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Concert in Nürnberg this evening
Photo by hurniclaude
I’m booked to play a concert in Nürnberg this evening at Luise, Scharrerstraße 15 from 19.30 at something called ‘Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer’ which is a bit, you know. I’m happy to be playing in front of people after so long but, of course, if it rains all is off.
Entry is free and it’s limited to 50 people so please come along in time if you’d like to hear some music. Julia Laura is playing as well and will have copies of her new album, so there’s that too.
Next week it goes on and up to Hannover, Kiel, Rendsburg, Rostock, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Berlin - dates are always here.
Be well and say hello
Stephen
SUPER GOOD ADVICE last week (free download)
Recorded at one of three little backyard concerts I got to play last Thursday afternoon in Nürnberg, here’s a free download of SUPER GOOD ADVICE:
This was obviously a rare chance these days to play songs in front of an audience and was a lot more fun than it could have been - many thanks to Simone and Daniel for their help on the day. More information about their ongoing series of concerts is here.
I recorded all three sets and have put together a 10 song collection which will be available as a free download at my Bandcamp page in a couple of weeks. Please check back for that or remind me if I seem to have forgotten.
Jazzkeller, Zürich last Friday
Here’s a couple of impressions from a night in Zürich last Friday. As with most of my concerts down there the original date was cancelled due to the Coronavirus so Marcel invited me to play a set before Flo Bauer. The audience was small but super enthusiastic, I ate like a king and Flo and his buddies played a tight set of imaginative blues. Was an easy fine night.
Here’s a cover of the blind Willie McTell song ‘Delia’ and a stomp through ‘I Do Wrong’ with Marcel spontaneously joining me on the drums. Thanks to him for the invitation, fine food and nice company - I hope to be back and see a few more of you there too.
Flo Bauer
Tomorrow, Friday, Bandcamp are waiving their 10 / 15% fee on all sales in an effort to highlight the losses a lot of musicians are having because of cancelled shows, cancelled travel and all this. If you were thinking of picking up some music from me or any other musician that uses Bandcamp to sell (and not only stream) music then tomorrow would be a fine time to do that. My page is here but you might also visit the Woodland Recordings page with other brilliant people here.
I’m also uploading a completely new song I played at this concert to my Bandcamp subscription here, so there’s that too.
Anyhow, stay well all.
Stephen
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Switzerland this week
UPDATE #2
Winterthur tonight has now been cancelled, as well as the house show in Basel tomorrow.
Hope everyone stays well and perhaps I get to play concerts next month in the north of Germany, Denmark and Sweden as planned. Let’s see.
UPDATE:
My week is now full, with concerts this week in Zürich, Bolligen, Winterthur and Basel. Updated concert dates on the site here. I’m playing a house show tonight in Zürich and if anyone would like to join please email me and I’ll give you the details.
Thanks all
Stephen
Original post follows….
Due to the Coronavirus situation I have had a couple of cancellations this week - my concerts in Männedorf tomorrow and also at Mundwerk in Thun this Friday are both sadly postponed until further notice. I’m still travelling south this afternoon and will play the shows I have, but I am looking for something this Friday the 13th. If anyone can host a simple last minute concert please get in touch. House show anyone?
So it goes like this:
12/03/20 House Concert, Bolligen, CH
13/03/20 free - anyone?
14/03/20 Gaswerk, Winterthur, CH - with Prader & Knecht.
15/03/20 House Concert, Basel, CH - 17:00 start - with Joelle
Feel free to drop me a message if you’d like to join any of these. I’m looking forward as ever and I hope to come back for more shows when we’re all feeling better and braver.
Stay well,
Stephen
Bremen and Hamburg this weekend
Hi all
I have two concerts this weekend in the north of Germany - Bremen this Friday the 6th and Saturday in Hamburg on the 7th of March. Both are house concerts and if you’d like to join please simply drop me an email at thegreatpark@icloud.com. For the Hamburg concert in particular, space is limited and it would be sad if anyone wanted to join but wrote to me the evening of the show when it’s likely too late. So please get in touch before the weekend.
I’m back south next week for concerts in Switzerland - all dates as ever here and again please get in touch if you’d like information about any of those.
In Thun next week at the lovely Mundwerk I’ll be joined by my friend Geneva whose album I recorded and who’ll be playing her first concert in Switzerland. Come on.
Massive thanks to everyone who already signed up to my Bandcamp subscription deal. The first physical copies were sent to you all yesterday and I’m making more today. More to come later, it goes on.
Have a nice week,
Stephen
'Winter' from last night
Video filmed by Mina Reischer last night of the The Diamond Family Archive song ‘Winter’ in the beautiful Bernsteinzimmer room in Nürnberg.
Thanks to all who made it along and to Stefan Gnad for the newspaper article yesterday morning.
Have a lovely weekend,
Stephen
Nürnberg, Dresden and Leipzig this week.
I have three concerts this week, starting tomorrow evening in Nürnberg at the Gostner Hoftheater with Johnny Campbell, heading back to the wonderful Hole Of Fame in Dresden and finally in Leipzig at the most beautiful little bar in town, Dankbar. Here’s a NSFW link for the last one.
I’m looking forward to these concerts very much, happy to head out east and hopefully see some familiar faces out there. In ten days I also have a solo show in Nürnberg at the Bernsteinzimmer gallery, for which I am pretty excited about. More on that later.
Good afternoon all
S
Dankbar, Leipzig.
UT Connewitz in Leipzig this Saturday (free download)
I’m very happy to be returning to the magnificent UT Connewitz in Leipzig this Saturday night. A big old cinema and home to a great program of musicians over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have played there twice before. This weekend is a Woodland Recordings label night so my dear friends Vivian Void and Geneva are playing too. If you use Facebook the event is here.
The last time I played there was back in 2014 and the recording from my concert that night is currently up as a free download on my Bandcamp page here.
Also, Mina Reischer filmed the whole thing on Hi-8 video tape and that can be watched right below.
The night before, that is tomorrow, I’ll be at Gelegenheiten in Berlin. Also happy to be going back there and if anyone wants to join me there well that’s really brilliant too.
See you soon
Stephen
Free download from Zürich and Hamburg tomorrow.
I got home late Sunday night and will leave for Hamburg tomorrow, so just enough time here to put some washing through, change the guitar strings and import all the recordings from the last 10 days of concerts. I haven’t had a chance to listen to everything properly but here’s a very quickly mixed song from the concert Sophia and I played at the beautiful El Lokal in Zürich on the 27th of October.
We don’t get to play so often and our rehearsal was the 20 minute soundcheck we took. Fine, is what it is.
I may share the rest of this concert when I get the time, so please check back for that.
I have a return to the north and a concert in Hamburg tomorrow night at Fritzen. Wohlwillstrasse 20, free entry from 20:00. Happy to see some familiar faces there!
More later, kind of running…
Stephen
Kofferfabrik (free download)
Photo by Mina Reischer.
A lovely evening at the Kofferfabrik here in Fürth this last Saturday night. Geneva started with some sweet songs and then I played a long, slow set to a nice crowd. Some friends in the audience and Stefanie from Vivian Void joining me on stage for a couple too. Of course it turned into a long night so yesterday was lost in a lazy wander around the sunny town, talking and sitting by the riverside whilst the swimming club splashed about.
Anyway, here’s a free download of a song I had never played before but this evening turned up. I might follow with more from the night but right now I’m preparing for the shows and putting something else together for the newsletter exclusive series.
I know I said I would write about the new album yesterday but the simple thing to say is that it’s available for pre-order here and a massive thank you to everyone who has already bought it, especially as I’ve only posted a couple of things and people haven’t had a chance to hear much. Sight unseen, sound unheard or some such. Is very humbling, thank you all. The physical release turned out to be very simple and enjoyable to put together and hopefully I’ll find some more words to share before it comes out properly on the 24th of November.
This week I have concerts in Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Ulm and Zürich. Wowee.
See you soon?
S
El Lokal in Zürich this Sunday night.
Local concert with Geneva this weekend
Just a quick update to let anyone living near my place know that I’m playing a concert tomorrow night (Saturday) at the Kofferfabrik in Fürth. Tickets are here and the selfie poster above will also take you to the Facebook event.
I don’t play so often around here and have never had a concert at this place. We fixed it 18 months ago, let’s see…
Also and anyway, Geneva will be playing some songs before me and recently I’ve been recording and producing her first set of songs for the label. Here’s a video from that.
Lastly, please visit my Bandcamp page later this evening as I’ll have the new St Arbogast church recording available to pre-order. More words on that Sunday.
Have a nice evening,
Stephen
Two songs from VV X this weekend (free download)
Photo: @vincent_von_flieger
Bit of a full weekend down here in the south with a sweet little concert at MUZ in Nürnberg on Friday night and then the main event - Vivian Void’s 10th birthday party concert at the Desi.
VV hadn’t played a concert for over a year (babies, house moves, job changes, concerns and commitments of daily life) but they had been planning this show for a while. After an emotional speech from Stefanie from the band I played a bunch of heavy songs, including this.
She also joined me to sing ‘SUPER GOOD ADVICE’ as she often does but a few days before I’d realised that the rhythm of this was pretty much the same as their ‘STRETCH ACROBATIC’ song.
So, without telling her I stuck it on the end and everything went noisy and fun.
Carsten came down from Berlin for this concert and he uploaded plenty videos of us all too:
Now I get sick and have to make my tax return and try to book concerts. A come down and it goes slowly.
Stephen
Two concerts in Nürnberg this weekend.
Despite living here, I rarely play concerts in Nürnberg or Fürth - usually just if it’s something a friend is organising or a benefit concert or something like that. This is not to suggest that I’m charitable or particularly fussy but I hold to the old adage of not shitting where you eat. It’s also so much more enjoyable and exciting to play in front of strangers and to keep a little distance between the home life and the music life. A splash zone.
That being said this weekend I get to play two concerts 10 minutes from my bed, which is a fine, rare thing at times.
The first thing is tonight at MUZ in Gostenhof, Nürnberg. I’ll play an acoustic set in their tiny studio room (capacity 20?) as part of the city’s Stadtverführungen event - a weekend of walking tours through the town that take in different cultural and historical sites and happenings. I thought it sounded interesting and simple. Naturally as it’s such a small room it’s sold out but let’s see.
Saturday night is a big night in town as the 14 legged monster that is VIVIAN VOID are ten years old and will celebrate with an evening at Desi. I get to play too and part of the deal is everyone has to cover a song of theirs so there’s that as well. Again, let’s see. I am looking forward just the same.
More details about the concert are here and this is from their latest album ‘Rhododendron’ out a couple of years ago. They rehearse every week and have a wealth of material but it seems actually committing things to release comes harder. VV is a slippery beast.
For my part, here’s the only remix I ever made and so much fun with this my word.
Hope to see some familiar faces this weekend then - have fun all and speak soon please.
Stephen
Songs from the boat at Flensburg and the train station in Kröpelin (free download)
Photo by Detlef Jens.
Despite losing my hard drive with the session I recorded on the Schiffbar one afternoon, I found that my audio recorder still had the memory card with audio from the concert there. Also still surviving was the recording from the concert two days later at de DROM in Kröpelin, so here are some songs from these two nights in the north.
Whenever I get to play in a room that’s built from wood and has a history I get all silly and play folk songs. ‘Jim Jones’ has a boat in it at least.
Kröpelin, with the sound of the crickets and the insects loudly buzzing through their Saturday night. I played everything slow and out of shape.
My guitar is being repaired at the moment - somehow after this the neck got broke. I still don’t know how or when but I’ve time to get it all together again these days. The key is to not get too attached.
Stephen
Thun in the rainstorm (free download)
Here’s something of a random post - I was making space on my hard drive and found my recording of the concert I played in Thun, Switzerland last month. This was organised by my good friend Reto of Mundwerk at his summer residence the Strandbad. A lovely place with incredibly tasty food, a thick cut above the usual swimming pool chips and burgers I grew up on.
I rode down there for this one show, was a kind of stop between home and a little trip to Italy. I left in the morning sunshine but by the time I got down there and walked around the lake to the pool there was a dark storm brewing and, whilst we ate amazing steaks outside on the terrace, it soon began to rain. The room was fairly full and as soon as I started it lashed it down outside and the thunder started up. As such, much of what I recorded is rain and all - grand enough but there are other places for that kind of thing.
Anyway, here’s two songs free to download - the first played for Reto (check out that gnarly thunder at 1:45) and the second played for that unpleasant 50 year old German man that seems to appear at every concert and ask me about Brexit. I hope I don’t see him this month, have had quite enough of that.
As it happens, next month I’ll be back in Thun on the 7th of September playing at the Schloss Hünegg as part of a poetry slam event my buddy Marco is putting together. Hope to see some familiar faces there.
Have a lovely weekend everyone,
Stephen
Atelierkonzert in Stuttgart last night (free download)
Photo: @helle.helle.helle
I played a concert in Dirk and Danielle’s studio yesterday evening down here in Stuttgart. First gig in a couple of weeks - was wonderful to be invited (perhaps I invited myself) and a very enjoyable evening.
I played kind of ok, the room was high and open with a lovely wooden floor so I played most of the set acoustic. Some new songs got out of the house for the first time and here’s a free download of the first performance of ‘It Don’t Stop The Bleeding’ from the new album.
I’m here for a couple more days and then will play a short set in Fürth on the 12th of August with dear Julia Laura at the Babylon Kino. A handful of dates at the end of the month in the north of Germany to come too. It all goes on.
Have a lovely Sunday,
Stephen
ps - adding this one too, which was dedicated to Dr Lamb and whose good stuff is here.
St Arbogast - part three (free download)
Back home yesterday evening and will be here for a few days, principally to wash or burn all the clothes I’ve been wearing in the heat of the past week. I have concerts in Freiburg, Thun and Schaffhausen next week and in between a drive down to Italy to buy teaspoons. Yep.
Back to wrap up my time at the Folk Festival in Arbogast and the Sunday found me scheduled to play a concert in the Dunkelkammer, or the photography darkroom. Taped up windows and no light getting in and sure enough pitch black and couldn’t even see my hands. I was set to play at 3pm and by quarter past I had an audience of 2. The sun was high and hot and other music being played outside and really no surprise that most people wouldn’t want to shut themselves in a black room with me and listen to me in my element. It was dark, somehow it went darker.
After ten minutes one of my audience had to leave (she did well to last that long) and so I gather it was me playing to one lady. It was like playing alone, but with a purpose. I lost myself a little and had such strange fun. Felt my way through everything, tripping up from moment to moment but no matter and it’s really just the shape changing all the time.
Shortly after this the heat got to me so I took a nap in my room. When I woke two hours later the audience had completely changed, most of everyone that I had got to know over the previous two days had left and there was a string group playing lovely African music in the sunshine in front of the stage. Backstage was deserted, the fridge empty and catering nowhere to be seen. I missed something for sure.
To be honest over the weekend I had sometimes felt that I was missing out on playing and on a couple of occasions my slot just vanished. When I had been scheduled to play 6 concerts over two days I had only played 3. It was a bit weird to not be able to play to people as often as I had liked to or as often as had been planned, but of course I understand that festival programs have a habit of changing and there are always casualties.
But I was conscious of being invited to be in residence there so it was important for me that I really made something of my time. That I was productive if not giving a concert. So at around midnight I took my things into the chapel up the hill and set up at the altar. Deathly silent outside and full of warm, fat echo within I recorded in it’s own particular darkness for two hours. I was anything but quiet and I do believe I have another album out of that time. This will have to wait.
Anyway if anyone connected is reading this then I’d like to say thanks to all who made me feel welcome and in good company. Particularly Johannes for the invitation of course - will visit you next year if not before.
Have a nice evening all
Stephen
ps - seems like I appeared on Austrian television which you can see here. I’m told that’s something.
St Arbogast - part two (free download)
Backstage at golden hour.
I have showered 4 times each day and sit here now in my darkened room dripping and sliding about the place. We have shade under the trees but the sun burns through. The heat is incredible, I suppose this week the most common thing to say and hear pretty much anywhere in Europe.
I’m still at St Arbogast Folk Festival - it’s Sunday afternoon but I’m going to write some words about Friday night and Saturday here and then I’m off to find ice cream and the breeze. I remember such a thing.
Friday night Buntspecht played on the main stage in the evening and killed it. Fantastic players, brilliant performance all the good stuff and I’m already looking forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks somewhere in Germany. Some of the performance stuff is a little too cabaret for my taste but they all play so well and this night it just grew and grew and had such momentum and dynamics. Amazing.
Earlier Paul Plut had made a great racket too and basically I have been well happy to be surprised with enjoying hearing new people for the first time. I don’t really get to go to festivals and generally tend not to like most music I hear played live. I’m sure I don’t try hard enough to make the effort and I suppose I have a bit of a grumpy attitude problem.
Anyway at some point in the afternoon, I’m not sure when but the sun was certainly high and hot, I played under the linden tree to a lovely little crowd gathered in it’s shade. As I wrote yesterday I’ve been approaching this weekend with the idea that I could play different songs and it’s true that’s been happening. That being said here’s a song I know by now recorded under the tree.
Right after this, another shower and then I played back up the hill in the woods. A scrappy, messy set and little worth sharing from this I’m afraid. Can listen again and check later. Met some fine people up there and it was nice enough. Afterwards I retreated back to the dark room, another shower of course and then I recorded some songs in here for an hour and I think I’ll have stuff to share from that in the future.
I hope you’re having a fine weekend too,
Stephen
St Arbogast - part one (free download)
I’m at the Folk Festival in St Arbogast, near Götzis, Austria for the weekend. It’s absolutely scorching hot, people are being super nice and the area is very beautiful. I have a three day residence here and trying to play and write as much as I can - the weather and the countryside are distracting and inspiring in equal measure.
I played a short set in the woods yesterday afternoon and here are a couple of recordings from that. I’ve been preparing some folk songs and unfamiliar material to play for this weekend and if ‘The Royal Canal’ isn’t so new for me at least ‘Soldier Johny’ isn’t a song I’ve not really played before and is kind of based on a traditional song. This was a simple acoustic concert, sitting on a log in front of 20 people in the middle of the forest and perhaps there are photos and videos to follow but this should give some impression if that’s what you’re after.
I’ll write some more words about the weekend when I get the chance but I’m scheduled to play three more concerts today, more again tomorrow and there are some locations here where music could sound grand so hopefully more recordings to come from this most pleasant place.
Anyhow, good morning and more later. Have a lovely Sunday,
Stephen
St Klara CDr now available
The recording of the St Klara church concert is now available as a simple, hand stamped CDr through my Bandcamp page here. Nothing fancy, but for those of you that don’t do the download thing or would rather just have a physical disc this is for you. All Bandcamp sales include an immediate download anyway and I’ll be posting any of these orders out right after the weekend.
Also - 50% of all online sales of this album will go to the Strassenkreuzer charity, for whom this concert was a benefit. For more information about them and how to help please visit https://www.strassenkreuzer.info/foerdern-und-spenden
Also, also - I’ll be at Radio Z for an interview this afternoon. They have this release as their album of the week so I think we’ll be talking about it and who knows what else. You can listen live here from about 15:00 CET.
I’m heading to Hannover tomorrow for an acoustic concert at Dreiunddreißig. The Facebook event is here. I tend to have nice concerts in town so I’m looking forward to that. Saturday I’m in Bonn for a house concert - very rarely there so if you’d like to join that please drop me a line and I’ll send you the details.
Otherwise, have a lovely weekend and more later!
Stephen