Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, once a year there is country in the Hauptstadt!
It lasts three days, is the biggest country music fair in all of Europe, and it happened this weekend at the Postbahnhof! Country Music Messe 2008
My sweet FIL absolutely loves country music, and if it were not for a nasty cold that grabbed him this past week he would have been with me today as I listened to the music, walked amongst all of the "country" wares for sale, and enjoyed seeing all the "good ole' boys" in cowboy boots and hats... many of whom have NEVER even seen a horse up close and personal.
It lasts three days, is the biggest country music fair in all of Europe, and it happened this weekend at the Postbahnhof! Country Music Messe 2008
My sweet FIL absolutely loves country music, and if it were not for a nasty cold that grabbed him this past week he would have been with me today as I listened to the music, walked amongst all of the "country" wares for sale, and enjoyed seeing all the "good ole' boys" in cowboy boots and hats... many of whom have NEVER even seen a horse up close and personal.
I can't even tell you how many dreamcatchers I saw... With a closer look I found a sign "Made in China" on that blue one. Come on! Even the American Indians are losing business to China!!
There was so much crap which people thought was American... or just symbolized America. I really liked this hat which is an official United States Marine Corps hat, believe it or not...
American flags were everywhere...
... and another interesting thing... the Rebel or Confederate Flag, they were everywhere. Of course the average German just thinks it is a cool representation of the American south... they probably don't realize the negative connotation. I grew up about 30 miles north of the Mason-Dixon line, deep in the heart of the "Underground Railroad", lived in Kansas and learned Kansas history (Kansas actually kinda started the Civil War), watched Bo and Luke Duke on the TV in my youth, and have known and loved my share of black people through my lifetime ... and I find the Confederate Flag a repulsive symbol of racism and oppression. I'm sure the average good ole' Southern man will say that it is a symbol of Southern heritage or a symbol of political ideology... but for me, all I can see when I look at the "Southern Cross" is a shameful reminder of slavery and segregation. Am I crazy?
Little Miss Lucie Diamond is a Brit with a great voice, and nice power. When you think of country music, you really don't think of Great Britain, but hey, this little gal just won a country music award in her home country, and this is her second time to this event in Berlin, so she's got some staying power. I have no idea who does her production, but she's got some great musical talent surrounding her. She did a cover of Reba McEntire's "Take it Back" which stood on its own, but a reworked Dolly "9 To 5" with a heavy bluesy edge had even the staid and normally quiet Germans tappin' those expensive, rarely used cowboy boots.
The New Prohibition BandThis band is headed by a big ole son of a buck from the Great Northwest of America. He's got quite a German sounding name, Dirk Ronneburg, so I'm sure there's a reason he's come to Germany back in his history somewhere... Well, he's trying to use some German speech, but unfortunately for him, he flounders around in it about as badly as I do. Dirk contacted me through MySpace when he first was planning on coming to live in Berlin... heck that must be over a year ago... and I finally got to see him in concert! Check him out on MySpace.
Their set was mixed well between toe tappers and quiet, thinking songs. The group was three people for a long time, and just recently added three more which I think probably works better on stage. I enjoyed the music enough to buy the CD, unfortunately it is an old one, from his work in Oregon. Hopefully they will get a new one made up for us with the new group configuration!
Their set was mixed well between toe tappers and quiet, thinking songs. The group was three people for a long time, and just recently added three more which I think probably works better on stage. I enjoyed the music enough to buy the CD, unfortunately it is an old one, from his work in Oregon. Hopefully they will get a new one made up for us with the new group configuration!
Travis Truitt & FriendsHey man... don't try to fly off of the name of famous country boys... make a life for yourself and leave Travis Tritt alone! Actually there was a LOT of this... Instead of Lonestar which is a great American band, today I ran across Lonstar... geeze.
Update: Two rather rude but nonetheless more informed people stopped by here long enough to let me know that I am incorrect in my assertion that Travis Truitt is not this old boy's name. But then if his name were Klaus Meyer something just tells me that his band's name wouldn't be Klaus Meyer & Friends.
8 comments:
The post is a wee bit old, but if you want horrible juxtaposition of a Confederate flag, consider the New Orleans American Bar in Leipzig. It's a gay bar complete with a southern-New Orleans theme--dominated by the confederate flag.
It's just plain wrong.
I was there Friday night... it hasn't changed since I wrote my original post.
a country music festival in berlin...bizarre and entretaining...
it's my first time here and i like ur blog. greetings from tel aviv :)
At times I've been stunned by the germans' fascination with/ignorance of the south...
I have a reaction similar to yours with regard to the stars and bars...it's a filthy rag
(found your blog from adams referral)
My band, The Monuments performed at CMM Berlin and we had a great time.
We played on the Saturday night on the Countrymusic24.com stage.
Did you know that this event has a 'baby-brother' in Nuremberg in November each year?
Tja, manche Leute möchten die Wahrheit nicht hören und löschen dann einfach die Comments. Und machen dann auch noch blöde Kommentare drüber.-
Übrigens - ich wette meinen Ar..., dass dieser Kommentar auch gelöscht wird.
TRAVIS TRUITT IST TRAVIS TRUITT UND KEIN FAKE - DER REST VON DEUTSCHLAND HAT DAS INZWISCHEN GEMERKT UND DASS TRAVIS TRUITT MINDESTENS GENAUSO GUT IST WIE SEIN ETWAS JUENGERER NAMENSVETTER TRAVIS TRITT.
Ha - wer hat hier den Namen geklaut?
Übrigens: die CD von Travis Truitt mit den Songs von Travis Truitt und Daniel T. Coates hat in Österreich den Award zur Interantionalen CD des Jahres gewonnen!!!!
OK, Yes I deleted two rather mean spirited comments, one of them from an Anonymous person... These people both were quite rude, very much like the person in the comment before.
I then added the text to the bottom of my post which said that I was wrong and that I can only assume Travis Truitt is the guy's real name.
That is all I will do.
Any more silly comments and you bet your "Ar..." they will be deleted.
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