Krissy’s recent eclectic release ‘Krissy Matthews and Friends’ disc in the track ‘Why are you ashamed of me’ and it’s a belter tonight too. As is ‘Derek’. I don’t know why it’s called ‘Derek’. Suffice to say that Krissy started it with some steaming harmonica before giving up halfway through with a shrug and the exclamation “I can’t play harmonica anyway” to which Heidi is seemingly oblivious as she dances wildly and we’re all wound up in a Deep Purple-ish riff stomping and clapping along. I have it on good authority that Heidi is coming back with her band in September, and take it on good authority from me that she is not to be missed for Bluesrock lovers.
So now it’s well after 9 pm, at which time concerts are usually firmly established and everyone has played themselves in. Not tonight though. We still haven’t heard the self-styled ‘Pocket Rocket’ from Warrington, UK. The appearance onstage of Kim Jennett must have been like plugging into a quick-charge energy bank for the sweaty but smiling band that is already two hours into the set. At 22 Jennett was the youngest onstage this evening and her enthusiasm at being surrounded by so many great musicians was evident. I needed to reset my camera to a higher shutter speed for sure, and be ready for frequent athletic floor routines as she laid down, kneeled down and jumped around, all within one line of verse without once sounding out of breath. Stephanie Doherty and sax returned for part of the set to add even more power to the energetic proceedings on ‘Pack it up’ and ‘Road Angel’, the second of which seemed like a perfect title for the sax playing Tour Manager.
Bassist Slawek Semeniuk found energy from I know not where for a spellbinding bass solo on Al Green’s ‘I’m a Ram’ and a totally ‘off the wall’ musical evening finished with everyone onstage for a song that Krissy has written for his girlfriend – he proposed and she accepted I hasten to add – on which Krissy simply gave everyone onstage the instruction (and its written on the setlist) ‘Forever and a Day’: Girls sing backing vocals, oohs and whatever you feel like!’. Which says everything about an evening that will long remain in the hearts of the audience.
The final word has to go to Krissy Matthews. When I asked after the show how he managed such a long and stressful evening with four lead singers and an almost three hour set. “I could happily have kept on playing all night!”. My suggestion is to note all the fine singers and musicians named in this review and give them a listen both live and on disc. There is nothing better than hearing excellent musicians playing from their hearts. Thank yolu Krissy Matthews for putting this evening together.
