Darmstadt Blues week

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Robert Cotton

Hello Friends,

Just a little note on a resent “The Fabulous Robert Cotton band” performance.
We were invited to perform in Darmstadt Germany on 24 November for the “Darmstadt Blues Week” The club that we had the pleasure of entertaining at is “Der RABE” (The Raven). Der Rabe is a very nice little Music club that usually lays down some nice classic rock sounds with their house DJ. But for the Darmstadt Blues Week, we were hired to “get that house jump’n”. And that’s just what we did. I brought my usual posy: Berni “The Burn Man” on Bass guitar and Sascha on Drums. As a special treat for the local Blues Fans, I invited my friend Philly Long to dance a little on the Keyboard. We were scheduled to start at 21:00. The house was packed and ready to Jump by 20:30. Another long time friend of mine Michael Sharkt was also on hand. Michael is the Darmstadt Blues watch dog. He keeps the Blues alive locally with news letters and a Radio program that he Hosts once a week. ……..the Blues is definitely in him….. Michael opened the Blues week and introduced us to the local Blues Fans. We started the session with some traditional warm up music courtesy, “Green Onions / You got to Help me”. Added some Shuffle, a pinch of Swing, squeeze of Blues Rock, jigger of R&B and the crowd was ours. We were scheduled to perform for two hours but as they say, the customer is always right, so we played an additional set to the pleasure of the residents in the Upstairs apartments…….When the 3rd set was closing out the crowd began to demand an encore. I sent an eye over to the boss at Der Rabe, Fino, looking for an OK to continue. He signaled “One more song” That’s It!. The audience responded with applause and cheers when we got back on stage and picked up our instruments. We finished up the night with a long version of the Muddy Waters classic “I Just Want to Make Love To you”.

It was a great night of Blues for all the Blues fans in Darmstadt as well as a pleasure for the Fabulous Robert Cotton band to bring our Music to Darmstadt.

Thanks Michael, Fino…….. Darmstadt Blues Lovers!
See Y’all next time around.

Robert Cotton & The Fabulous Robert Cotton band

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His Majesty

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Robert Cotton

Last night, we in the Frankfurt area were honored by an appearance of His Majesty, the King of the Blues, Mr. BB King.

He offered us 1 1/2 hours of Blues, new and old. It was some what sad to see the King of Blues slowing down and becoming the senior diplomat of Blues Music. Of course we were glad he decided to come by and treat us to his Blues, and his sweet Lucille one more time

I have seen BB perform many times through the years and can testify that he has always been and remains the ultimate showman. After his last visit which was billed as …..the last hurrah…… so to say, we thought we would never see The Great BB King again……..

But as it often happens with Blues singers…. “goodbye” does not always mean “Goodbye”. Some times its more like , as they say in the German language “Auf Wiedersehen” translated: “Here’s to when we meet again”. And so it was with BB King. The opening act, well, at best the band was tolerable.

They made such an impression on me that I can’t even remember their name. They appeared to have practiced and choreographed every hand move, facial mimic, and gesture. I don’t know how to categorize the act but i can say that passionate blues performers they were not. Very artificial. Some how the soul of the Music was left on the tour bus if you know what I mean. My frau and I listened to a song and a half, looked at each other with disbelief and headed for the exit to have a beer and a cigarette. How this group was selected to be the opening act for BB king I’ll never know. Singer must be the brother in law of the producer or something….. I just don’t get it. Bad call on the part of the organizers……….curtain closes on the opening act. In any case the evening was saved as soon as the BB king orchestra hit the first note. You new the weather was about to improve. And so it did. It was, as always when the king comes to town an entertaining night of Blues, Blues Stories and Blues history. Even at 83 years old, BB and his gang held the audience for the full hour and half. One thing I could not understand however was that the crowd did not bring him back for an an cour. I have never seen this before in all the concerts I’ve attended over the years…and I have seen my share. Here we have the senior diplomat of the blues, he is 83 years old, he dedicated his life to the Music we love and came to see him perform, we may not see him here again, he just got through giving us his best for 1 and 1/2 hours. …. the crowd was courteous on the last song and gave BB a nice round of applause …………. they then got up out of their seats and headed for the door………….the crowd could not bring them selves to honor him with a call to “encore”………. shame on you. Shame on you.

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In memory of Wil Ripley

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Robert Cotton

Hello friends. This past week I received news that one of Frankfurt’s premiere musician / song writer and friend Wil Ripley has passed away. Wil was a staple in the Frankfurt Music scene for more than 20 years. I met Wil about 7 years ago when I first arrived in Germany and was working my way through the who is who in the Frankfurt Blues scene. 

Through the years I had a few opportunities to perform with Wil but more than that we developed Musical respect for one another and a friendship. In recent past Wil and I spoke about cooperating on a project. We wanted to join forces , voices and guitars and concur the Frankfurt scene. ……….. unfortunately Wil’s personal demons would not allow him to continue on this path. He fought the good fight with an internal foe that ultimately took over all aspects of his life. At one point, we all thought that he had won his battle and was on the road to recovery. After making some very difficult changes in his life, many of us thought he was back. He was 100%, writing Music performing in all the best locations, voice A1…..

But this success was temporary. His opponent took over his body and mind ……… and took him from us.

Wil Ripley,
…………. rest in peace my friend…………………

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