The new Kunstrasen season got underway last Thursday with a visit from US band The National in perfect weather.  Perhaps sunshine and smiles don’t quite fit the melancholy mood of singer Matt Berninger’s generally sombre texts, but given the heat, it was probably best that we didn’t have a lively dance band in front of us.  Even so, there was a break for medical attention midway through the band’s set.  Join me if you will, down by the Rhine with a plastic cup of Veltins in one hand and a pretzel in the other as The National take the stage to the strains of Talking Heads ‘Slippery People’

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Nine years, a few unremarkable albums, two pregnancies and one divorce after she last performed in Cologne, Paloma Faith was back in town to strut her stuff at Bürgerhaus Stollwerk. And she still has it all: the heels, the wit – and that voice, as Jürgen Padberg reports…

Murray Kinsley certainly knows what it’s like to have the blues. He flew into Cologne/Bonn this very morning to discover his guitar and clothes were both somewhere back at London Heathrow. Typically for a bluesman, it was all down to whiskey of course as my INTERVIEW reveals (and maybe some ‘bad’ woman at luggage control was also to blame?) They ‘done him wrong’ in London for sure. Possibly worst of all was that his CD box was also somewhere far away – and as most touring musicians will know, these days, that’s their main moneymaker along with the ticket sales. Yes, indeed, people of Bonn – Kleines Theater in Bad Godesberg is tonight a place for the Blues – and for the first time as far as I know inside and not under the Cedar Trees. Maybe there’s a song in there somewhere for the next CD? Join me for an evening with Murray Kinsley’s Wicked Grin

This year’s Over the Border boasts 14 concerts with musicians from 29 Nations, all of which will have a high bar to come up to after this first show at Bonn Harmonie with South African band B.C.U.C. and aided by duos from the forthcoming Irish and African nights.

Over the Border has now established itself with Bonn music fans as a place to hear something just a little bit different, but still guaranteed to be the best of its style. B.C.U.C. (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) have been around for twenty years now, and are a lot more musically interesting than their somewhat wieldy name might suggest. Indeed, during the course of the evening it becomes clear why they are worthy winners of this year’s Womex Award which is given to musicians for “musical excellence, social importance, commercial success and political impact” The seven-piece band from South Africa do all of these things almost by musical hypnosis.

With one bass guitar and two bass drums, theirs is a very resonant ‘rolling thunder’ soundscape built around the vocals of Nkosi ‘Jovi’ Zithulele. The music itself is difficult to describe. Somewhere I read it described as ‘Afrofuturistic Punk’ which is; I suspect, what AI might come up with after being fed the band’s latest disc. I guess that makes Zithulele a South African Shane MacGowan? One thing that Zithulele shares with the late Irishman is certainly charisma by the bucketful.

The music is very much a soundscape over which Zithulele delivers thoughtful commentary that might be better termed ‘food for the soul’. At one point that music is a rhythm to remember loved ones around us and particularly those no longer around us. At another point The deterioration of South Africa is a theme set to equally entrancing drum beats: “The wonderful new World that Nelson Mendela brought to us is no longer alive” he bemoans. In its place is a World of men in suits with no thoughts other than to line their own pockets. All the time he speaks the drums are beating, and people around me are dancing. The words seeming to soak into them audience via Zithulele’s evaporating sweat – and if Zithulele is part-prophet he must also be part-athlete because the man is constantly running from side to side of the stage, jumping in the air, and at one point even doing press-ups.

A real firework show to open this year’s Festival then, but there will be more great music to come in the coming weeks. How do I know this? The two duos who opened this evening’s concert .will also be a part of those forthcoming concerts in Bonn. The festival’s two Irish evenings got a taster in the form of Cork duo Joe Philpott and Anthony Cotter. The latter delivering a stunning acapella version of the classic ‘Song for Ireland’. There was something wonderfully un-contrived about the duo’s onstage presence which is maybe down to their roots. There’s a picture of a young Joe Philpott on Facebook with a certain other Irish gentleman named Rory Gallagher. Need I say more? At any rate, two Irishmen with just acoustic guitars and a few songs to sing – gets me every time. Lovely stuff indeed.

There were two gentlemen also onstage to promote the African Night (13 March) but that’s where the similarities end. Mbye Ebrima on Kora and Cologne-based Pape Samory Seck with percussion created a gentle and melodic bridge between the two acoustic guitars and the heavy-duty rhythmic vibes of B.C.U.C. Variety is not only the spice of life – it’s also the life-blood of ‘Over The Border’

‘Over the Border’ runs until 27 April with concerts at various locations in Bonn.

In the early days of Bonn Folk Club ‘Singers Night’ was usually a euphemism for “No
one booked to play in advance”. Thankfully, that circumstance has long since ceased to
be of concern. The opposite is now true – everyone wants to play! That made for
a rather ponderous-looking list on paper – but, to (mis)quote football legend Brian
Cough after his highly regarded team had a bad result – “we weren’t playing on paper”.
And our result was a good deal better than Mr Clough’s.

Although Katie Henry and Ally Venable are on this special Blues Caravan bill, the star of the tour is inevitably Bernard Allison. It was Bernard’s father the great Luther Allison, who inspired Thomas Ruf to not only promote Blues music but also to set up a European Record label. So it was that RUF Records, devoted to promoting the best of New Blues, began exactly 30 years ago.  Anniversary time then at Bonn Harmonie on Thursday evening and an opportunity to celebrate RUF records, Luther Allison, and of course the Blues.