Stories of love, life and everyday life – always told and sung up close: that’s what nuremberg singer christine von bieren and her band "A pocketful of blues" stand for. This winter the fifth album has been released. "Neier dooch" it’s called and it’s the first in franconian dialect.
By: tobias fohrenbach
To say it right away, this band here doesn’t have it, the corona blues, at least not musically. Here it’s optimistic, cheerful and lively. No wonder, the opening title of the disc is "ledsder schulldooch".
"The atmosphere on the last day of school is always so exhilarating, before the big vacations. One has always made something special. And it was always a huge hustle and bustle in front of the school, because everyone always picked up their children by car. Great atmosphere always."
Christine von bieren, singer
New album – recorded in a private living room
good mood also with christine von bieren, alias "chrissie the cat", for 25 years frontwoman and songwriter of the formation "A pocketful of blues" from the nuremberg metropolitan region. Why so cheerful? Because you and your bandmates have actually managed to record a new album, and as is the case for so many other bands, under adverse circumstances. may, june 2021 – culture lockdown, sanitation requirements, etc. All very confusing and uncertain, so they set up a recording session in a private living room.
"It was somehow like taking a lid off a pot that has been under pressure for a long time. That’s how I felt, that’s how it went down. It was like at the gig, because everything had to come out. It made everything so alive."
Christine von bieren, singer
All titles are dialect pieces
And that’s what you get when you leaf through the new album. Capturing the blues in all its diversity, always the band’s recipe for success. fast boogie-woogie and rock n roll numbers alternate with slow ballads, relaxed titles, chansons, even a wonderful bossa-nova detour is included. So far so pleasantly routine. This time, however, the four musicians are breaking new ground in a completely different area. Because all the song titles are dialect pieces.
"I had 16 songs ready, they were in english and some of them we had already played live. And I thought I’d record a CD now, but I didn’t feel like it, it was all so well-worn. The spark was missing. And in the corona time you had a lot of time and then I started to playfully translate the pieces into franconian and then I had so much fun with it. Also singing and finding out what sounds good, what can be used. And then suddenly everything was really exciting again."
Christine von bieren, singer
a special listening experience of the regional kind, also for the inclined jazz and blues lover, that’s for sure. You have to listen to this album, you have to let the connection between the musical style and the dialect sink in. In some places this works better, in others less well. There are one or two numbers where the vocals are a bit too much in the background and you have to listen very carefully to understand everything. But most of the time the character of the songs helps you over this obstacle and if you want it to go down in tutti, then it can go down. no matter what it costs. What stands out positively is the inner attitude of the singer to the songs she has written. Dialect brings a completely different closeness, says singer christine von bieren, a wonderful experience.
"So close that you prefer to sing some songs in the third person rather than in the first person. Because you think it’s so personal. What I did not want in any case was a so schenkelklopferfrankisch. But it also works poetically and you have many facets."
Christine von bieren, singer
Hope for many live performances
A bit of dawdling, living the day to the full, that may sometimes apply to the private person christine von bieren, but not to the musician, because this album was recorded in just two days. An intense live session, where the guitarist liked to stand up when he played a solo – just like live in front of an audience. And exactly these common experiences between musicians and listeners should be possible again more often in 2022, so the hope of the band "A pocketful of blues". So far, they have only been able to serve this extraordinary melange of dialect and blues to their fans once, and most of them seem to have enjoyed it.
"One is then always, when doing something new, hesitant. That comes? We had a performance last year at ‘blues will eat’ in the beer garden of the Z-bau. And there were all the old warhorses of the blues scene and they all sing in english. And then we were just the band with Franconian lyrics, but that went down well with the audience. you could see that in the reactions, that it is so exciting for the people, because they understand what the lyrics are about. I have also written songs in english that have funny and critical lyrics, but I always had the feeling that people didn’t really know what they were talking about."
Christine von bieren, singer
Blues in Franconian – wonderfully refreshing
it was blues legend john lee hooker who once said: "the blues has existed since the world began. The blues is the root of music, everything is built around it, and everything has its origin there. Blues is the story of man and woman."with this CD "neier dooch" of the formation "A pocketful of blues" this story is now told further, but this time in franconian. And that is wonderfully refreshing.