John Kirkbride
John Kirkbride ( born February 17, 1946 in Ullapool in the north west of Scotland ) is a Scottish singer, ( slide ) guitarist, songwriter and entertainer.
It is indicative of Kirk Brides live performances that he produces by authentic blues music a close relationship with the audience, by embracing it with anecdotes and witty, sometimes even socially critical asides. In his concerts he plays blues and jazz standards from the 20s, 30s and 40s, as well as original compositions.
Life and work
Together with his family emigrated Kirkbride at the age of eight years to Queensland in Australia from. There he got his first guitar and began a fascination to teach himself to play the guitar itself. He tuned the guitar to a chord, not knowing that this was exactly the guitar tuning, that the first generation of blues singers in the Mississippi Delta [note 1] as a so-called open tuning for slide or bottleneck playing used. The conventional tuning of the guitar should Kirkbride learn until years later. His game was later heavily influenced by a native of the Mississippi Delta blues musician Robert Johnson.
By his early twenties Kirkbride returned to the UK to continually improve his guitar technique there. At this time, the popular British group The Shadows practiced ( with whom he was later to play a session ) of great influence on him. After listening to a panel of country guitarist Chet Atkins, he came with his style of play, finger picking, in contact that was to mark him henceforth.
Through the influence of songwriters like Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen, Kirkbride also began composing. He learned how a dialogue can be created between text and music. This explains the apparent up to the present day penchant for lyrics with social criticism and political top.
After the end of his military time in the British Air Force ( RAF ), where he served as a transport pilot ( and has claims to be shot down once over the Yemen) to Kirkbride end of the 60s in New York sat down with the intention, there just have to live by the music.
With the music to finance livelihood, designed for Kirkbride to be difficult. Nevertheless, his stay in the United States proved to be a musical breakthrough, as he was able to extend his technique and his entire musical knowledge and as an accompanist, inter alia, by Pete Seeger and the legendary bluesmen Lightnin ' Hopkins occurred. He also played in the course of time, inter alia, with B.B. King, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Louisiana Red, Alexis Korner, Chuck Leavell and Albie Donnelly together.
After a stopover in Holland in 1976, where he began the learned of his blues pieces ( including many of the highly esteemed by him musician Robert Johnson) to enrich with melody and harmony, Kirkbride moved early 80s center of his life to Germany, where he still lives today. He worked for many years together with the writer Hans Christian Kirsch, whose readings, varies by program, with classical or Celtic music, blues or jazz, accompanied them.
Kirkbride et al occurs today with the Bavarian blues harp player Ferdl Eichner, with which he had already made numerous recordings.
Discography
LPs
- Tracks
- Magnetic Mugshots of Memorable Moments
- Sourdough, Corn and Hot Biscuits
- Reds and Blues
CDs
- Blue Images
- Street Kids
- Brotherhood in Blues ( with Ferdl Eichner )
- Adam and Eve ( with Hans- Christian Kirsch )
- The Celtic magic mirror ( with Hans- Christian Kirsch )
- Riches to Rags ( with Ferdl Eichner )
- Changing of the Ways (at book Bluesballaden by Hans- Christian Kirsch )
- Return Cargo ( with Albie Donnelly )
- Sketches
- Lifeline ( with Ferdl Eichner ) 2009
- The Gambler ( with Andreas Schirneck ) 2013