Hamburg Blues Band - feat. Vanja Sky & Krissy Matthews
Over 40 years of St. Pauli Blues! For more than 4 decades, five guys have been touring through packed clubs, among the best that the European blues scene has to offer. The Hamburg Blues Band stands for intense, cleverly arranged, and live stunning roots blues that regularly leaves purists mentally shaken. The band, led by the singer Gert Lange, often compared to Joe Cocker, mixes hard-hitting guitar blues rock as joyfully as it sticks to tradition with soul, psychedelic, rhythm & blues, boogie, and even ventures into jazz territory.
In 1982, the Hamburg singer and English saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith spontaneously founded the Hamburg Blues Band in the legendary Hamburg "Onkel Pö" after a midnight session. "Dick Heckstall-Smith was our key to the British blues scene, our Brit-blues connection. He was for us what Alexis Korner was for the Stones & many others," Lange said today. So it's no surprise that the band also toured over the years with the stars of the scene: Jack Bruce, Chris Farlowe, Maggie Bell, Mike Harrison, Arthur Brown, and guitar heroes like Clem Clempson & Miller Anderson became band members. "Furthermore, we were lucky that Dick Heckstall-Smith introduced us to the legendary lyricist Pete Brown (Cream), who wrote our lyrics until his death in 2023 and was also a frequent guest on our tours."
Hamburg's renowned blues/rock shouter Gert Lange, voice of various commercials (including Carlsberg beer) as well as the title song of the German film award-winning road movie “Burning Life,” and the fabulous rhythm section consisting of bassist Reggie Worthy (Ike & Tina Turner, Eric Burdon, Stoppok), drummer Eddie Filipp (Inga Rumpf, Sweet, Clem Clempson Band), & the exceptional guitarist Krissy Matthews, just 32 years old, a tight-knit group working with consistent impact, enhanced by their ability to control dynamics on demand and sprinkle them with perfect harmony singing.
Names like Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, or even Pete Townsend come up when talking about the young 32-year-old Krissy Matthews. They all are said to have influenced the guitar style of the young exceptional guitarist, and indeed, Matthews's playing is anything but one-dimensional. Sometimes it sounds fresh and raw, then again quirky and wild. He first stepped onto the stage at the age of three, got his first guitar at eight, and was captivated by the blues at eleven. A year later, he met John Mayall during a performance in Norway, and the godfather of white blues did not hesitate and took the twelve-year-old on stage. Fellow musicians, critics, and the press have praised him; "This guy is the real deal" (Beth Hart), "Oh boy, this kid can play" (Hubert Sumlin).
Vanja Sky is Croatia's answer to Sheryl Crow and Norah Jones. An artistic career could hardly develop faster. Five years after she learned to play guitar, Vanja recorded her debut album with renowned artists from the international blues scene. The highlights of her lightning-fast career include close collaboration with stars like Bernard Allison and Mike Zito, as well as her debut album “Bad Penny,” recorded in the Bessie Blues Studios in Stantonville/Tennessee, the workshop of Grammy-winning producer Jim Gaines. Followed by the second, significantly rockier album “Woman Named Trouble,” which was selected by ROCKS MAGAZIN as one of the best albums released in 2020, alongside releases from AC/DC, Deep Purple, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen!
Even after 40 years, the Hamburg Blues Band is always good for surprises & presents their own sound far away from any clichés. On the "40th Anniversary VOL. II" tour, the audience can expect a musical fireworks display with real characters and originals.
Admission: 7:00 PM
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
