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I stumbled on Markus Rill this week. Or rather, I should say, Markus Rill stumbled across me, over on Twitter. I tweeted about a European alt.country festival and he tweeted back.
I checked out his links….
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)
He’s good. Reminds me of Tom Waits, what little I know of that artist. I stole this from Markus’ website:
Markus Rill writes about The Things That Count. He sets intelligent, moving lyrics about dealing with the winding ways of life & love to atmospheric folk music, stark country, and driving rock’n’roll, infused with blues and gospel. His unique sandpaper-and-gravel voice adds another layer of depth and character.
The German-born singer-songwriter has won awards and accolades for his songwriting, he has toured all over Europe and played some of the biggest festivals & finest clubs in the USA (SXSW, Folk Alliance, the Bluebird in Nashville, the Cactus in Austin), he has recorded with the most in-demand players on the Americana scene – Duane Jarvis, Steve Conn, Fats Kaplin, Dave Jacques, Bryan Owings to name but a few -, and he has shared stages with the incomparable Townes van Zandt, Dire Straits co-founder David Knopfler, Tom Russell, Chris Knight, Steve Wynn, Hal Ketchum, and countless others….
Usually I like to engage an artist before I do a record review, trade some emails, find out a few things about what sets them apart from every other guy or gal with a guitar. In this case, I probably could do that easily thanks to Twitter. On the other hand, I don’t have a record to review, just a YouTube to recommend. And I would go on about how I never would have heard Mr. Rill in the pre-web days and all, but my pizza is ready to get picked up.
So here it is, a riff on a Tweet. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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STrib
The Economist