The theme of this month’s Folk Club in Bonn of ‘Time’ was actually taken to heart by many of the evening’s performers. It must be said though that time, as Dr Who would I’m sure agree, is a theme very much open to interpretation. John Harrison‘s opener ‘Feeling Happy‘ for example takes us back in time – to the dawn of Rock n Roll. The song having been sung by Big Joe Turner, who had a seminal hit in the mid-1950’s with ‘Shake, Rattle & Roll’. The evening’s second number, Michael Chapman’s ‘Rabbit Hills’, also sees time from a past perspective – a time machine of the heart in fact as the singer visits a scene and travels back to past memories there with his love.
Kipling’s ‘If’ on the other hand, pitches the singer in the opposite direction – forward to when his son will be an adult. It’s stirring narrative of a father advising his young son on what becoming a man entails. ‘If’ was voted Britain’s most loved poem some years ago. The fact that Kipling’s own son John died in World War 2 at just 18 and so barely made it physically to adulthood makes the poem all the more poignant. It was actually Kipling’s insistence that got his son into a regiment taking him to the Front in the first place as John Kipling had bad eyesight and was initially rejected. At the time of Kipling seniors death his son was, as so many in the trenches were deemed to be, ‘missing, presumed dead’ – only to be formally identified long after both parents had passed away. A sad story behind a classic poem. But never mind Rabbit Hills, I’m starting to go down information Rabbit Holes again – and there’s a lot to write about still…
Ute Brüggemann was next up, shyly sitting down and picking up her guitar. The shyness quickly disappeared as soon as she began singing though, and rightly so. A wonderfully light, pitch perfect voice and a finely selected choice of songs. From her opening number Sheila Hall’s ‘Hills of Strathblane’ we were all entranced. An A capella version of the classic ‘Motherless Child’ followed and got the first sing-along of the evening going. Followed on guitar by ‘Day is Done’ a popular number from Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary’ pop-folk music fame). The test of an excellent singer here at Bonn Folk Club is that even when singing quietly the audience is silent as the proverbial mouse. Ute passed that test with flying colours!
Andreas Kulik proved his musical quality yet again with a very different test – holding the audience enthralled with a set in Polish. Armed with a great voice and excellent fingerpicking skills Andreas has that air about him that makes you like him even before he’s uttered a word or picked a single string. I know he started with a cover of his favourite Polish Band SDM (Stare Dobre Malenstwo) and also played a Blues from them along with two own-compositions. As with Ute Brüggemann, silence from an enthralled audience. Maybe there were references to ‘Time’ amongst the songs too…
Ruth, Estebans and Danny Haberman aka Trio Los Rios definitely played by the rules – kicking off with ‘Time in a Bottle’ from one of my own favourite singer/songwriters Jim Croce. Kevin Johansen’s ‘Timing‘ not only followed the evening’s theme but also had the evening’s second sing-along with its catchy chorus of ‘Do it Now!’ So full marks with three on topic songs and two sing-alongs (including Danny’s own composition the catchy ‘Time in Space’).
As usual I will skip over the first set by the main guests (Ismael and Thomas) and cover their sets in one piece later.
The beginning of part two saw me in action purloining an empty water glass from the adjacent table to ‘magic up’ an ad-hoc vase for three plastic daffodils. Spring is beginning to Spring now, so John Harrison suggested to me that morning… “How about doing ‘Daffodils’ John?” A clarification: To us Anglophiles ‘Daffodils’ means Wordsworth (rather like ‘Sunflowers’ means Van Gough to the Dutch I suspect). It was written by England’s great Romantic poet William Wordsworth after a walk along the coast with his sister Dorothy. There are some who even argue that she was the one responsible for the scene being captured for posterity in prose and not without reason either. Her diary description that inspired brother William bears considerable resemblance to the imagery of his celebrated final poem. She wrote that the daffodils : “Danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing”. Anyway, suffice to say that this poem came fourth in the favourite poems of the English mentioned earlier. So, this evening we covered places 1 and 4 in the vote. There are 198 still to be recounted at Folk Club. I rather fancy trying ‘Tulips’ by Sylvia Plath next. Anyone have some plastic ones I could borrow?
The first and only use of the piano this evening was down to a new face at Folk Club Jochen Hiester with a thoughtful own-composition ‘Wenn alles da sein darf’. Jochen’s text is inspired from his coaching for non-aggressive communication “wie wäre es wenn wir uns mehr nachgeben würden” (“What if we were more forgiving of each other?”) it asks, and it’s a topical thought for the World at present. I might add that Jochen has a jazz piano version of this online that suggests he and his wife’s music under the name ‘Soluna’ would be a good fit for JazzTube.
Next up were Caroline Bernotat with Peter Bachmann and they were back on theme with ‘The Good Times We Had’ was written by Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, which was interesting as we had a song earlier from Peter. Was Mary also a song writer I wonder?. Bob Dylan’s ‘A long time’ and a german language version of Tom Waits’s classic ‘Time’ meant three out of three for staying on-theme. Gold Star for them!
Sometimes the stars align and people are in the right place at the right time. Friday was one of those days. Popular English folk duo Ash and Gaz had a house-concert nearby and asked to come by and play. If you know that Ash & Gaz are Midnight Fyre then you will know how lucky we were! The duo have already played to thunderous applause at Folk Club and in 2024 I wrote: “With a barnstorming set, Gareth Price-Baghurst and Ashleigh (Ash) Edwards aka Butterfly Moon left the stage to the evening’s most deafening applause (possibly THE most deafening applause ever even)”. The only change I can make to that is to say they are now going under a new name. The powerful performance remains the same – so much so that Mario adjusted the input into his recording unit beforehand!
A trio of songs then from Midnight Fyre with their full-throttle, take no prisoners stage presence. What an amazing voice Ashleigh has, punctuated by her constant movement and gesturing lending a theatrical air to the performance. Gareth makes for a perfect foil with his solid rhythmic underpinning of the tunes and is also prone to a bit of dancing when the pace picks up. It’s a joy to hear and see the couple together. ‘You go your way my love’ got them off to a flying pace, ‘Happy Song’ had the audience joining in with that flying pace with their sing-along until it seemed almost tragic that ‘A second home’ was their last number of the evening. The good news though is that a new release is planned for later in the year, alongside a wedding. Living on a houseboat and touring Europe as musicians must be a pretty good test of their committment to each other. Hopefully they will be just as committed to an appearance at Bonn Folk Club again. Maybe a Honeymoon destination?!
Ismael de Barcelona and Thomas Monnerjahn are no strangers to Folk Club Bonn, but the competition for their appearances gets greater every year. As Thomas mentioned, they started off with a mid-week gig at Harmonie a couple of years ago. Their CD release concert there was such a success that they are now booked for a prestigious Friday night spot in May. Anyone who has seen them will know why. Ismael is unarguably one of the finest flamenco guitarists in Europe. Thomas is a fine Swing-Jazz player. Where Ismael is flamboyant in his style. Thomas is always a study of quiet concentration. The two together are pure musical fire!
The duo are not just interpreters though. This evening’s musical highlights included ‘Cartegenea‘ composed by Thomas and ‘A Manuel’ composed by Ismael. Add to this a lively “Nueve de Julio” from José Luis Padula (see video below) and an instrumental interpretation of Sting’s ‘Shape of my Heart’ and you get at least a small idea of the big musical range this duo has. You will get an even better idea of their musical abilities by buying their latest CD, and to get the full force of their live performance consider heading to Lutherkirche on 27 March or check out Ismael’s website as there are several Bonn and Bad Godesberg dates planned this year.
Another quality night of music then at the Folk Club in Bonn and another full house at Dotty’s to enjoy it. The room is open from 5 pm, the music starts at 7 pm. I advise you to get there early for a seat.
