Source unknown 1994

In the Salzkammergut you can be well yodel-rocked!

Münster. The drummer's arm was in a bandage, but otherwise the postponed concert from the Austrian yodel rocker Hubert von Goisern and his Alpinkatzen got straight to the point in Münster's Jovel. Which means, the rock music is coming!

To make it clear: the lively Hubert from Bad Goisern doesn't care at all about any shaggy allegedly "merry musicians". Instead of lederhosen nonsense, the six-pack from the Salzkammergut offered powerful rocksongs and yodels with lyrics in broadest homeland dialect. Fetching the folk music from the ghetto of the edelweiss drinking songs and dumb knaves of hearts and developing them in a contemporary fashion - this is laudable task is an affair of the heart for the likeable Hubert von Goisern.

He sweats and toils like a berserker at the accordion for it, with two drummers behind him, and to the baffled listeners in the Jovel he presents his version of the Küahmelcher, a traditional yodel when driving cattle onto the pasture. Holdi-oudi - he whoops and yodels in such a way that it must be a true joy to be born a cow in Goisern.

But there hasn't been a holy alpine world in the cosy high mountains for a long time: in Kokain Blues, the Alpinkatzen tell of snow that lies thinly on the fields not only in the mornings. The mixture of sentimental, thoughtful ballads and rousing yodel rock went down well - a good number of the almost one thousand northerners in the Jovel had already waved their lighters before the interval in the comforting cuddling sounds.

Then Sabine Kapfinger lets rip, Hubert's singer. The twenty year old, who only wants to sing since her training as a hairdresser, jubilates in the highest yodelling tones - completely detached and with so much energy that the milk would turn to butter in the udders of the cows up on the pastures. It never seemed insincere - you simply saw the fun that all the Alpinkatzen had in making their kind of folk music. The Austrians are just more relaxed that the Germans, said frontman Hubert. The audience didn't need telling twice and clapped for three encores until the end of this homeland evening of a different kind. Enthusiasm across the board.

For the five musicians on the stage and their fantastic singer, the show in Münster was at the same time the conclusion of a three year tour. Now we have it! The band and their accompanying team could hold each other in their arms at the end - the visibly moved Hubert von Goisern, musician with heart and soul, was not ashamed of his tears.

Hans von der Gathen

Allgäuer Zeitung 5th July 1994

Hubert von Goisern and the Alpinkatzen at Burghalde

"It's about abandoning rights, tradionalists and administrators of culture," says Hubert von Goisern. He's right. Celebrating African, Indian and Irish but turning up your nose at something native betrays the "citizen of the world" and intellectual, who in silence would still like to have his dialect, would like to know where he belongs and if envious of other people who have no problems with that.

3000 people swarmed to the Burghalde, when Goisern and his Alpinkatzen made a stop there. There have already been attempts at heaving alpine music over into the modern. Shy, sensitive, funny, absurd. Evidently the time is now ripe for the decisive battle: for a steady man from the mountains, who unpacks his accordion, plugs in and roars the rock monsters ears right off.

When Hubert von Goisern lets the lush bass of his Styrian provocatively boom, they fight back. The electric guitar howls shrilly in the hands of Reinhard Stranzinger, Wolfgang Maier flogs the drums, and Stefan Engel's keyboards rumble threateningly from the background. Then the dinosaurs dance on the Burghalde stage, in big mountain boots, intoxicated by the high voltage.

Goisern says he is often asked by the purists whether that has to be the case. "Well, it doesn't have to be that way, but we like it," he cares to answer. That's okay too. Such an orgy would do many picky people good, for self-discovery, so to speak.

Mind you, other things were musically convincing. For example, the Kuahmelcher, an archaic yodel from the Salzkammergut, which Goisern puts down with the 20 year old Sabine Kapfinger. The audience is compelled to hum the undertone. The keyboard, barely audible, provides breadth.

It seizes you like the singing of Sardinian shepherds or Tibetan monks. Remarkable: the oldest pieces, sunk in almost mystical darkness, are also the most modern and universal: they can be brought into the present as if they are lying in the past, but are had wandered into the future on the quiet and were already waiting there to be rediscovered.

Beyond that, Hubert von Goisern emerged as a veritable songwriter, warmed the heart with the ballad Weit, Weit Weg, told of thoughts which ramble home during a tour, "wia da Wind über die Schneeberg drüber waht" ("as the wind blows over the Schneeberg"). And confessed that sometimes what other people call Georgia on my mind, suddenly attacks him too, but he calls it "Goisern, Goisern, i steh auf di und ein oanfachs, abgnudelts jodleiti" ("I like you and your simple, old-fashioned jodleiti").

In between, he entertains the audience with stories, how he wanted to tell the people in Texas what a "Wuiderer" (poacher) was. Or how he got his first penal mandate when he was 16 because of forbidden electric guitar playing, because Goisern is actually called Bad Goisern and is a spa town, in which there must be quiet. Which, however, didn't prevent the rascals blasting a hole in the Ewige Wand so the guests could drive straight ahead.

Then there's another high-speed yodel and a rap that's so fast you can't understand it. A cocaine blues, where you don't know if it's autobiographical or satirical characters ("nach am Priserl is mir jede recht" ("after a pinch, anyone's all right by me")). And naturally, right at the end, the current hit Hiatamadl, frenetically cheered. Goisern pulls the squeezebox high, throws his head back, elastically flexible, jumps up onto a higher stage platform.

"The mountains are his pleasure. There he draws creative strength and new ideas for himself and his Alpinkatzen," you discover in the tour programme. No doubt: The man wants to go upwards. "Most of all, I thank you all, because without you it doesn't pay off," Goisern bids farewell to the grateful listeners.

Markus Noichl

Profil Südtirol 8th November 1993

Alpine rap and hard rock: Hubert von Goisern and the Alpinkatzen in Meran.

Do you know what "Boschen" is? It's not clapping in any case. It looks just like it. It sounds exactly like it too, but it works differently. Because it follows rules. The first rule is: "Boschen" is only allowed for men. The second: You only "boschen" in rhythm.

There are no people without rhythm. Only those who don't feel it until the fourth verse. "What's important is: if you don't feel it until the fourth verse, you only start to "boschen" at the fourth verse." Quoting Hubert von Goisern. The Meran audience started to clap quite ordinarily straightaway, as they will gladly be slammed a bit and want to express their enthusiasm without Austrian customs.

Many, who only know the hits like Hiatamadl and Heast as nit did not expect that they would then be musically slammed in such a way. Goisern foists punk rock onto yodel lovers, country dances onto the rock youth. The German tourists were dispossessed of their national anthem, because "it's our old Kaiser anthem by Josef Haydn, and because there's something so fishy about it that we play it so loud so it's right again." And "Alpine Sabine" (Sabine Kapfinger) yodels with a look on her face that would make Janis Joplin try a tremolo after the third packet of cigarettes. Her fans (mostly male) occupy the front left block.

Goisern could not forgive the people of Meran for not being able to juchizer properly. Yes, if we were in Germany, but we're in South Tyrol: "You've got Austrian blood. So we'll practise three times like the fishermen's choirs." And in every song a yodel - or a least a juchizer.

Hubert von Goisern, 40, born in Bad Goisern (like Jörg Haider), civil name: Hubert Sullivan, divorced, one child and a second on the way, favourite instrument: accordion, piccolo and beefhorn, the first record under his name, slowly gone 7 times gold (175,000) in Austria, is the one that made the yodel acceptable in polite society and the country dance fit for the disco.

This offbeat mixture, which resounds in Meran as if there had never been a doubt about its playability, earns him a full-to-bursting auditorium there and an audience between 5 and 55. A young boy approaching his teens is wearing a woolly cap with a tassel. If he had grown up in Harlem, he would be be setting fashion trends for teens. A girl, just marginally older, has two plaits like Gretl. Goisern himself, dressed all in white, with braces like Johnboy from the Waltons, is already making fashion. In between, artists like Matthias Schönweger and politicians.

They are all interested in the ground-breakingly daring which Goisern came to after travels around the world, where he dealt with exotic folk music. With the Alpinkatzen, the former Goisern brass band musician began to discover the musical roots of the alpine region, which he now rehabilitates with rare authenticity. The fact that he enforces everything with a great deal of self-irony and is also politically engaged makes him the darling of intellectuals too.

The campaigning liberals at their stand in front of the entrance didn't realise the politics: they canvas untiringly, even when, to applause, Goisern distances himself in the auditorium from xenophobia and his famous liberal fellow Goiserer.

Nina Schröder

Source unknown 1994

The Austrian Hubert von Goisern and the Alpinkatzen do indeed yodel for all they're worth, but the crashing guitar and the alpine rap belong to them just as much as the Styrian accordion and the Jews' harp. In many record shops, Goisern is still under "folk music", but since his Hiatamadl, Hubert is also loved in the rock scene - although his dialect-tinted lyrics are not always to be understood.

But when the Alpine Cat Sabine Kapfinger yodels, this explosive sensuality is not to be beaten. Hubert has been celebrating his hardcore dialect parties for ten years now. Storm the summit and celebrate with them!

Source unknown 1993

Another concert in Bad Aibling, 24.4.1993, due to popular demand

1992 was also under the sign of the "Alpine Avalanche" in the form and person of Hubert von Goisern and his Original Alpinkatzen. Anyone who was among the 900 people at the totally sold-out concert on 11th December 1992 in the Aibling Kurhaus knows that the Alpinkatzen crossed the boundary between pop and gstanzl, blues and country dance, rock and doubles long ago.

" Unashamed folk music," is what Hubert von Goisern (he's no aristocrat, but he comes from Goisern at the foot of the Dachstein) calls the kind of music he plays with his Original Alpinkatzen.

It all began as a duo in 1984, now there are six cats on the stage who play everything that lies between "hard rock yodel" and "dancefloor country dance". With the increase in the number of musicians, Hubert von Goisern also has more time for his intermediate texts, his stories from his life and the Austrian mountains. And with all this, the "true" folk music is never trampled or derided, but rather simply freed from the stale air of the boring and narrow-minded on one side, and from the unrestrained exploitation by the self-appointed folksy people on the other side.

Founder and head of the band is the alpine tomcat Hubert von Goisern, who once played music in the brass band of his hometown. Afterwards though, he concerned himself with the music of foreign countries and cultures and collaborated on various avant-garde projects. His favourite instrument is the Styrian, a very special kind of accordion. Apart from the wild and sometimes adventurous musical mixtures, the Alpinkatzen set great store by their lyrics.

Hubert von Goisern also proves this on the current record Aufgeigen statt niederschiassen, on which the unification of folk music roots with elements of rhythm 'n' blues has again been successful in brilliant and mind-blowing ways.

For a long time considered as a secret tip (only the "hard" fans came to the first two guest appearances in Bad Aibling too), the "Alpine Avalanche" he himself sings about, is to be held back no longer.

Augsburger Allgemeine 16th September 1994

Three hours with Hubert von Goisern and the Alpinkatzen

Photo: Wolfgang Diekamp

He was last in the Fuggerstadt in May, in between he has made a guest appearance in Paris, in Austin, Texas and New York too. We are talking about Hubert von Goisern and the Original Alpinkatzen, who also lead the otherwise rather retiring people of Augsburg to a clapping orgy at their appearance in the Kongreßhalle.

Already just after 8pm, "Hubert, Hubert", is sounding out in chorus through the Kongreßhalle, but the stage is still dark and the music is coming from a tape. The events at this point are happening behind the scenes. A fireman insists on an announcement that the holding up of lighters is strictly forbidden. Since neither the tour leader, nor the local organiser are to be moved, the uniformed man takes the microphone himself, without suspecting that he is only to be heard in the foyer at the champagne bar and in the dressing room.

An enjoyable evening

Somewhat late, the spotlight then lights up, Hubert von Goisern saunters onto the stage with his accordion, the first chords sound, as well as the first sounds of people clapping along, which last until the end of evening. A three hour concert begins, which the fans of the Austrian band visibly enjoy.

Rousing numbers like Wildschütz Räp or Goaßbeitl Bauernbuam interchange with cuddly pieces likes Weit, weit weg. The Austrian approaches the "snowman" in an amusing Kokain-Blues. Hubert von Goisern shows a very important artist fair respect with this piece. Because without the Garmisch doctor and musician Dr. Georg Ringsgwandl, there would barely be the success which formations of new folk music are currently given.

On the one hand is the rejection of old worth and music traditions, on the other the longing for certain terms. Certainly a reason that the fan base of this group is increasing so. So Hubert von Goisern's longing for home and family naturally touches you in Wieder hoam; and everyone knows what it means to be Omunduntn (Over and under) sometimes.

Catchy melodies

The quintet particularly offers a mixture - musically speaking - which is seldom reached. In contrast to bands like Attwenger, the Alpinkatzen love harmonies and catchy melodies, which subsequently shred just as passionately into a hard rap.

By the way, it may be the last time for a long time that you could go to a Hubert von Goisern concert, because the Austrian is retiring from the music business at the end of October. During a chat in the dressing room, he explained this step: "It is a heteronomous life, I don't want that any more."

At the end, the concert goes with a wonderful and intimate a cappella piece about time and love. You can't say goodbye in a better way.

Lilo Murr

18th September 2003

Photos © Toni Glaser | Click to enlarge

Source unknown 1993

There is a modern philosophy that says that through adding up the style elements something new arises; this is just the case with Hubert von Goisern and the Original Alpinkatzen. The name alone makes you smile, Mr von Goisern has really charmingly mixed and put a style of folk music punk on the stage. The whole gig was therefore split into a good many parts, but you always moved back to the stage after the breaks.

Band boss Hubert then tells amusing anecdotes, whereupon the band, depending on atmosphere, take hold of the accordion, or the electric guitar in order to scrub wild punk. We especially want to emphasise the singing artist Alpine Sabine. Her distinctive, tender appearance alone is worth the visit; apart from that her yodelling was more than powerful.

Mind you, we must cut back a little with the sometimes rather long speeches von Goisern makes, you cooled down somewhat between the pieces and were hungry for German drinking songs or punk. Whoever has missed this wild Austrian should not hesitate to go to the next tour.

Musikexpress 12 / 1994

The man has courage. At the peak of glory the innovator of folk music is packing his bags in order to henceforth dedicate himself to film. Moment of a long goodbye.

In the entrance hall of the Stuttgart Liederhalle, two young women look quite taken aback. "Are you sure that we are in the right concert here?" one asks in the face of the many people in their old age, dressed in smart leather shorts and designer Tyrolean jackets, hurrying purposefully straight to the wine bar.

No, they are guaranteed not to have arrived in Karl Moik's Musikantenstadl. It is quite right. Because: an essential characteristic of Hubert von Goisern's music is now that it attracts people of the most different ages and tastes.

And exactly now, at the highpoint of his many years of hard and slowly won popularity in Germany, the figurehead of new folk music decides to retreat from the music business?

"You know," says Hubert, "I have achieved everything, played in front of thousands of people, experienced unforgettable moments, now I simply need a new challenge. I hate the feeling of marking time."

The audience, on this evening at least, still has no idea about such plans. Hubert von Goisern scarcely stands on the stage and snaps on his beloved accordion in front of his body, before the hall is expertly howling and cheering from every corner. A few sounds squeezed from the fall of the accordion immediately arouse the suspicion that Hubert wants to make the hearts of the crimped women in the hall beat faster with a yodel. But just seconds later his band, the Alpinkatzen, intervene. Stefan Engel hammers electronic bass eighths on his keyboard and guitarist Reinhard Stranzinger immediately makes clear with a rousing solo on his Stratocaster and duckwalk à la Chuck Berry, that he can do much more than just mime the alibi guitar to tuba and alphorn.

Meanwhile Hubert von Goisern himself remains noticeably static. With red-rimmed eyes, he creeps through the beginning, really shattered by a strong cold. He is not on top form, everyone who has seen him before feels that. Other than a bubbly chatterbox of stories from the folklore sphere, he limits himself to standards today, is not as jovial as usual in the few performances between the titles, but rather thoughtful, even philosophical. So the introduction to Kuahmelcher, terribly witty on other days because it is very satirised, about the development of the driving of the cows up the alm and turbo cows with Brussels mega-udders seems gentle, the etymology of yodelling based on the isolation of the herdsmen also one to be addressed to a private circle of listeners.

Hubert von Goisern is certainly not the only one who is wrangling with his handicap. A week before, drummer Wolfgang Maier grabbed hold of a piece of broken glass and cut the tendon of his thumb. "But since he did not want to do without his beloved drums, Wolfi is playing with just one hand!" Hubert explained to the fans. In order to be prepared for all occasions, they speedily engaged Evert van der Waal as a second drummer, who supports him on a second drum set and after only two rehearsal days, contributes to the fact that the two already drum an astounding homogeneous drive.

When Hubert lets the Stones classic I Can't Get No Satisfaction leaves its mark as lead-in to Spinni, not only lovers of the Rolling Stones click their tongues. "Now I play these traditionals or folk tunes," he flirted with a pronounced American accent. The often native melodies lead again and again into crashing rock or forced blues - the German national anthem too, sung by Alpine Sabine in flawless mezzo soprano, breaking its banks into a wild alpine polka.

"Today I played more with closed eyes than open," he says later. "I had to conserve my strength in order to be able to get through the programme." Perhaps the memory in humorous interludes of hearty laughter helped him, which he always gets when he loosens up the show by means of short speeches.

"Are there are any Goiserers here?" he asks into the dark hall. "No, if there were Goiserers here, they would never say anything!" he knows his villagers from the Salzkammergut only too well and instead supplies his anecdotes from the history of the small spa town, where the residents pretend to be ill and go about consciously slowly, "only because of that, all the patients and infirm who come into this therapeutic bath feel equally better."

And again one of these grooves dominates, which sounds like a cross between Pink Floyd and Frankie Goes To Hollywood and furrows through the popular refrain. Suddenly a bright light twitches up - the show is at an end. Within seconds not only the two as notorious as they are ecstatic young visitors from row seven have demanded - lively, leaping for a full hour - but the whole hall, who demand his encore with a concentrated voice and also get it.

Furious finale: At last Hubert and the Alpinkatzen come out with the "Dicken Wadeln", for which naturally everyone had been waiting and the refrain of which is sung along to by a thousand voice choir, also without it moving one pair of lips on stage.

The concluding bow before the audience is barely over, he changed his mind again and puts the sentimental Hearst es net, wia die Zeit vergeht behind him, the last musical tears to this town so to speak, before they will be forgotten in another tomorrow.

But are they really the last tears? While the majority of the crowd are already taking themselves off in the direction of the car park, the alpine orchestra forms itself on the stage, in a semi-circle around one microphone and sings the final lullaby.

What comes after the music? "I don't know," confesses Hubert from Goisern, "Above all, I need peace in order to think about the things that are important to me personally, because during the long years of incessant tours, priorities shift."

Naturally he will miss the stage, the direct contact with the audience and also the magic of the moment. But Hubert is a restless person, a wanderer, a traveller, whom nothing and nobody can stop. "There are still a few alpine summits which I have not yet climbed, and the genre of film especially stimulates me."

This year he has played main male role in Hölleisengretl, a film of the book by Oskar Maria Graf. Apart from that, he is currently working on a screenplay. Is the departure from music irrevocably final? "Oh, who knows, perhaps it will itch me again in such a way that I can't do anything else but fall on music again. But at the moment, I feel like doing something new."

Matthias F. Mangold