It’s still hard to get used to not seeing Cynthia Nickschas regularly at local music events in Bonn. She’s no longer based in Bonn, so her many fans here will be glad to hear that she is due in Bad Godesberg again on 6 June supporting German singer/songwriter Götz Widmann on his 30th Anniversary Tour at Konrad Beikircher’s Katherinenhof in Schweinheim.
Ticket Details
Good news for the many Julian Sas fans here in Bonn is that the genial Dutchman has been announced as support for Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s Kunstrasen appearance on 5 July. Seeing as Simon McBride, who last appeared on the Kunstrasen stage standing in for Deep Purple’s Steve Morse is also supporting, this looks like being an excellent evening for Bluesrock guitar fans. My advice is to get there early so as not to miss anyone!
PLAYING ORDER:
6 pm – Julian Sas
7.10 pm – Simon McBride
8.25 pm – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Sad to hear today that Rick Derringer has passed away. In six decades in Rock music Derringer was not just a top guitaristist but also well known as a songwriter and producer. He also had fame as a pop singer with The McCoys and the single “Hang On Sloopy”. As well as Johnny Winter (see the picture above from Bonn Museumsplatz in 2007) Derringer also worked with many other top musical performers across a broad range of music including Steely Dan, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Cyndi Lauper, and Barbra Streisand and, more recently, with Ringo Starr.
In my review of Alma Naidu‘s excellent concert in Dottendorf from 2023 I was sure that her next release would take the lady from Munich away from small intimate concerts. For that reason we were lucky indeed that her sophomore album ‘Redefine’ has taken a while to be released. It meant that we got a second chance to hear this very talented young singer-songwriter/pianist in a small, intimate atmosphere, with the added bonus sound of birds chirping outside the hall between songs.
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In 2013 when Richard Thompson was opening act on the bill for Bob Dylan’s ‘Americanarama’ Tour Dylan himself sangThompson’s song ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’ onstage in Clarkston Michigan. Thompson’s reaction at the time was typical understatement of his own talents: “Well, that’s fantastic. I’ve covered 75 of his; he’s covered one of mine.” I think that that’s the right ratio!”. In reality, Richard Thompson has been highly revered by music fans and critics going right back to the ’70’s when he featured in ‘Top Guitarist’ polls alongside Clapton and Hendrix. His embracing of Dylan’s electrified-folk style as guitarist/writer for Fairport Convention was a game-changer for folk music in the UK. I particularly enjoyed hearing Richard’s own views on his songwriting and guitar playing when I interviewed him before his show in Bonn on Wednesday.
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So here he was, onstage for the first time in Bonn. Richard Thompson. Described by comedian/musician Billy Connolly affectionately as “The Man who kicked British Folk Music’s A*s!”, and the man listed #19 in a ‘Rolling Stone’ poll for ‘Greatest Guitarist of all Time’. But if you visited Bonn Harmonie on Wednesday expecting something musically akin to ‘Johnny Rotten meets Jimi Hendrix’ then you would have been disappointed. These descriptions came based on Thompsons duels in the early ‘70’s when he was duking it out with Dave Swarbrick’s lightning-speed fiddle solos. Tonight’s show had not a Stratocaster or fiddle in sight. It relied purely on an acoustic guitar, and a songbook spanning sixty years. And it was spellbinding…
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Dottendorfer Ortszentrum – 11.04.2025
As far as Jazz talent goes you couldn’t get more local to Dottendorfer Jazznacht than Julia Kriegsmann. She was raised in Friesdorf and noted at tonight’s show that her first ‘appearance’ overall was possibly at the nearby library as a child playing the part of a parrot. Today I am pleased to say she is playing her familiar Alt Saxophone and introducing her new CD ‘Dark Days & White Nights’ which reviewer Thomas Kölsch describes in ‘Jazzthetik’ as “The music of Bonn-born saxophonist Julia Kriegsmann thrives on contrasts: delicate stretches versus energetic high performance, contemporary improvisation versus traditional jazz. A production full of original sound colours between alto saxophone and the sound of the vibraphone”. Thomas usually gets his analysis spot on, and this was no exception as the evenings music proved.
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The first Friday of April saw Folk Club Bonn up to it’s chin in women’s names. It was certainly one of the easier themes for musicians to find a song title under. Would ‘Jock Stuart’ be elbowed out at evening’s end in preference to ‘Goodnight Irene’ I wondered? As is famously known – at FCB anything could, and quite possible will, happen. As long as it’s not plugged into an amplifier when it happens.
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