Blues
Fankhauser's Love Man Riding listed among best cds of 2008 in Downbeat's January 2009 issue!!
Fankhauser records outstanding albums in his home country Switzerland without being an outstanding singer himself. Within parameters, he works wonders with shadings and dynamics, and, as shown by seven selections on his 11th album, he has a gift for writing richly sonorous and sophisticated songs about secure, broken or quixotic relationships.
Fankhauser also plays superb guitar on „Lonely In This Town.“ He’s fortunate to have Dennis Walker, once an associate of Robert Cray, contributing choice material and producing. Walker makes sure ex-Cray bassist Richard Cousins and the other supporting musicians compact soul and blues in the service of the song, no matter the tempo or mood.
By Frank Hadley.
**
Philipp Fankhauser is a Swiss blues singer/guitarist who experienced Top Ten success in his homeland after two decades of recording activity. Born in 1964 in Thun, Switzerland, he began playing music during the late '70s after taking an unlikely interest in the blues as a teenager. His interest in the blues was compounded after he attended the 1981 Montreux Jazz Festival, where he witnessed firsthand a performance by Albert Collins. Other American blues legends he saw at the Montreux Jazz Festival during the early '80s included such luminaries as B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In particular, a 1984 performance by Johnny "Clyde" Copeland left a lasting impression on Fankhauser; in fact, the two became acquainted and the Texas legend became a mentor to the Swiss novice, whose performance career was becoming a full-time occupation around this time period.
In 1987 Fankhauser founded the Checkerboard Blues Band and began touring throughout Switzerland, playing dozens of shows a year. The Checkerboard Blues Band featured vocalist Margie Evans, and made their recording debut in 1989 with Blues for the Lady, which Fankhauser produced and on which he also sang. The Checkerboard Blues Band -- sans Evans -- returned in 1991 with their second album, With a Feeling; two other albums by the band followed -- Dedicated (1992) and the live album Thun-San Francisco (1994), the latter featuring Evans -- before Fankhauser recorded the solo album On Broadway (1995) in Memphis with producer/songwriter Dennis Walker. Beginning in 1994, Fankhauser resided in the United States, where he toured with his mentor, Copeland, until the Texan's death in 1997. In the meantime, a best-of album, His Kind of Blues (1996), was compiled as a gap-filler.
Fankhauser subsequently returned to Switzerland in 2000 and resurrected the Checkerboard Blues Band for a new album, Welcome to the Real World (2000). Following a live album by the Philipp Fankhauser Blues Band, the trio showcase Live -- So Damn Cool (2003), Fankhauser signed a recording contract with Memphis International Records and proceeded to release Talk to Me (2004), a solo album recorded in Memphis with producer David Less. Fankhauser then signed with Funk House Blues, a Sony BMG subsidiary, and released his most commercially successful albums to date: Watching from the Safe Side (2006) and Love Man Riding (2008), the former of which was a Top 20 hit on the Swiss albums chart, the latter a Top Ten hit.
By Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide.
**
Tosho Yakkatokuo- Drums
Hendrix Ackle- Hammod B3 & Piano
Marco Jencarelli- Guitar
Richard Cousins- Bass
Jim Pugh- Hammond B3
Alan Mirikitani- Guitar
Michael Vannice- Saxophone
Lee Thornburg- Trumpet
Ira Nepus- Trombone
Tom Peterson- Saxophone & Arrangements
Stephan Eicher- Guitar & Dulcimer
Luis Conte- Percussion
Philipp Fankhauser- Vocals & Guitar
**
01. Love Man Riding 3:51
02. I'm Finished Here 4:13
03. I Got A Love 5:55
04. Lonely In This Town 4:04
05. You Caught Me Off Guard 4:37
06. I Didn't See (The Best Of You) 3:46
07. Rio de Janeiro Blue 5:09
08. One Of Them 5:16
09. Call On Me 4:59
10. Are You Outta Your Head? 3:18
11. Easy For You To Say 4:47
12. The Sundown 7:35
**
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