Folk music in Bern: New album by Hank Shizzoe

“The musical tradition no longer plays a real role”

Why the Bernese roots guitarist no longer wants to talk about authentic music and why his fans are people with stereo systems and mortgages.

Samuel Mumenthaler

Published today at 3:49 p.m

The American among the Bernese musicians: Hank Shizzoe is known beyond Switzerland as one of the best roots musicians.

Photo: PD / Reto Camenisch

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Shortly:

The Bernese Hank Shizzoe is considered a great roots guitarist beyond Switzerland. Now he has released his 17th album.
He produced the album “One More Day” in his own studio.
Luke Bulla from Nashville significantly shapes the sound of the new album with his fiddle contributions.

“The essence of folk music is universal,” says Hank Shizzoe. “You don’t have to have grown up in a hut in the Appalachians to play them.” The guitarist, who enjoys a reputation beyond Switzerland as one of the best roots musicians, is the American among Bernese musicians. His albums – the new work “One More Day” is already number 17 in a long career – smell more of prairie grass than of alpine roses.

On his first record, a vinyl EP from 1991, Thomas Erb presented himself as a double for the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson. At that time he invented his pseudonym Hank Shizzoe, which probably also alludes to a certain conflict in finding his musical identity. The fact that someone who has made a cute Zähringer town on the Aare his adopted home puts his album on the Internet platform Bandcamp as “Americana” shows that there is a lot to explain. would have to be explained. Hank Shizzoe has little interest in discussions about “authentic” music.

A pissed off song researcher

“Musical tradition doesn’t really play a role anymore,” believes Hank Shizzoe. “American music is widespread, access is now possible everywhere, whether in Ohio, Stockholm or Chile.” He himself grew up with the songs of the blues pioneer Blind Blake and the early country star Hank Williams. When Shizzoe intones folk traditionals on his new album, sways to a Western swing or sings ballads while reflecting on the world in accent-free English, there is nothing strange about it.

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As a keen song researcher, Shizzoe has this music in his blood. If one of the 17 albums has been recorded (and there is even more material in the archives, such as an unreleased blues album), the question arises as to the motivation to add another one. “In view of the self-destructive music market, I didn’t even think about recording another album,” he is quoted as saying.

But a tour with the Irish-born Bernese Shirley Grimes, on which the two interpreted songs that have shaped their biographies, awakened the desire to go back into the studio. In Shizzoe’s case, that basically means staying within your own four walls. Because the sound fetishist has long been producing his (and other) records in his own studio.

Carte blanche for Nashville fiddlers

This time the bandleader and his musicians mostly record the songs live and as a collective. In addition to Shizzoe’s band with Tom Etter (guitars), Michel Poffet (bass) and Simon Baumann (drums), the sessions also included guests such as the Solothurn organist Ben Jeger and Christian Brantschen on the piano.

The contributions of fiddler Luke Bulla, a virtuoso who lives in the country mecca of Nashville and is constantly on the move there, are formative – US stars such as Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs and even Kevin Costner are among his customer base. Hank Shizzo disappeared across the pond for a few songs and gave Bulla a kind of carte blanche – something neither he nor the audience will regret.

Hank Shizzoe actually didn’t want to record any more albums given the self-destructive music market.

Photo: PD / Luis Gautschi

The sessions in Shizzoe’s Bern studio may have been “domestic”, but the 13 songs on “One More Day” are more distant. The music sounds like a departure, about being on the move in previously unknown areas – and about arriving after a long, strenuous journey.

Thoughtfulness runs through the album. After an unexpected, bone-dry rock start, acoustic guitars, lap steel, banjo, Luke Bulla’s fiddle and folky melodies that Shizzoe repeatedly shares with Shirley Grimes dominate. The vocal pair intones traditionals like “Shenandoah” or “Wayfaring Stranger” and lets themselves be carried away by the melodious longing of folk.

A dying species?

The cover of “One More Day” shows a stylized lone bison that Shizzoe photographed on a trip to the US. A representative of a dying breed, just like an analogue roots guitarist like Hank Shizzoe? Shizzoe definitely consciously celebrates the anachronism of an album that will be more than the sum of its parts and comes from a single source. “My audience is an interested audience,” he says, and he knows that many of his fans, “people with stereos and mortgages,” remain loyal to him. That’s why you can’t stream “One More Day” on the internet; the album is only available on CD, double vinyl and as a paid download.

Hank Shizzoe has also taken his business destiny into his own hands. There are no “One More Day” concerts yet because it takes some time to find a date with his busy musicians. Meanwhile, Shizzoe is already thinking about album number 18, which will be folk and country/western through and through. “The rocking songs on ‘One More Day’ surprised me,” smiles the guitarist. “I actually thought I was done with rock.”

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topicnews · September 30, 2024

Folk music in Bern: New album by Hank Shizzoe

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