The German Blues Project Blues in Germany – they tested it all, didn´t they? Meticulous copying – like spies in fear of decoding! – including practiced Louisiana drawls and cotton picker poses on one end of the spectrum, Germanic lyrics and beer-soaked hilarity on the other one. Hey: The German Blues Project guys can dissociate themselves from it all. Unimpressed and easy going, they fill the deep blue canvas their own way:
Stage left, you got Richie Arndt & The Bluenatics. The power trio has been honing its particular Blues brand as an international, flexible and above all boundless music medium – with RORYMANIA, an Irish 12 bar hero has been quoted and enjoyed, and their TRAIN STORIES dared to include Liverpool´s Beatles in their Blues universe just as much as the shuffling Mancunian, Ex-Hollie Graham Nash – any questions? The Blues has always been the sailors´ currency, has eternally spelt migration.
This energetic threesome, combined with the duo of Georg Schroeter und Marc Breitfelder: would this work? On paper, this may look like a dubious "Super group Stew", but sound wise, this quickly proves to be an unbelievable, perfectly geared alliance: The harmonic unity of guitar, bass & drums (Richie, Jens-Ulrich Handreka, Frank Boestfleisch) meets piano master Georg and harp champion Marc as ideal additions – no instruments doubled – created in hot jam sessions rather than on a cold label lizard´s drawing board. Meanwhile, the tandem of Schroeter & Breitfelder had already proved that as a duo, they function as well as they succeed – with a big award gathered in the process: A year ago, the two artists collected the coveted and significant "International Blues Challenge" from the hands of "Blues Foundation" Boss Jay Sielemann in Memphis in the category of ´Best duo´, as the first non-Americans ever! So has the Arndt Trio in fact joined them? Well, as the Bluenatics were sent to the very first "European Blues Challenge" in Berlin as German representatives in 2011, let´s say they met half way – like in their jam sessions: throwing each other solos, laying some grooves and taking over vocal duties "on the fly".
This procedure has been kept going on the album debut THROUGH THE STORM, as you are able to hear immediately. This quintet sounds incredibly in the pocket right from the word go, on top of their trade and in love with their tools: This is not about getting into the mostly self-written songs – you just don´t manage to escape them again – those licks, love laments and cute cultural snippets. It´s as if those 7000 miles on American-Canadian freeways and turnpikes had already been achieved. A course, by the way, which has definitely been scheduled, and has been tried and tested by the Baltic section of the band, those Kiel citizens Georg & Marc. From the tiniest roadside cafés to those famous "Blues Cruises" across the Caribbean, they followed the course of giants like Pinetop Perkins. When it comes to their sense of adventure, the three ´Arndtnatics´ are surely on the same level – hitch-hiking to gigs in Moscow like it was the age of Easy Rider is no mean feat for any combo!
Anyway, you can take for granted that Blues sounds of international impact do exist between the Baltics &Bavaria, without tending to deny any Teutonic roots…
Uli Twelker
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