Germany - Bayern Part I

 We arrive in Bayern or Bavaria on our virtual trip.  I have always been very suspect of this state.  Traditionally the Bavarians have always been closest to the stereotype of Germans, lack of humour, lederhosen, Octoberfest with ladies in dirndls serving beer in 1 litre jugs, etc...  My ultimate Bayern experience was many years ago when I visited a friend deep in the Bavarian mountains, who was doing a placement as a forester and living in a log cabin.  One day we were invited by the woodworkers who were celebrating the day of their patron saint for a breakfast.  As we arrived on my friends Heinkel scooter even deeper in the forest, we were greeted by 5 portly men with bushy moustaches and in Lederhosen and Tyrolean hats and served a breakfast of pretzels, white sausages and beer... at 9 am!

As we were sitting and eating and drinking I was having trouble following the conversation as it was held in the broadest Bavarian dialect.  So being slightly bored I cracked open another beer.  My friend raised an eyebrow and said: "having another beer this early?".  To which I flippantly replied: "Well Bavarian beer is alcohol-free anyway," referring to the fact that Bavarian beer is slightly lighter than Northern German Pilsener styles.  That of course offended our host who promptly challenged me to a drinking competition.  Thankfully we ran out of beer before I slid under the table.  I've been avoiding Bavaria ever since.

Anyway back to the music, first stop is Fürstenfeldbruck just west of Munich where the band Biermösl Blasn were founded in 1976 by brothers Hans, Christoph and Michael Weil.  At first glance they are your typical Bavarian folk band, dressed in traditional garb, singing in Bavarian and yodelling accompanied by accordion and alphorns.  However their lyrics are satirical and very political, protesting against nuclear power, environmental destruction and political corruption.  Due to the dominant political party of Bavaria being the right wing Christian Social Union, they were long banned by Bavarian state radio.  I saw them live at the anti-nuclear festival in Wackersdorf in 1986 I keep mentioning.  Incidentally here is a photo of myself being at the festival:

Myself on the right

When during their set the power failed, they simply grabbed their alphorns and were heard even without amplification at the back of the 100,000 crowd.  It sounded something like this:

And here a live performance of their interpretation of the traditional Bavarian dance the Schuhplattler or as they call it, the Kung Fu-Plattler:

Moving on to the capital of Bavaria, Munich or München. Staying on the traditional theme we meet folk band Fraunhofer Saitenmusik, whose members first met at an historic Munich pub called Fraunhofer.  They play instrumental numbers on a number of stringed instruments such as the hammered dulcimer, harp, guitar, various zithers and double bass.  Their repertoire includes folk tunes from all over Europe, such as Ireland, Scandinavia and the Balkans as well as from more local alpine traditions.  Here's them playing Appenzeller Choscht in a typical Bavarian pub:

Right, let's leave stuffy pubs behind and find something a bit fresher.  Contemporary Balfolk duo TradTöchter (Trad daughters) consists of fiddle players Vivien Zeller and Ursula Suchanek.  They re-interpret traditional songs and tunes and pen their own material in a lively and fresh manner.  Their music is currently not available as a download, but they are promising to put it on BandCamp soon.  Their only album to date Liebeslieder im Rahmen der Möglichkeiten (Love songs within the realms of possibilty - sounds like a good title for lockdown...).  Here is a wee tune, which doesn't feature on the album, Warten aud den Meister (Waiting for the master):

Now for some yodelling, but not as you know it.  Multi-instrumentalist and 'voice acrobat' Albin Paulus was born in Munich in 1972 of Austrian decent.  His speciality is the Jews harp as well as yodelling, body percussion and overtone singing.  He sometimes performs solo sometimes with his band Auli, which makes his performances something of an Alpine version of Riverdance.  Quite spectacular really.  Here is the band version of his song Maijodler, which features on the 2019 album Voices of the Ancestors:

Here is the solo version of the same song, which skill-wise is even more impressive, yodelling and playing Jews harp simultaneously and doing some body percussion:

We'll leave it at that and continue our journey around Bayern next time.  In the meantime you follow my virtual trip on my Tripline map.