It’s December, and with Christmas just around the corner; thoughts for Bonn Folk Club regulars turn to – Dotty’s Sportsbar and Simon Kempston. For the fourteenth or maybe even fifteenth time (even my own reports don’t go back that far) Dundee’s finest exponent of melodic acoustic folk music was in town. Once again with a promised new disc, but also this time with the hidden extra bonus of a fellow Scot to share guitar duties, in Glaswegian Paul Tasker.
The theme for the evening was ‘Big & Small Temptations’. I mention that in passing since it even seemed to have passed John Harrison himself by. If any of the musicians present wish to argue a song of theirs as conforming to this please do so. Certainly there was nothing tempting of any size in John’s opening number ‘The snows they melt the soonest’ and even if there was you won’t be able to ask the author as it’s from 1821. The author of ‘Geoffrey’ is sadly also no longer with us. Both he (Jonathan Ole Wales Rogers ) and the subject are gone but not forgotten friends of John Harrison. On a lighter note, maybe it was too big a temptation for John not to sing Big Bill Broonzy’s ‘The Nightwatchman’ as a sly advert for his current appearances as a said Nightwatchman in Bonn. Well, I’m not falling for that John, and I’m not advertising the next Nightwatchman date in any shape or form.
My own contribution this evening was ‘Jack’s Song’. In a similar vein to John’s earlier ‘Geoffrey’, it is in remembrance of a dear soul sadly missed. I wrote ‘Jack’s Song’ to try and describe how my father must have felt living with his experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war. I like to think that, as John surely does too, when singing about such losses, the people are, at least for the length of the song, no longer lost nor forgotten. As usual I accidently forgot my own guitar so I could get to play John’s wonderful Guild.
Kai Hofstetter‘s Christmas offering this evening turned out to be something of a theatre-piece involving a scenery change – well, a Christmas decoration bedecked table is a lot of scenery in a club where even an amplifier in the background is over-kill. The story of a cooking pit that wanted to be a horse. A lifetime wish, a big temptation (on theme!) and a miracle. A story of dreams, miracles, love and peace. And all in under ten minutes – which was the biggest miracle of all.
Gentle guitar and similarly gentle vocals courtesy of Peter Bachman and Caroline Bernotat made the next quarter hour whizz by all too quickly. Two self-penned wistful gems ‘So Far Away’ and ‘Where are all the years’ followed by the chance for a sing-along gladly taken by the audience with ‘Leaving on a jetplane’.
Paul Tasker came on to do a couple of songs before being joined by Simon, and they proved a great advert for his concert the next day in Grauerrheindorf. ‘To Decide’ is his own composition about a train not arriving. I wondered if he wrote it recently after his arrival in Bonn? It was early evidence of Paul’s excellent ragtime guitar playing. The traditional ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ showed Paul’s chops as a fine folk finger-picker. I recommend checking out his solo work. Simon Kempston joined him for the rest of the first set – and quickly I realised that I was going to need another note or two from my wallet as the duo ran through some numbers from their new disc. For simplicity’s sake I’ll look at the dynamic duo’s first half slot along with their second set later in the review, so stay tuned…
Mario Dompke‘s first number after the break was titled ‘Rumpelstilzchen’. Rumpelstiltskin in english was an imp who spun straw into gold in exchange for a woman’s firstborn child. Who was really the bad guy in the story? Is it a story mirroring tonight’s motto of small and large temptations as Mario claims? “I haven’t played this before, so I’ll play it slowly – which will give me time to remember the right tune” Who could be sure? Possibly not even Mario. Of course, he made it to the end of his tale with great applause and a soundly kept melody. In these days of hearing that endless bombs have been dropped on countless innocent heads it was nice to be reminded in Mario’s second number of an air-raid that was actually welcome. ‘Gale Halvorsen’ was the US bomber pilot who dropped sweets hung on handkerchief parachutes onto children in Berlin Tempelhof. An action that was so successful that finally some 250,000 sweets were dropped over 14 months from the affectionately named ‘Candy Bomber’ and his colleagues. It was, as later noted, “Not just chocolate that fell from the sky, but hope!”. Mario’s final contribution of the evening was a warning not to look away but to accept responsibility for what’s happening in the world, particularly the Natural World and climate change, encompassing as his lyrics did the political arguing that followed political arrogance after the Ahr flood. When I look back at those three songs from Mario – a heck of a lot to think about and proof that he really is a ‘Liedermacher’ (songwriter) of note indeed. Thanks Mario!
Rick Fines
I missed the first appearance here by Rick Fines. Meeting Rick at a recent Richard Bargel concert was a pleasure though, so I was pleased to see him on the setlist for the evening. Even more so when I discovered that in Rick, Plittersdorf now has a resident folk musician who has received 3 prestigious Canadian music Juno nominations and Maple Blues Awards. I am now hoping he will be on many a set-list to come at Bonn Folk Club – his set was a real pleasure to hear.
Rick is from Peterborough – but not the one in the UK, rather the one near Toronto, Canada. His first number ‘Muskoka Moon’ is a forbidden-love song based in Muskoka, Ontario. “Falling in love with your best friend’s eldest sister is never a good idea” as he puts it with a smile. His second self-penned number is a glorious pure blues about dark temptations. ‘Back up from Zero’. Rick’s last offering of the evening showed him to be a super Ragtime player – ‘I’m Good to Go’ is a nod to the days that music, like everything else, wasn’t disposable. When a tune was passed down directly so that a daughter might have the same tune played at her wedding that her mother had asked for. The lyrics could always change to that tune though – and Rick wrote a whole new ragtime song. Really a pleasure to hear how he made the music seem so simple to play, but played as well as any nimble finger picker I’ve heard to date.
Time for some family fun musically, as Caju drummer Alex Paris took on cajon duties to support his father Gue with some beautifully crafted Brazilian music –‘Chega de Saudade’ and ‘Como Uma Onda’. Music for the soul is how to describe their set best.
Okay, Simon Kempston and Paul Tasker time. It’s always a pleasure to see and hear Simon himself, but also a pleasure when he brings along a new face to the Folk Club. A couple of year’s ago it was the excellent Bronwyn Claire Asha. In 2025 we were treated to an acoustic tour-de-force as Simon introduced this year’s new disc which is a duo affair with Paul Tasker who also accompanied Simon at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival (to put some perspective on the quality of Folk Club’s special guests!). True to the new CD the duo kicked off with opener ‘Tundra Plane’ and what proved to be a common and for me very welcome sound for the evening – Paul playing banjo behind Simons intricate acoustic picking. Next up, a song written and inspired by one of Simon’s many world covering tours that took him to Albania. The result is a delicate acoustic piece entitled ‘City of a thousand windows’. Two instrumentals in, and Simon says we’ve earned some lyrics in the form of ‘What led you to this’ from his last solo disc ‘My dreams are theirs’. With Paul’s presence it gets an extra banjo edge. To finish the first set we’re back to a tune featured on the latest disc but also from a longer instrumental of Simon’s, the melodic ‘Resolution torn asunder’.
Simon and Paul’s second set to close the evening kicked off with a dog inspired banjo tune from Paul. ‘Sula’s song’. “A happy piece about a dog” as Simon put it, before revealing it was now time for sadder music, and the concept of melancholy, as expressed in the classically-styled ‘A sorrow not yet felt’. A tenderly sad endevour to be sure, but beautiful all the same in Simon’s hands. As was “Where my love belongs” – dedicated to a very special person in Simon’s life – his daughter “Who won’t be getting any Christmas presents unless you buy our new CD!” says the resolute businessman with a wink towards the merchandise table.
The western inspired ‘Husker’s Theme’ puts us back on track with the new cd, and, as with the new CD too, our last scheduled number of the evening is what Paul describes as “Kind of a pastiche of a Strauss waltz” titled ‘Firefly’.
Of course, the duo were not to be let off stage without calls for an encore, and what a wonderful encore it was. Yes, Dougie Maclean’s ‘Caledonia’ is much played, but this was the best version that I’ve heard to date. Sweetly sung by Simon and as sweetly played from the hearts of two men from the premiership of scottish folk music.
Does it get any better than that? Drop by Dotty’s on 16th January for Folk Club Bonn in 2026 to find out!
