Richard Bargel with Klaus 'Major' Heuser & Band - Live [Meyer Records 180g DoLP] 24-bit/96kHz & CD-compatible format

Well-known cabaret artist Anka Zink is hosting a talk show at the "Harmonie." Amongst the guests are veteran German blues musician Richard Bargel and former BAP guitarist Klaus "Major" Heuser. As requested, both men have arrived with guitar in hand: A little music after the chat, if you please! But Bargel & Heuser deviate from the script, doing something no one has asked them to. They perform as a duo. For the first time ever! And what a performance it is! The audience, quiet and reserved to that point, suddenly becomes an enthusiastic, loudly cheering blues crowd. Little do they know they are witnessing the birth of an ingenious blues duo now known officially as Bargel & Heuser!

The two musicians are like soulmates, bound by a passion for the blues based on a shared understanding of the music. Their own music is characterized by a willingness to play creatively and improvise on the spot, pushing each other forward from one climax to the next. Everything they do is based on mutual respect. Neither of them has anything left to prove. With their music, they aim to create a mood, generate tension, send a chill down your spine with a single note played at just the right moment, or elicit a musical explosion that grabs the audience and pulls them from their seats.

The repertoire includes many of Bargel's own compositions – songs that have twice earned him the illustrious "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik" award – plus a selection of traditional blues. Awe-inspiring slow blues numbers alternate with up-tempo, highly rhythmic urban blues, emotional ballads are juxtaposed beautifully with Mississippi blues songs played on slide guitar and dobro. A touch of country music is in the mix, as are elements of gospel, soul and American folk song. Klaus "Major" Heuser is the man behind many of BAP's legendary compositions. He knows how to arrange a song and make the most of the instrumentation. These skills, as well as his finely tuned sense for guitar accompaniment, do not take away from Bargels elemental Blues, but rather add a new and fascinating musical dimension.




Tracklisting:

Side A
1 Double Dirty Mother (Roosevelt Sykes) 4:33
2 Last One In The Row (Richard Bargel) 5:13
3 Bad Bad Whiskey (Maxwell & Adelina Davis) 7:22

Side B
4 Doing Time ”Bochum Prison Blues” (Richard Bargel) 4:37
5 Empire State Express (Son House) 5:28
6 Losing Hand (Charles Calhoun) 10:01

Side C
7 In The Pines (Trad./Richard Bargel) 4:14
8 There's A Man Going Around Taken Names 4:26 (Trad./Richard Bargel)
9 What' s The Matter Now (Trad./Richard Bargel) 4:13

Side D
10 The Family (John Hurley/Ronnie Wilkins) 5:57
11 Anytime You Want (Richard Bargel) 11:36

Personnel

Richard Bargel: vocals, dobro, acoustic guitar
Klaus 'Major' Heuser: electric guitars
Sascha Delbrouck: electric & acoustic bass
Marcus Rieck: drums

Recording Engineer: Wolfgang Feder
FOH mix: Sebastian Schreyer
Mixed and mastered by Wolfgang Feder at Tonstudio Feder
DMM-Mastering by Pauler acoustic
Produced by Werner Meyer for MEYER RECORDS

Personal Note

With my vinyl rips I try to catch the whole beauty of records. Therefore I don't use any post-processing or any sound improver. What you get is a clear and flat transfer.
For getting a clear sound I'll do an extended washing of each record with my RCM, which can take up to 30 minutes brushing for each side. Resistant ticks and clicks I try to remove as good as possible, but the priority is not to loose any musical information.
Surface noises, as long they are not to high, are left in place. Only on bad pressings or on records recorded with extremly low level I do a fade in-/-out. As John Peel said, 'Life is full of surface noises'.
In some cases this means I have to do a compromise... The result has to pass my personal quality criteria which is IMO quite high.