Almost a year to the day since his last visit, Krissy Matthews was back at The Harmonie with his ‘Women of the Blues’ Tour. Take all the superlatives I heaped on that performance a year ago and then add a couple more “amazings!”. You’re half way to describing this evening’s show. Last year’s Blues Ladies Dani Wilde, Kim Jennett and Stephy Doherty, were joined by a new face (to me anyway) in Zubaida Solid. In addition we had once again the master rhythm section of Slavek Semeniuk (bass) Gerry Reynders (drums) and of course the best Norwegian/English guitarist on the planet in Krissy Matthews himself. What’s not to like?!

Dana Fuchs proved at Bonn Harmonie on Wednesday that she still possesses one of the most compelling voices in blues-rock today — a raw, soulful powerhouse whose music draws on gospel, soul, and Southern rock in equal measure. Back in the day, it must have been both a blessing and a curse to have been compared favourably with Janis Joplin, but over the past two decades she has continued to deepen her craft and expand her reach, both in the studio and on stage.  The result is not Janis, it’s 100% Dana, and she doubled down on her own identity in typical style before an audience clearly glad to see her back in Bonn again.

We’re mid-way through the set at Bonn Harmonie. Danny Bryant lets his guitar hang down loose from his shoulder as he steps up to the microphone and introduces the song ‘Tougher Now’. “Two years ago I stopped drinking. I nearly died”, he says. Then he pulls the guitar back up to his chest and begins a song that came out of those dark days – ‘Tougher Now’. We are seeing a leaner a happier and indeed a tougher Danny Bryant from the last time I saw him here at Bonn Harmonie in 2019, and, as many a musician has found before him, the music hasn’t suffered or creativity dried up. Songs played from the new disc ‘Nothing Left Behind’ stand up against everything that went before.

What can you expect?  To quote Yassmo’s website on Yassmo and the Soulfisticated People: “An evening full of energy and passion! From emotional soulful ballads to exhilarating pumping Motown beats – it’s all included, everything that touches the skin and gets into the legs.  The band brings the music of the soul ancestors into a fresh, modern context – and Yassmo’s own compositions create a unique sound that honours tradition while simultaneously forging new paths”.  

That does actually pretty well cover what we experienced Unter der Zeder.  But, as the saying famously notes – “the devil is in the detail!”

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.

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…

It’s under a year since Larkin Poe took home a prestigious Grammy Award for best Contemporary Blues Album with ‘Blood Harmony’. Little more than a couple of weeks since they appeared with Ringo Starr and played live on the Jimmy Kimmel Show on US television. Mere days ago they were on the legendary Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville. Today (27 Jan) they’re appearing on a tiny stage at Xperion (behind the Saturn store) in Cologne, in front of maybe a hundred invited guests. “Why?” I asked Rebecca (the dark haired of the talented sisters). “Because we like meeting people!”.