“It begins in the heart, in the soul,
and then in the fingers.
Everything else comes way after”
– Henrik Freischlader on why Gary Moore was, and remains, his Guitar Hero
We’re outside in the Harmonie beer garden, sitting in the sunshine, and sipping cool drinks, but talking business. Not the atmosphere to talk about The Blues maybe, but for the man sitting opposite me Blues is very much his ‘business’. The recent trio release and tour seemed like a change of direction for Henrik Freischlader, and now there is another change of direction with the release of ‘Blues for Gary’ a Homage to Henrik’s hero Gary Moore – so I kick off my interview by asking Henrik if this is indeed a change similar to the one Gary Moore himself made, back to his Blues roots?
“When I want sax, I call Candy” was how Prince once famously described his admiration for the musical abilities of Candy Dulfer. At Bonn Folk Club John Harrison might well say the same for Paolo Pacifico and his Harmonica. The familiar sight of Paolo ambling calmly from his pint at the bar to pull a C harp out of his top pocket and nonchalantly ‘just join in’ is deceptive. I suspected that you can only ‘just join in’ if you really know what you’re doing, so I figured there was a story behind Paolo’s seemingly effortless appearances – and I was right. Here it is. Enjoy!
