About Blues on the levee
We are pleased to announce the 2nd edition of BLUES AM DEICH – Blues on the Levee, inviting you to join us again, on September 4th 2009, for an outdoor evening of Blues/Soul music, on the main Elbe Levee, at Gerwerbepark Grünendeich (“Pioplatz”) near Stade/Altes Land. BLUES AM DEICH 2009 will stay on course using black music as the backbone of a multicultural festival in Germany. This time, it is to be an evening of Blues/soul extravaganza featuring FLEUR EARTH EXPERIMENT, BIG DADDY WILSON and Special Guest SIVAN PERWER.
The philosophy of Blues am Deich is to go beyond style and to dig deeper into the feeling. Last year, we borrowed an old saying from Son House, a legendary Bluesman, “One has to have the blues to sing the blues.” This year, we will present an artist who defines the saying – far from its Southern US delta origin, an artist who symbolizes the spirit of Kurdish cultural struggle – SIVAN PERWER. His songs have travelled on the banks of the Euphrates River through Kurdish territories the same way Son House’s did travel from the Mississippi River to the big cities.
As the most famous Kurdish musician SIVAN PERWER is widely recognized as an extremely charismatic and talented artist. Armed with his vocal pitch and an array of string instruments strongly resembling traditional blues instruments, Perwer peacefully advocates for the rights of his people. In 1991, Perwer appeared at the “Simple Truth” Live Aid Concert at the Wembley Stadium in London alongside Peter Gabriel, Sting, Paul Simon and Tom Jones to raise awareness of the situation of the Kurdish population.
The festival will furthermore have a strong representation of Afropean artists. We are delighted to have attracted highly promising acts from the Afro-German musical community. They will sing in German promising to make this a night in which the German language is put to the soul-aptitude test: FLEUR EARTH EXPERIMENT (FEX) is a Cologne based group, whose lead singer Fleur Earth has inserted her Afropean attributes into a musical format that would have made a contemporary Wolfgang Goethe proud. FEX’S magical potion is the laying of timely German lyrics on a bed of authentically arranged soul music – at times coated with reggae flavor. Der Spiegel Online puts it this way: “This is soul with lots of groove and a critical agenda: something we usually only know from the US. The Afro-German Fleur Earth could now become the German Erykah Badu – With creative lyrics and a powerful sound.“ FEX will feature tracks from their newly released „Soul des Cabots“ album (Melting Pot Records).
Representing the African American factor, with its hegemony on the global black culture, BIG DADDY WILSON will introduce his new album “Love is the key,” (Ruf Records). As Thomas Dorsey and Skip James did, Wilson transcends the Mojo Pouch versus the Bible dichotomy. Coming from a strong tradition of Gospel music Wilson has managed to bridge the church and the crossroad-blues music erupting into a powerful spiritual performance on stage. “…the most important thing with Blues is, what you feel, it’s not all about the show or a certain style, Blues is a feeling. I want the people to feel me,” says Wilson “ I want to take them by the hand, and take them back home with me, down the dirt roads of North Carolina.” Wilson D.
