Hubert von Goisern - TRAD II Tour 2004

Folk in jazzy clothes at the castle

Aachener Zeitung 4th August 2004 | Text: Ralph Allgaier

Hubert von Goisern Würselen. Loriot's yodel school came to life again on the Burg Wilhelmstein stage. But, oh, the Rhine audience didn't manage when alpine rocker Hubert von Goisern prepared to bring the Westzipflers closer to the old communicative sounds of their homeland. Only a meagre echo came back from his witty "holeradiridiridirida".

But despite this "flop", a wonderful evening lay before the sold-out house. You don't have to understand everything that comes from the Austrian.

When the Goiserer tells his stories is his inimitably casual manner, you sometimes wish you had subtitles, and you only understand a little of the lyrics - which isn't a bad thing, as, according to Hubert, often enough they don't really make sense "because the author was probably under the influence of drugs at the time of writing".

With such ironic distance, but quite respectfully, von Goisern approaches the old folk songs of the Salzkammergut on his current tour Trad II. His interpretations certainly have nothing to do with the stupid droning of any Musikantenstadl.

Striking turn

The pieces begin very traditionally, almost like the in the alpine huts. But then they take a striking turn, the "hunter mocking song" or the 84 year old yodel melody flows into a tearing guitar solo, a powerful groove, supported by turbulently jazzy drums.

It's brilliant how the old folk songs, in which von Goisern recognises an important core for all music, merges with elements of rock, with a breath of Afro pop or oriental motifs.

Multi-instrumentalist von Goisern impresses above all on the "Styrian", an accordion, from which he elicits the greatest rhythms and sounds in a sometimes crazy tempo and still leaps wildly about the stage. But his arts would only be worth half as much without his consistently excellent fellow combatants.

Remarkable above all is discreetly anarchic-looking the Monika Drasch, a talented violinist, clarinetist, bagpipe player and singer with fire-red hair, who once cause a sensation with Bairisch-Diatonischer Jodelwahnsinn. It's sensational, how she starts a wild yodel duet with von Goisern with shifting voices and they both look deep into each other's eyes.

Max Lässer on a variety of guitars and Arnulf Lindner as the sensitive bass guitar and double bass player were also top class. Not to forget Bernd Bechtloff as the singing drummer who is never at a loss for a new idea and even lets his hands fly across biscuit tins and wooden boxes. At the end came the eternally young Hiatamadl. The standing applauding auditorium barely wanted to let its stars leave the stage.

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

6th August 2004 | Photos: © Michael Bamberger

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

Photo: © Michael Bamberger

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

Photo: © Michael Bamberger

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

Photo: © Michael Bamberger

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

Photo: © Michael Bamberger

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

Photo: © Michael Bamberger

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Weissenburg - 31st July 2004

Photo: © Michael Bamberger

Prime substance of musical expression

Passauer Neue Presse 3rd August 2004 | Text: Stefan Rammer

Folk music as world music - 4500 people at two Hubert von Goisern concerts in Passau

"Znachst hon i de ganze Nochd Eiszapfn brennt" ("Recently I burned icicles the whole night), he sings and says it's probably quite a mad story he's telling. But it suits the history of Hubert von Goisern's music, he knows where he has come from and therefore singlemindedly goes his musical way into the future. He comes from Goisern at the foot of the Dachstein and so calls himself Hubert von Goisern, and like his famous compatriot Gustav Mahler, he has spiritualised: "Tradition is the passing on of fire, not the worship of ashes". And like the composer, Hubert von Goisern draws strength from Austrian folk music. And from the ashes rises the phoenix of folk music, which become world music.

The good 2700 people at the open air at the Passau Domplatz on Sunday evening (it was 1800 yesterday) were offered something absolutely breathtaking. The world was visiting in its best sense. From the Alps, it went into the Himalayas, into the Scottish highlands, into the Australian bush. The country dance becomes entwined with rap, yodelling marries the blues, and the Steirer even searches for the closeness of funk. The Mississippi is as near as the Tibetan highlands and the Irish pub. And in the stories Goisern tells in between, the woodcutter Kohler comes alive, the hunter and the jumping chamois, it becomes clear how deeply the musician from the Salzkammergut is rooted in his homeland.

"Oans, zwoa, drei, hob di stad, dass di ned obidraht" ("one, two, three, hold still, so you don't fall"). The lyrics that are easy to understand in Lower Bavaria meanwhile grow into Esperanto, which all fans of the best music understand. And "anyone falls" off their chair. The yodel is lamentations and lovers' oaths, it's an attitude to life in any case. "A yodel a day keeps the doctor away" it means jokingly and Goisern says seriously that you can cast out Beelzebub with yodelling. And so he rushes about the stage with Monika Drasch with tongue-snapping rising vocal mountains 8000 metres high.

What is handed down is taken seriously and changed as respectfully as it is passionately. He can be coarse, sentimental, erotic too and also socially critical, and like his musicians he is a genius at originality, spontaneity and joy of experimentation. The electric guitar cries out, rocking drums enter the country dance and all the instruments nearly become hypnotists, kidnapping you into the meditative world of sound.

Hubert von Goisern sings, plays the accordion, harmonica, Jews' harp, guitar and trumpet. Max Lässer shines on guitars, lap steel and dobro, Bernd Bechtloff does all the drum work and conjures up Eastern flair. Arnulf Lindner plays the double bass and bass guitar and Monika Drasch from Deggendorf reaches top form with violin and voice as well as bagpipes and a variety of flutes. Each actor has a master and nevertheless they fit together under Goisern's direction. And again he lets each have their space. The scenery of the Krippenstein, the high plateau in the Dachstein massif, as a slide projection in the large stage was not necessarily needed. The imposing lit cathedral would have been scenery enough. Oh what the hell, the audience between 3 and 83 enjoyed the guest appearance by the musical globetrotter to the full. So beautiful open airs can be, so beautiful folk music can be. There should be more such events at the Domplatz. If music is the switching of spiritual life to the sensual, then there's nothing more uniting than the prime substance of the musical expression of Hubert Achleitner from Bad Goisern.

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Augsburg - 26th July 2004

5th August 2004 | Photos: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Augsburg - 26th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Augsburg - 26th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Augsburg - 26th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Augsburg - 26th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

World music in front of impressive scenery

Passauer Neue Presse 2nd August 2004 | Text: Hans-Peter Hoeren | Photo: Thomas Jaeger

2000 people cheer Hubert von Goisern and his band at the Domplatz

Excellent world music on a lukewarm summer evening, in front of a wonderful backdrop: there was all that yesterday evening at the appearance by Hubert von Goisern and his four member band at the Domplatz. Around 2000 people clapped, moved in time and danced enthusiastically with the first big nonclassical concert in front of the cathedral. It was the mixture of down-to-earth, traditional folk music with pop rhythms, with rhythm and blues and also with a bit of Africa, which really amounted to the attraction of the evening. Goisern's long drawn out joyful yodels are sent out interweaved with the sounds of trumpet, blues harp, an unleashed accordion, electric guitar, percussion or violin - folk music with a modern sound. "Sure, it's hard to understand, if you can't get it, make up your own story," the musician advised the audience after half an hour, but the rousing rhythms were enough for them anyway.

Moving together for Hubert von Goisern

Marktplatz Oberbayern 25th July 2004 | Text : mf

Rathausplatz crowded on both concert evenings

Unterschleißheim - Sold-out twice: When Hubert von Goisern yodels, sings and mixes folk with modern in the open air, then the Rathausplatz in Unterschleißheim is also full on both evenings. 1500 seats and 1200 standing room tickets - the tickets went like never before, and that was also down to the weather; the alpine rocker brought the sun with him in his rucksack. Which surprised him too: "After such a long time, another day where it's not raining and cold - Unterschleißheim will be remembered well." Because it was so beautifully warm, the audience had equipped themselves with water bottles - and promptly met with resistance from the stewards. They took the water bottles from the audience at the entrance, and the organiser then put right the disagreement: Karlheinz Zierold, manager of Forum GmbH praised the security, but he also quite clearly recognised: "You lot don't look like an audience who smash bottles." Finally the stewards came out with the collected bottles again, and also for the few guests who were searching for the seats they had paid for, Zierold went to the microphone and asked the people on the benches: "move together a bit on the field, then it'll work."

Yodelling to the sound of the silver-green sparkling squeezebox, percussion, violin, zither and cello - it goes to your ears and everybody understands it too. It's more difficult with the lyrics: "yeah, it's difficult to understand," Hubert von Goisern admitted. "But it's not down to the dialect, but rather the content and the inner alpine poetry," he said and remarked in a relaxed manner: "If you don't understand what it's about, simply find your own story."

And so he sings about the Schwaigerin - no, that's not a Schwägerin (sister-in-law), but a Sennerin (dairymaid) -, mocks "an appalling umbrella", combines folk music with the sounds of the South Seas and lets the melody of his impossible to miss hit A Hiatamadl mog i net resonate. With elements of rock and a breath of the Caribbean or a pinch of Africa, Hubert von Goisern also makes folksy music attractive to young people again. Jews' harp, electric bass, mouth organ and drums are combined and give the traditional a modern and typical Goisern sound. This music creates atmosphere and goes right through you.

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd & 24th July 2004

31st July 2004 | Photos: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 23rd July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 24th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 24th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

Hubert von Goisern: Live in Benediktbeuern - 24th July 2004

Photo: © Elli Christl

"Yodelling is healthy"

Tölzer Kurier 26th July 2004 | Text: Ines Gokus

Hubert von Goisern delights twice in the Maierhof

Benediktbeuern. "Hubert, you're the best", a female voice calls from one of the front rows. But von Goisern modestly says: "I'm only as good as we all are." Hubert von Goisern's concert on Friday in the Maierhof of the Benediktbeuern cloister was a real pleasure - simply because everything worked. Great music, lukewarm summer evening and dancing glow worms, the view of the crescent moon between the two onion domes of the monastery church and an artist who is harmonious with himself and his music. He has travelled far in his life and he has collected musical souvenirs everywhere. So it's not simply just old Austrian tunes or traditional yodels he sings, a little something different always resonates. A little wanderlust, a bit of humility, but the message that "home" is above all in the heart and is something very special is overriding. Von Goisern is now 51, but in the fashionably casual creased look, his nature boy attractiveness is brought fully to bear. That is possibly also the reason behind his mark of favour with women.

Always in close contact with his musicians Bernd Bechtloff (drums/percussion), Monika Drasch (violin, vocals), Max Lässer (guitar) and Arnulf Lindner (bass), he covers the range between earthy folk music and music which is at home anywhere in the world. Bass solo and electric guitar are deployed as are the accordion, tender sounds from the violin or mystical percussion jingles, everything interweaved in such a way with the traditional sounds that a sound full of depth, but also full of grace arises.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" he asks his audience and warns: "Time and again there are passages which will remain cryptic to you." Which isn't just down to the singer's dialect, but above all the primitive content of the old lyrics, whose sense is not always totally opened up. So with lyrics like "znagst han i die ganze Nacht Eiszapfen brennt, und koa Mensch hat's ned kennt, dass koane Wachskerzen send" ("recently I burned icicles the whole night, and nobody realised that they weren't candles") you can enjoy them totally cluelessly - if you understand them.

The roughly 2500 people in the Maierhof listened raptly but relatively still, which seemed to confuse Goisern: "Is it down to the monastery that you're all so quiet?" But the "Doigen" are also almost a mountain folk and as such, they wait first. And then there's a thing with the seats at a concert. You would like to join in, but you can't really and it can be a moment before the band and audience are one. "Now we'll do a joint yodel. Now the time has come," Goisern decided after three quarters of an hour of concert - and whoever didn't know it, knows it now: yodelling is healthy and nothing can happen to you if you let out a yodel once a day.

Finally, he let himself be carried away with Hiatamadl, although he once said that he would never play the song live again. You really can't reduce him to this popular melody. But you must nevertheless sing along.