Hello friends, our new CD "Just passing through" is now as well available as download from the iTunes Music Store, if you are interested go to this link:
After a great time in Norway with Soluna we split up when she needed to get back to school. I did a nice Solo Gig at the Tall Sailing Ship Gathering in Bremerhaven, Germany and united a week later with Soluna in Würzburg, Germany for an appearence at the "Stramu Festival ". Check us out in this nice little report of the local TV Touring station. Here is the link: http://www.tvtouring.de/default.aspx?ID=1565&showNews=274633
This week-end of Sept.12 +13 I will play solo again at the "Pflasterzauber Festival in Hildesheim, Germany.
June 9 2008
Hi there, Yes I guess it's about time for an update. After coming back from Guatemala at the end of April I toured Germany for about a month and played Stuttgart, Nürnberg, Bamberg, Giessen, Rüsselsheim, Hannover and Rostock.
In Stuttgart where I started, I was lucky enough to meet my old friend Wade Schuman who came through with his fantastic band Hazmat Modine. They play a great mix of New York City Melting Pot Blues. Wade the bandleader used to travel and play with me in 1981 in Italy. I was very thrilled to see how he has developed his musical creativity which was already impressive when we recorded our first tape together in my old Mercedes Tour bus in a parking lot in Rome way back when. Check out their website at : www.hazmatmodine.com
In Giessen I stopped over at Mark Gillespie's home. He was as helpful as always with finishing the cover and production of the new GeeGee & Soluna CD: "JUST PASSING THROUGH". It will be ready soon. You can hear some of the songs ( a collection of our versions of some of our favourite Rock, Folk and Blues Classics) on our myspace site: myspace/geegeeandsoluna .It also features our friend Jeff Lang from Ithaca ,New York who plays fiddle and banjo on 2 songs, as well as a demo version of one of Soluna's new songs. You can listen to it on her myspace site: myspace/solunasamay .
We will begin our tour in Gemany on June 20th with the Kieler Woche Festival in Kiel. If things go well we will play there until June 29th. After that we will stop-over in Hamburg and travel up to Flensburg and on to Denmark, where we will be at the Skagen Folk Festival from July 3rd to July 6th. After that we are off to Norway as usual. We will try to make it to Molde Jazz Festival and if not that, we will be at Notodden Blues Festival for sure. In between we will be in different cities and towns along the South-Coast, as well as Bergen, Trondheim and Oslo. After Norway I will play a Solo Gig in Bremerhaven, Germany on August 30th and 31st together with other One Man Bands. With Soluna there will be one more appearence as well: At the Stramu Festival in Würzburg, Germany on September 6th and 7th 2008. So I hope to see you all out there somewhere. Good Luck, Yours GeeGee Kettel OMB
Nov.20 2007
Hello friends
After a busy summer up in Norway and a hot week-end in Ferrara, Italy at the end of August I toured around Germay in September. The Stramu Festival in Würzburg was definately a highlight. I really felt a warm welcome by the folks who remembered me from last year. (I also was the only participant who was featured with an article and big photo in the local newspaper the day before the festival) And it was nice to meet up with some old busker buddies of mine, Chris Paulson, Mark Gillespie and JimmyJimmy. Another great act I enjoyed to share a spot with were the "2 Strings", a couple from Australia with a refreshing act. (Have a look at my youtube/geegeekettel site for some videos of friends of mine, as well as some new stuff with my daughter Soluna.)
In the last couple of weeks we have been working on a new Duo CD, to be released by next summer as well as on some of Soluna's own material. She decided it's time for a Demo CD of her own songs. I will be putting up some new songs on myspace/geegeeandsoluna as well on her own site: myspace/solunasamay . So check it out!
I will hit the road to Germany by in a few days to play there for the month of December and meet up with Soluna on December 24th when we we play together in downtown Stuttgart the day before we fly out to Guatemala together.
Before I go I'd like to mention that our music is available on "iTunes" now. I placed a link at the first page ( intro) of this website. If you click on the "iTunes button" you will be directed to the site of the itunes musicstore, where you can listen to samples of our Cds and buy them per song or CD if you are interested.
For a traveling musician without a recording contract or a tour with already fixed dates, this is a
perfect way to distribute ones music.
All the best,
Gee Gee Kettel
July 12, 2007
Hello friends,
Hello Hello
After a good week in Oslo we are in Bergen now. They had a long dry spell with lot of sunshine before we came, but apparently that is over now. It's raining! We still had a few good days here, and there is always the rainroof on Torgallmenningen, if things gets desperate:-)
Other than that I can confirm that I will play with Soluna in Ferrara, Italy from 23rd to 26th of August.
I also would like to mention that I now uploaded the mastered versions of the songs from the new CD on the myspace/geegeekettel site. They sound a lot better that the unmastered ones.
And by the way i added a little movie clip I made at one of the busker meetings up in Beitostolen, Norway some time ago to "youtube". Paste this address in your browser to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ignulTA9WhM
All the best, Gee Gee
June 21,2007
Hi everybody. Summer is here and I am ready to be on the road again. I just finished my new CD "Lucky 7" a tribute to one of my musical heroes: Johnny Cash. You can listen to some of the new tracks right here : www.myspace.com/geegeekettel. Quite a few are One Man Band performances, on some Soluna is playing bass and sings as well, (our version of "Jackson" you can hear on our myspace/geegeeandsoluna . site).
Some are just voice with guitar.
After coming back from Latin America I met up with my daughter Soluna to do a gig in Southern Germany.
The mayor of a little town called Lauchringen decided to celebrate the renovation of his main street with some street action and after hearing some of my sound-samples he invited us as well.
Especially Sunday was nice, not only did we have good and generous crowds, and shared our little stage with a sympathetic sax/guitar duo, but we also got to meet some other old busking friends like Manfred Feldhaus.
What's the plan for this summer? Same same but different, as they say in Thailand....I will meet up with Soluna in Malmoe, Sweden where I will play Saturday 23rd. From there we will drive up to Oslo to start our annual Norway Tour. We will be in Bergen and/or down the south coast and we will try to make it to the Molde Jazz Festival this year, as well as the Notodden Blues Festival. And of course we will finish off with the Beitostolen Busker Treff.
Whether we do the Busker Festival in Ferrara, Italy at the end of August together is not yet clear, but I will keep you posted, as soon as I know for sure.
Greetings, Gee Gee Kettel
March 16 2007
Hello friends, I'm still in Guatemala, in our winter home at lovely Lake Atitlan. As usual it has been another pleasant stay in paradise.
Lot's of good Saturdaynight jam sessions again. And I felt very honored when several of the musicians who have been here last year told me, that one of the reasons they came back to Guatemala was our weekly jam session. Thank you guys, it wouldn't be the same without you. And yes since we are staying until the end of April this year, there is yet more to come..... Soluna enjoyed her short visit,too. She is back in Danmark and is very busy with her school and different band projects and music courses. Check out some video I took of her band: "skolens band" on one of ther first gigs in November 2006. Soluna plays her Fender fretless Bass and sings a few numbers as well. And for all of you Gee Gee & Soluna fans, yes it looks like we will be on the road for at least one more summer. Our first engagement is already on May 5th and 6th in a small town in southern Germany, called Lauchringen, near the Swiss border. We will be part of a program of differnt street acts inaugurating the new walking street. All the best, Gee Gee Kettel
Nov.19
Hello friends, Christmas time is appraching rapidly, and that means I will leave our cozy country house and head for the big city. As usual I have no idea which one it is but since I will get off the ferry in Fehmann I will probably start
in Luebeck, Germany towards the middle of next week.
After that who knows ....? Let's see where they will let me play without any harrasment. I'm sure I will try out Leipzig, Dresden, Weimar in the East and Wuerzburg and Ulm in the south.All I know is that my plane ticket to Guatemala is on the 20th, yes I'm cutting the season short for a change.Soluna only has 3 weeks and so we decided to fly out as soon as her school is over.
With my partner and Soluna's mother Annelis I will stay until April in Guatemala and look forward to a good time and lot's of music in the backyard.
Soluna has moved into her own appartment and is confident of dealing with the winter by herself. And these days with free computer telephoning and webcams it's much easier to stay connected than when we grew up.
She is very involved in her school and various band projects. One of the bands she plays with had a great gig last night here in the little city of Roenne. They played a good sounding variety of dance classics and sounded and looked really pro. She still wants to be on the road with me next summer she says, but let's see what happens. Bye for now, see you, your One Man Band, Gee Gee Kettel
Sept.18
On the
way to Southern Germany I played Hannover where I got stopped, at
least only after 2 hours, so it was still worth it, Bielefeld where
I also got stopped and actually continued to play without an amplifier
and managed to keep my crowd AND sell some CDs.I was rather proud
of myself to be able to pull it off acoustically which is almost a
novelty for my kind of music these days. Although I have to say that
I don`t enjoy to try to sing as loud as possible, my voice is just
not made for that.
In Fulda there were not a lot of people about but whoever was there
was nice and mor important the Ordnungsamt was NOT there. In Kassel
I also didn`t get bothered but then the people there decided to ignore
me as well.
The Festival in Schweinfurt was pleasant but I guess the organisation
was not to thrilled that the more professional performers like me
or Mark Gillespie were amplified. But the locals sure liked it.
In Würzburg the amplifiers were no problem and we had a great
time with the festival organizers, the enthusiastic audiences and
the other performers.
And for once I have to give it to the local "ordnungsamt".
Finally somebody who was reasonable and understanding about the kind
of music I play and the neccessity of amplification. All they said
was to turn it down a bit and change my playing spot when they noticed
I streched the legal 30 minutes to 2 hours. And even then they said
they were sorry.It sure is nice to be appreciated like that for a
change. And of course I couldn`t just leave such a nice situation
right after the festival. I stayed another week and played the very
loud and bustling Stadtfest as well, which was difficult in terms
of finding a place but successfull never the less.
Soluna has joined a band with some good musicians in Danmark and asked
me to bring her a good fretless bass. I just bought a beautiful Fender
Jazzbass and hope she will like it.
I will travel on through Southern Germany, probably play Bamberg,
Nürnberg, Augsburg, Ulm in the next days and probably end up
in Stuttgart or Pforzheim. After that I will head north to Denmark with a stop-over
in Düsseldorf.
August 28
I called Soluna for her 16th birthday yesterday. She is doing fine
in her new school and will be very busy in her new music course.She
was among the 2 new students that got accepted to the prestigous "MGK"
which is a free music education sponsored by the danish state. She
is about to join a good band and will recveive bass and piano lessons
3 times a week. I will head down to Germany this week and play at
the Buskerfestival in Schweinfurt on Saturday Sept. 2nd and in Bad
Brueckenau Sunday Sept.3rd. The Saturday and Sundayafter I will be
playing at the Strassenmusik Festival in Wuerzburg. After that I might
go to Leipzig or Nuernberg and other cities in the south east of Germany.
August 15
After a successful stint at Notodden Blues Festival, where we shared
the pitch with Bluesman Lance Wakeley a.k.a.Dr.Harmonica as every
year, we are now at the annual Buskertreff in the Norwegian Ski resort
town of Beitostolen. It's nice to see the extended Busker family here
once a year, as everybody comes together to perform and jam in the
different bars and clubs around town. Soluna will be going back to
Danmark day after tomorrow. I will head back to Bergen for a few more
days where I will probably catch the ferry to Danmark.
July 31
Will leave Bergen today for Oslo. We had three nice weeks here, also
thanks to the presence of our comedian friend Shykoo who is doing
shows here as well. There are also 3 russian bands whith whom we share
the differnt playing spots or "pitches" as we say in busker slang.
Next week-end we will be at Notodden Blues Festival.After that a few
more days in Oslo and for Solunas final gig with me this year we will
play at the annual busker treff in Beitost?len middle of August. I
would like to say special thanks to all our fans in Bergen, many of
them watch and listen to us every day. Tusend Tak.
July15
We are in Bergen,Norway.It has been raining a lot since we got here
about 10 days ago. But whenever it is dry, Bergen and its people are
very good to us. A lot of people say : Welcome back and good to see
you. To our fans up at the Molde Jazz Festival: I am sorry to say
that it does not look like we will be coming this year. We have a
strange noise on one of the front wheels on our Camping Car and I
dont want to take a chance to get stuck somewhere.If things change
we might still make it somehow.
If you tried to read the guest-book or leave a message there: Sorry
about all these junkmails. There is not much I can do about. Iguess
we just have to forget about it. If you want to leave a message go
to: www.myspace.com/geegeekettel instead.All the best, Gee Gee Kettel
the One Man Band
June 26
For new updates please my blog at www.myspace.com/geegeekettel. (
it's much easier for me to write quick updates there...)
GG
June 18th
In Leipzig I got a call from Palm Guitars in Amsterdam. My new National
Tricone Resonator Guitar has finally arrived. I have been waiting
for 6 months! I took off right away and drove the 700 km in one go.
What a beauty!
After I headed to The Ruhr Area and played in Essen for 2 days. Essen
is a very relaxed place and it was rather quite, which I didn't mind
after the Leipzig madness. And what's more important , no problems
with anybody whatsoever.
Now I'm in another madhouse again. Cologne. Today is Sunday, so that
should be cool. Tomorrow we'll see what happens.
June 14th,
Football crazy Germany. Not an easy place to play. Especially at temperaturers
over 30 Celsius. And the officials are not exactly easy going either.In
Hamburg they told me friendly I can play for the day (which was very
good) but not to come back the next day. In Hannover I got stopped
on Saturday (at least I was able to play for 2 hours). They were not
friendly at all and did not seem to have heard about the Worldcup
Motto: "Die welt zu Gast bei Freunden") or I guess they just don't
consider street musicians their friends...Same thing in Leipzig were
I am at the moment. Not only did I make very little money in the tropical
heat, but when I got stopped by a very stubborn lady from the "OrdnungsAMT"
I decided to stuff it and headed out to a nice lake.Today I am in
the middle of thousands of loud Spaniards, if the Amt stops me again
I will hit the road right away...
June 7th 2006
Played in L?beck and Travem?nde the seaside resort nearby. Good weather,
nice audiences and most important no problems...That's the way aha,
aha we like it. First time with Soluna on Double Bass. It sounds absolutely
fantastic. It's a pain to transport but what the hell if you can have
this kind of sound. And it looks pretty good,too I'd say....Soluna
is back in Denmark, I will go on football worldcup tour, Hamburg tomorrow
after I don't know yet, but Cologne, Hannover, Berlin, Leipzig are
possibilities. Soluna will join me again on June 20th, wherever I
will be...
June 1st, 2006
On the road again....
Left for Germany today. And to my surprise Soluna decided to join me for a few days. We will play in the Kiel, L?beck and Travem?nde area during Whitsunday holidays. I'm exited about performing our new double bass repertoire. Soluna had a test exam for a sought after danish music school and got excepted with the best possible marks. She's definately on the way to become a very good musician and that not only her proud father says. She is also writing some beautiful songs these days. You can hear her new one on her mySpace site: www.myspace.com/solunasamay
After the holiday she will leave for some more school exams and then join me again for the hurricane festival in Northern Germany. We are excited to see some of our alltime favourite musicians like Ben Harper, Manu Chao or Apocalyptica. We will keep a loose schedule this year and just play where the wind blows us to, but most likely we will do a few days at Kieler Woche the big sailing boat and cultural Festival in Kiel, maybe play at Skagen Folk Festival in Denmark at the end of June on the way to Norway. There we will be as always in Oslo for a few days before going to Bergen, Molde, Notodden and Beitost?len.
I'll keep you posted with short updates here or on the mySpace blog.
Hasta la vista! yours, Gee Gee
May 2006
Hi everybody! Before we hit the road again, here finally some newer photos from last years tour.
We are back in Europe and preparing for the summer-tour. As a matter
of fact Soluna, being a big and rather independent young lady, has
been back since February. Not only does she prepare for the upcoming
tour but also for various music classes and her final school exams.
Upon our return to Guatemala, we were happy to see our house and garden
untouched by the mudslide brought on by hurricane Stan, and it looked
like most people just got on with their lives as if nothing had happened.
Unless of course they were directly affected by the mudslides. By
the time we arrived the lake looked as gorgeous as always. And in
the three months we were there we had a wonderful time. It started
right after our arrival with a big New Year Party in our house, and
we kept the Saturday Evening Jamsessions up until we left by the end
of March. We had great live music on our porch in front of our garden
next to a weekly bon-fire and every week wonderful and interesting
guest musicians. There was James Harris from Colorado, who got his
first experiences in front of a live audience and progressed from
week to week. (And with him my back-up as a dobro player.) Then Jeff Lang
from Upstate New Yorkcame down. He is a carpenter and a fine banjo player
and fiddler. When he wasn't working as a volunteer to help rebuilt the
"hospitalito", the hospital that got covered by the mudslide
and rebuilt on our side of town, he came over to jam with us and
turned us on to many great "oldtime and bluegrass songs"
that are now in our new repertoire.
As a very special guest we had Pete Sears over for one night. He is
an incredible piano player and bass player, who not only played on
the first three albums of Rod Stewart, but also with other legendary
bands, like Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead, Little Feat
ect. And yet, he is the sweetest and most humble guy you can ever
meet. I felt very honored to have him back up my songs that evening.His
brother-in-law, David is not only the owner of the hotel "Posada de
Santiago, but also a good slide guitar player and always good for
a classic american song I haven't heard before. And so is Rick from Texas with his beautiful country ballads.
Another evening we had the "Kossoff Sisters from Boston over. Just
like last year, they sang some of their beautiful folk songs, like
"I'll fly away" which you might know from the movie "O Brother Where
Art Thou," where they sang this song as part of the sound track.
Another great musician who showed up several times this season was
Joe from Colorado. Only 20 years old but very talented with lots of
stage charisma.
Our Guatemalan friend Denise Ordonez came also over for a few session
and gave me a chance to accompany her beautiful bossa novas with my
charango. Shy Almagor our Israeli Comedian friend came for a few weeks
to help out on snare drum and other deeds, There where friends from
Denmark and many of the nice volunteer workers who helped the people
here after the catasrophe. They came from all over and worked hard.
I was very happy to give them the opportunity to come out and socialize
on Saturday night and support them with a bit of good entertainment
and relaxation of which there ain't too much in this town.
On the last evening we had a memorable appearence of Paul Dube and
his band from Maine. Together with some of our loyal local percussion
talents, like Thijs, Vincent, Angelika, or Pablo and Georgia our 70
year old neighbours, who even quit their habit of going to bed by
8 o'clock, just so they could participate actively in the jam sessions
on wash tub bass and drums. Pablo also did his Pizzas for a few evenings
and our happening became very popular.
But alas every good thing comes to an end and now I look just as much
forward to be out on the road this summer.
I will start with a tour in Germany in late May. First is the "Breminale"
a cultural event in the city of Bremen, then will check put some of
the cities where the football world cup is held, like Berlin, Leipzig,
N?rnberg,Stuttgart, Cologne.... Let's see if it's true that Germany
will present a "friendly face" to the world just like they advertised
it in their publicity campagnes, and let me play with my amplifier
in front of all those international visitors.
Hasta la vista, Gee Gee Kettel, your One Man Band.
Dec 24-2005
Ahhh, it's over. Thanks to all of you who not only put up with my
hoarse voice but also supported me generously in this last week of
5 long cold weeks. Leipzig was good as always and this time even the
"ordnungsamt" was nowhere to be seen...On the 24th I was in Stuttgart,
playing at almost the exact spot where I started almost 30 years.
Mild weather, no police ( only on the 24th I guess ) and a very warm
and enthusiatic audience just like in the old days... You made my
day.A very nice finish.Thank you
As always after Christmas we are off to warmer regions. Happy new
year to all our fans outhere and hopefully see you in 2006 somewhere.We
keep you posted.
Good Luck, Gee Gee Kettel
Yes!!! The new CD is out and ready to be ordered. It contains 16 tracks
of acoustic Blues , Swing and Country Songs. On the "Music" Section
you can listen to some samples in the "music" section.
I play my One Man Band (guitar, drums and harmonica) and sing, Soluna
plays her new double bass on half of the tracks, bass guitar and sings
as well. It is definately the best stuff we have done so far. Check
it out !
Dec 10
Update from the cold road.Played a few days W?rzburg, then Bamberg
and N?rnberg. After that Erfurt and on to Weimar, which was the best
town so far. Friendly people and no problems. For the last week before
Christmas I will try Leipzig.Let's hope it will be easy. I know quite
a few people are waiting for me to play there. So look out!
November 27th 2005
On the road in Germany. Started out in L?beck. Easy going. Several
people asked for the young Lady Singer, who played bass last time
we passed through. She is going to school. It's too cold for her anyway.
My daughter prefers to play in summer. Who can blame her.
After L?beck straight down to Giessen to visit Mark Gillespie, who
helped out to get the new CD ready. I hope I'll have it for the 2nd
week of December.
On the first "langer Samstag" I played in Wiesbaden. Haven't been
there in years. It was cold but dry. Nice people and even more important
no problems with police or Ordnungsamt. I was lucky enough to have
made it at all. On the night before Friday I got stuck in a snowstorm
on the Autobahn. Barely made it to a parking spot. But there at least
I could put the heat on and make a nice cup of tea and wait until
the the next morning until the situation finally got better.
Played again in Giessen today. Verkaufsoffener Sonntag. Lot's of people
in town and lot's of snow falling as well. Almost romantic...
I'll try Aschaffenburg and W?rzburg, maybe also Schweinfurt and Bamberg
in the next couple of days and then we'll see what happens....wish
me luck, GG
October 27th, 2005
Hello Hello
In case you wondered what has happened to us since the last update...
Ferrara Busker Festival was as crazy as always, lot's of people, too
many acts, too loud, some heavy downpours but never the less also
lot's of fun. An old friend, Mark Gillespie was there, a great singer
and a very charismatic busker and some of the people who come almost
every year like Jim And Melissa of the Australian Band Laliya, who
are always great fun to hang out with.
On the way north we stopped in a few German cities to busk. And in
one of them Soluna decided to by a standup bass (Kontrabass) What
a great instrument. And, talented as she is, she immidiately produced
some pretty good sounds on it. And the two of them look fantastic
together. (There will be some new photos of this year soon and I will
include one of her with the big bass) I don't know how we are going
to travel around with that monster in the camper but we will. As a
matter of fact I 'm so exited about it, that I can hardly wait until
next summer.
So it's perfect timing that we are recording a new CD, featuring some
of our best Blues & Country material. And the fantastic double bass
sound will be on some of them.It should be ready for the Christmas
tour.
I also just finished recording a new CD for Jennifer Calviac a wonderful
singer from England and daughter of One Man Band Lawrence Glaister
a long time friend from Oslo. Our Comedian friend Shy Almagor from
Israel was also visiting, and joining one of our jam sessions he discovered
his talent for the jazz brushes on the snare drum..We all agreed to
meet again next year next year for further exploration on this matter.
I will be out on tour in December, let's see where the cold wind blows
me....
After Christmas we will be as always in Guatemala. You have probably
heard of the tragic events that took place just on the other side
of the town Santiago Atitlan near where we live there. Over a 1000
people got buried under a mudslide as a result of hurricane Stan.
All of our foreigner friends and their houses are ok but some Indian
families we know personally died.
For inquiries and help go to the website www.puebloapueblo.org a great
organization who run a non govermental hospital there. On www.atitlan.com
you can see some of the damage done by the river coming into Panajachel
the tourist town on the other side of the lake with the same name,
but also you will see that there is no reason to change your plans
in case you planned a trip to Guatemala. There is still a lot of beautiful
places left and things are improving slowly but surely.
We love this place and look forward to be back...
All the best, Gee Gee
August 18th
Some news from on the road: Notodden was a success, but on Saturday
it rained all day, good that I had a tent under which we huddled together
with Dr. Harmonica. After a few days in Oslo, where people seemed
to be pretty burned out on street music, we travelled up to the small
mountain resort of Beitostolen, for the annual Troubadur Festival.It
was good to see all our old Busker friends again. A few days ago we
started south, passing through Danmark and now Germany.We probably
will play in Ulm Friday or Saturday. From Monday 22nd to Saturday
28th we will be in Ferrara, Italy. After that we will go back to Danmark
quickly. Hasta la vista.
July 16th
We have been in Bergen for 9 days now. Playing was good when the weather
was good. But from really sunny and hot it went to rainy and cold
very fast. Suddenly we had to dig out our warmest clothes.But people
were happy to see us again. (see guest-book). Shy Almagor, the israeli
comedian and Max Normal the british juggler are also here, as well
as some russian musicians. We all take turns at Torgallmennigen, the
central square . Me and Soluna leave for Molde Jazzfestival tomorrow.
Then probably back to Bergen for a few more days before going to Notodden
Blues Festival, first week-end of August.
End of June
Helsinki was difficult during the week, but great on the weekend.
We stayed only a short time. Stockholm was surprisingly good, but
after one week we look forward to be in Oslo now. We will be here
at least one week.If the weather get's too hot we will hang out by
the lake up in Songsvann during the day and only work in the evenings.
After Oslo we will go on to Bergen.
June 2005
Gee Gee & Soluna will play at the annual Ferrara Buskers Festival
in Italy, August 22nd until August 28th, 2005
Chi vediamo
May 2005Hello
everybody.It?s
about time for a short update. The biggest news is that the Gee Gee &
Soluna DVD ?heading north?, which features many of our favourite
songs performed live in Norway and other countries between 1994 and 2004,
is finally finished and ready to be ordered. If you are interested, go to
the ?Video/DVD? section, click on ?new DVD? and
choose either "Flashplayer" or "Quicktime Player" to
watch and hear "Get Rhythm". Remember that the quality of this
sample is of course not as good as on the DVD, due to its compressed size.By
the way the sequence "Hit the road Jack" is part of a bonus track
that is also included on the DVD.Other
songs featured are for example Route 66, I got my mojo working, Jambalaya,
Black Velvet, Last Dance with Mary Jane, Come together and many more.I
will be ?heading north? again soon. This time I want to check
out something new and travel up to Helsinki / Finland. Depending on how
it goes for my One Man Band, Soluna will join me either there, Stockholm
or Oslo by the end of June.
We will then tour around Norway for most of the summer, play and of course
promote the new DVD.
We will be in Oslo, Bergen and of course the usual Festivals like Molde
and Notodden and some others.
So far we have no plans of going south, but some gigs in Italy, Austria
or Germany are still a possibility, especially in August.
If I don?t get to update this page until then, have a look in the
guest-book at the end of July. I will leave a message there in case of new
developments. All
the best, GG
November 2004Dear friends and fans
A little update from your favourite
One Man Band and bass player girl. Another exiting summer has passed and
we did more driving than ever.From our European home in Danmark
we first drove down to Italy where we were reinvited to Novara Street Festival.
Thank god it was not as hot as last year and so it was actually possible
to finish a song without having to beat on a mosquito in the middle. It
was fun to meet up with some great performers and musicians like Carlos
Vamos, Laliya, The Cloghoppers or the Cosmic Sausages who regularly do the
Italian Festival Circuit.On the way north we stopped over
to see an old friend with whom I used to play in Guatemala almost 20 years
ago: Moreno Fontana, a great musician with a fantastic self built house
up in the mountains of Ticino. He is very well known there and we spend
a remarkable night in a "taverna" of a little mountain village
jamming and entertaining the locals for hours.In Germany we happened to arrive
in Ulm at the same time as the International Catholics Day. The city was
packed with people, mostly of religious nature I guess but they were delighted
to see us. And when we played "Gloria" by Van Morrison, a rather
sexual song, we saw several nuns dancing ecstatically. I guess they didn't
understand too much English...We also tried the Kieler Woche on
the way to the Skagen Folk Festival but at least during the day it was worse
than on a normal day in Kiel. There is just too much happening there.Skagen was also quite crowded with
buskers this year. Not just the regular one or two South American bands,
who all dress up as mystical North American Indians. What a farce! But they
sure know how to sell those CDs no matter how bad and generic their playback
is...Beside Gee Gee & Soluna there
were also our busking buddies like Moti the Israeli One Man Band, Leo Gillespie,
Lawrence Glaister who we normally meet up in Norway and Shy Almagor (Sykoo
Pykoo) our good Comedian and juggler friend. With him we traveled up to
Oslo and Kristiansand. Especially in Kristiansand the local police seems
to come up with new rules and regulations every year that we finally decided
not to bother with this town anymore. It was time for something new and
we went north and I mean north. 2000 km all the way up to Troms?. We stopped
over at the Molde Jazz Festival that also was a bit of a downer, not because
it rained sometimes but mostly because of the owners of the R?d Hotel in
front of which we usually play there. He called the police several times
to get rid of us, insisting that the hotel guests didn't like our songs.
What a frustrated character... Once a year we play there and make obviously
a lot of people happy including some of their guests but they still complain
instead of being thankful.Well it was different up north. Troms?
is a magical town on a beautiful island. Of course there the crowds are
not as big as further south but people are appreciative and even in small
places like Harstad, where there was absolutely nobody at 11 o'clock on
a Saturday morning filled up as soon as we started playing making it some
of the best paid 1 and a half hours (it does not last long) of the whole
summer.The best of the magical sceneries
were undoubtedly the Lofoten islands. This place ranks among the most beautiful
places I have seen in the whole world and we took off a whole precious week
to enjoy it.It took us a few days of constant
driving to get to the Notodden Blues Festival, still the most wild and alcohol-ridden
festivals of all but for us always the most profitable of the whole summer.
Not everybody does well here but they have seen Soluna ever since she started
to play with me since she was 5 years old and like to see her growing up
and returning with me every year. The same goes for Dr. Harmonica who
meets up with us and share
the spot with us. Together we always hang out by the river and usually hot
weather to camp out for a few days before we head out to the Haugesund Jazz
Festival together.Bergen was our next stop.Like every
year we play here with great success. This time we recorded as much as possible
on video. We plan to bring out a self produced DVD for next summer and with
the old material that we have from playing on the same spot every summer
for the last nine years I will be able to cut a very nice documentation
of me and Soluna growing up traveling and playing with me. It will also include
some songs that were new in our repertoire this year as well as some of
our standards and favourites.On the way back to Danmark we did
the T?nder Folk Festival, another place where a lot of people remembered
the days when Soluna was still on the drums but I had contracted a vicious
flu a week earlier and almost lost all my hearing for a few weeks until
I slowly recovered. So it was time to head to the island....I have been busy editing video tapes
for the last 2 months and
now slowly but surely will get prepared to do my annual German Xmas
Tour. Some people from the N?rnberg area
have been asking in the guest book when we will get there but due to ever
changing regulations and situations I simply cannot say when I will be where. Soluna will probably join me for
a couple of days before and after Christmas but I don't know whether it
will be in Leipzig, where she played one day with me last year or N?rnberg
or Ulm or....Since it's complicated to update
regularly from on the road i will try to send a message to the guest-book
when I know more or less where I will drive next.But even that is not always for sure
as it sometimes takes only one nasty cop to make me change my plans. On
the other hand after 20 years doing what I'm doing I have grown quite some
"thick skin" and I'm not that easily impressed by some sour looking
"Ordnungsh?ter."In winter we will be as always at
home at lake Atitlan in Guatemala, just outside of Santiago. Ask for Casa
Soluna if your in the neighborhood and say hello.For next year we will try some new
festivals and territory. Look out for an update in late spring/early summer.luy ya, Gee Gee and Soluna
Hello everybodyYes its about time for another update. The December Tour was successful especially in the city of
Leipzig, where I seem to have my most enthusiastic fans these days. Unfortunately
the management of ?Kaufhof? didn?t think so as well and
tried very hard to get rid of me as I was sitting and playing in front of
their decorated windows. Why
don?t they understand that street culture
is actually good for their business?After our winter stay in sunny Guatemala, Soluna and I did just a little tour on the way
up to Danmark. We stopped in Ulm, M?nchen, N?rnberg, Bielefeld, Hannover,
Kiel and Travem?nde, all in the week just before and on Easter.Tour plans for this year look similar to last year. We will start on
June11, 12 and 13 with
the Street Festival in the City
of Novara, west of Milano in Italy. Hopefully with less moscitos
than last year when it was 36 Celsius even at night and felt like playing
in the Amazon.After this we will drive up north again to do a few days in Kiel, at the Kieler Woche Festival.After that as always to the Skagen Folk Festival in Danmark on June 24th ?
27thAnd also just like every year on to the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway. 5th - 10th of July. Middle of July you will find us on our yearly stop at the Molde Jazz Festival, and after
that we will see if we feel like driving all the way up north to Tromso
or down to Bergen as we usually do. There is also a chance that we finish the season in Tonder, Danmark at the annual Folk Festival on the
last week of August. We haven?t been there in
2 years and it could be fun to go back there again.The only other gig that seems to be confirmed right now is a One Man Band Festival in Marl, Germany that a college with the name Dr.Musikus is arranging. This will happen
on September 4th & 5thA good summer to you and us, Gee Gee & SolunaP.S. In case of any new developments have a look in the guestbook. I
will try to put little updates there as well since it?s easy to do
it from almost everywhere? November 2003Dear Friends and FansWe had another fantastic summer and we played on all the festivals shown below. In Notodden,Norway and at the annual Beitostolen
Troubadur Festival, where we
meet most of the Buskers that are travelling and playing in Norway in the
summer, we were filmed by a Norwegian film crew, who is putting an interesting
documentary called ?Feel Free?
together. There you can see not only Gee Gee & Soluna but also a
lot of other interesting characters and legendary buskers like Don Partridge,
Leo Gillespie, Phil Free, Jugglin? John ,Des Baader, Lawrence Glaister,
Moti , Shy and many others. The film not only covers the music but also
the life styles of them. It should be out by next summer. Either as a TV
documentary or, if there is enough funding, as a cinema movie.
In October I was out doing my Solo One Man Band Show in Germany for 3
weeks. Rostock,
L?beck, Kiel, L?neburg, Hannover, Braunschweig Hildesheim and Wolfsburg.
update
May 2003-05-15Hello, Hallo, Ola, Ciao, Salute, ect?.We are back from Central-America and currently preparing for the
summer tour. A new album (CD) should be ready soon as well. We practised all
winter (me more than Soluna who?s passion seems to be more her school these
days,, especially the one in Guatemala)
and have a nice bunch of new songs for the ever expanding repertoire.
Soluna?s voice and singing style is maturing quite rapidly so the new CD will
put things in perspective. She definitely doesn?t sound like the little girl
from 3 years ago anymore, which makes me a little bit sad, since it shows how
time flies and how very soon she will be grown up and independent, but at
least it makes our sound much more professional, almost like a ?real? band.And the interest in our little band is getting bigger. We will start
the season with the International
Street-music Festival in Ludwigsburg, Germany, on June 7,8 and 9th
the place where we won first prize two years ago. A week later we will play at the Novara
Street Festival in
Novara, Italy on June 13, 14 and 15 th. We then cross Switzerland and Germany
to be back for the Skagen Folk festival in Denmark on June 27, 28 and
29thand a week later we will start our annual Norwegian
tour with the Quart
Festival in Kristiansand. After a week there we will probably pass
through Oslo to hopefully see some old busking friends and do
the Karl Johann street and go on to the Molde Jazz Festival which goes on from July 14 to
19th.. We have quite some fans there so it should be fun
again. The same accounts for The Notodden Blues Festivalon August1st
,2nd,and 3rd. another fixed date on our tour
schedule this summer. Also in August we are invited back to the Ferrara Buskers
Festival. ( Aug. 25th to 31st.) The organisers
(and the publics) favourite act of the previous year is brought back the
following year and this year it?s us. And we look very much forward to this
sympathetic festival and all the lovely folks there. There might be other
festivals and plans coming up and since we are still buskers some spontaneous
developments and tours always appear, but more or less this is the plan for
the summer or so it seems.Take care and all the best, we see you , Gee Gee. November 02Hello, I?m about to hit the road. Here are some NEWS : SOLUNA?S SOLO SINGLE ?I wish
I was a seagull? is about to be released. It should be out by middle of December.
You will be able to listen to a part of it right here in the ?Music? section.
Just click on it! There will also be some new photos from 2002 added to the ?gallery?. Soluna will join my (One Man) Band the week before Christmas in
Germany. We will probably play in N?rnberg near the Christkindl Market (if
they let us) for one week and in Stuttgart (Soluna?s grandparents home) on
the 24th of December. We will be back in Europe on April 13th
and probably play for one week until the 20th most
likely N?rnberg ,Leipzig and Rostock or some other towns on that route. c u, geegee. October 2002Dear friends,The summer is definitely over as the cold and wet winds are brushing
away the leaves of the trees outside. We had yet another fantastic tour, even
though we did exactly the same as last year. Or maybe BECAUSE we did exactly
that, as a lot of folks were rather happy to see us again. The highlight for
Soluna was definitely seeing her favourite band TRAVIS right up front at the
beautiful Quart-Festival in Kristiansand/ Norway. She got so inspired that
she started to write songs herself and I have to say I was impressed about
what she came up with. We ?ve got definitely a talent there. And this is not
just a proud father talking away, but also a lot of other people who heard
her songs. We are in the process of recording them as well as some of my
songs, so there should be a new CD ready next spring. If you can?t wait, we
have a NEW SINGLE with 4 new songs that we recorded before summer. The Molde Jazz Festival was just as good this year, as it was last.
There we really got some dedicated fans and Soluna was cruising around with
some girl-friends she made last year between the sets that we traded off with Lance Wakeley, aka Dr.
Harmonica. As southern Norway was suffering under a heat wave, we were rather
cold under the grey skies of Molde but the weather held and we got rained out
only once or twice. Another highlight for Soluna was meeting PAUL SIMON in
the lobby of the hotel that we park in front ( and sneak in to use the sauna
and pool sometimes). Members of his band saw us performing on the walking
street and when they saw Soluna in the lobby, they told her to wait for
Mr.Simon if she wanted to meet him. Having heard some of his songs by me, she
was curious, and another autograph from a star she didn?t mind either. And
sure enough, as the elevator suddenly opened, he came out and she got
introduced. And not only did she get an autograph but he also invited her
(and her daddy) to his show in the evening, which we enjoyed a lot. The first
thing she told me as she came running to the camper was: ?I didn?t know he
his so short ? (!). Somehow the local press got wind of it and the next day
Soluna had to tell a reporter the exact circumstances. A day later there was
a big article including a large colour photo with the headline: TRAFF
SIMON;INVITERT PA KONSERT. (Met Simon, invited to concert) Another great place to play was the Nottoden Blues Festival, yet
another regular stop of ours where we have been performing for the last 5 years every summer. As
a result many people remembered us and were especially fascinated by the
musical development of the bass-player and singer that some of them
remembered as a little 5 year old sitting with great enthusiasm behind a
children?s drum-set.( there are some nice photos in the gallery of this
web-site). After the festival, we spend some nice relaxing days by a river
with Lance (Dr.Harmonica),who also had great success at the Festival and then
did the Haugesund Jazz Festival on the west-coast, where we shared the
?pitch? this time with English juggler Max Normal.If this was a well established routine so far, we finally were in for
an interesting change. As I had mentioned it below, we were invited to the international
busker festival in Ferrara, Italy. Driving straight down from Norway, in
Germany our car broke down and we had to continue with a very comfortable
brand new station wagon, luckily paid for by the festival and the ADAC. Yes,
Ferrarra. Che bello! This was really a nice experience. The organisers,
especially the charming musical director Stefano, but also the rest of the
staff were truly heartwarming. We played for one week every night at different spots in the historic
center of this beautiful city. It was not easy as the heat was quite
oppressive but the fantastic audience response made up for it and catapulted
us up into buskers heaven every night. True concert feeling with lots of
applause and screaming for encores and all. Mille
Grazie Ferrara!!!. And not one drunk even at
midnight, which is simply remarkable after coming straight from Scandinavia,
where drunken (though generous) audiences can be a real problem(not the
generosity but the behaviour, of course) My only criticism of the Festival would
be that only a very small portion of the invited 20 or so acts, were actually
true buskers, meaning that almost none actually made a living playing in the
street.(Most of them though made a living with paid stage gigs and all of
them were therefor very skilled musicians) And that there were simply too
many (150 or more) other acts, virtually every 30 meters, performing
continuously every evening
throughout the entire festival area. This might have been great for the
public, but made it rather hard for the individual acts, especially the ones
with a less spectacular show to make it worthwhile in terms of financial success.(The only source of income
is what the street audience decides to give!) But despite of that, we did
well and had a wonderful time!This fall Soluna decided to not go on tour and instead hanging out at
home on her school holidays. I don?t blame her, she did great in summer and the weather was not very motivating either. I will go on a
solo-tour in GerMONEY in November until the end of December. Christmas the
whole family goes back to Mexico and Guatemala for our annual winter breakAll the best , Gee Gee.
June 2002
Wow, what a summer, and it`s only beginning. 38 Celsius in Germany and
even up here on our lovely little windy island it? s rather warm. Well, we are ready to hit the road
again.The spring tour in May
was great. We went down to N?rnberg for a gig and, like so many times before,
stayed there a whole week. And it?s so nice to have so many fans down there
who keep coming back to listen to us. We also stopped again in Leipzig, our
other favourite city. They had their big ?Turn Fest ? going on, with over a
hundred thousand visitors and lot`s of things going on. We were of course not
the only ones busking. There was the usual badge of South-Americans but also
some old friends that I hadn?t seen in a while, like Dennis, a puppet-player
from Yugoslavia, who entertained his huge audiences with his ?moneyhungry?
piano-player puppet, while Dennis backed him up shuffling his foot over the
10 or so mini-disc players to make the puppet appear to be singing, playing,
farting and wanting the audiences money all at the same time. While the ?Ordnungs Amt? kept a rather low profile during the week,
letting us work even with our amplifiers (how else could one possibly hear my
daughters bass and voice?) ,
they decided to come down on us Saturday night. And, believe it or not , it
was the very night of the ?Honky Tonk Pub and Kneipen Festival. Hundreds of
Bands playing at hundreds of
clubs, bars and restaurants. As if anybody would lose anything if we or some others trying to play for the
folks wandering from one pub to the next. Give me a break! But we didn?t even mind. We had played during the day and this Saturday was our last day anyway. It
was starting to rain and I had about 750 km to drive to catch the ferry the
next morning. Perfect timing.And perfect timing it is yet again. Summer is on full blast and we
will be back on the road as from tomorrow. Down to Germany for a week
:Rostock, Schwerin, Paderborn, Kassel and Hamburg are the next destinations.
Then up to Skagen, a little town at the northern tip of Denmark, for the
Folk-Festival, which will will be at the last weekend of June. Let?s hope the
world-cup finals won`t take too much attention away from us. But I must
admit, that even though I?m certainly not a big football fan, every 4 years I
love watching these exciting teams from all over the world myself, especially
when the exotic underdogs are winning. My dream finale ? South-Corea against
Senegal and the Africans winning .!!
But I?m getting carried way?.After Skagen it?s, you guessed it, Norway again. Kristiansand during
the Quart Festival,(Bowie and Travis are playing on the 2 days we reserved
tickets for) then probably
Stavanger Bergen Oslo and Molde for the Jazz Festival, where we were so well
received last year. It looks like we won?t make it further north once again,
( When will I ever see that midnight sun? ) because this year we have been
invited to play the FERRARA BUSKER FESTIVAL in ITALY: It will go on from the
19th to the 26th of August and we look very much
forward to this exciting event, were so many of our good friends have been
busking before. We will be one of around 20 invited acts and we will be
performing on designated spots around the old part of the city, which usually
receives over a hundred thousand visitors just for this event. Should be good. So look out, we practised hard this winter and have a couple of nice
fresh songs up our sleeves. And yes the new CD Single : ?luv ya?, with Soluna playing and singing on
four of my own songs is done and about to be released. Take care and see you out there, Gee Gee Kettel. P.S. Soluna says hi. April 2002Dear friends and fansYes we`re back in Europe. And after we heard about the wet and
miserable winter in Denmark we were quite happy to have been in the warm
climate of Central-America. Our place on the shores of Lake Atitlan in
Guatemala has grown in ever nicer. It`s amazing to see how tall a palm tree
can grow in two years of absence. Thanks to all the musicians in the
neighbourhood, our place sometimes turned into a jam bar. We went out in our
canoe every morning and truely enjoyed the gorgeous nature of the place.
Soluna was happy to be back at her old school, polishing up her Spanish
amongst other stuff. When an old school friend came to visit me I took the
opportunity to travel up to the jungle and visited the Mayan temples of
Tikal, a truly magnificent place in a magical setting. We also toured through
Belice, yet another new country and a beautiful one as well. Very mellow and
easy going. Not too much tension between the races either. We travelled via
public buses from north to south and ended up on a beautiful but very tiny
island, about 200 meters wide and 50 meters deep, with great snorkeling in
the reef. It was called Tobacco Caye. I recommend it. Europe was gentle in it`s welcome to us. We had rather friendly
weather up here since we are back. Although I spend a lot of time in front of
this computer trying to work out the virtual recording studio in it. A rather
frustrating experience given the
little knowledge I have in such things. If I do get it together you should be
able to hear some of my own songs in new arrangements with Soluna on bass and vocals of
course, this year. Let`s see what happens. By the way her appearance on
Dago`s new record ?Sounds for a blue planet? (Ozella Records) has gotten some
good reviews and was played on a couple German radio stations. As a matter of fact it was received
so well that Dago asked us to shoot a little video of scenes that included
Soluna singing the song she sang on the album on a canoe floating on the
waters of Lake Atitlan, with the three giant volanoes in the background.
Let`s see what comes out of that.We will come to Germany in May for a little tour. As true buskers of
course we don`t exactly know yet
where we are going to play, but
if you want to know just write to info@kettelbeat.com
in May and I will be able to give you some better information about our
whereabouts. Before I go I`d like to tell you about another encounter I had with an
old friend I used to stay and even perform with occasionally when I first
came to the U.S.in 83: Tom Noddy the Bubble Guy from California. After many
years I found out through the internet that he was still performing his
unique blend of bubble magic (Seifenblasenzauberei it would be called in
German). He was working at the Roland Frosch Variete in M?nster, Germany and
his act was as fascinating as ever. We hadn`t seen each other since I left
the states in the mid 80`s and spend a lovely evening together that included
the variete show with other fascinating acts. Check out his website : www.tomnoddy.com.
It`s worth it. That`s all for now . Good
luck, Geegee. November 2001
Hi everybody, Hallo zusammen, Hola amigosJust got back from another exiting tour. If you had
a look into the guest-book recently, you know more or less where we been, from the people who wrote. In the
beginning of the tour we stopped in Leipzig, Germany and as we sat in an Internet-caf? an
hour later, we already had a bunch of new notes in the guest-book. Thanks for
those spontaneous reactions.
This medium is great for that kind of stuff, isn?t it? I have to say Leipzig
is always worth a visit for me. Sympathetic people and a warm reception. Then we went on to N?rnberg , another one of my
favourite places to play. I been there many times in the last 20 years and a
few times with Soluna . We already have quite a few fans there who welcomed
us back. We almost stayed a
whole week there. The only drawback was, that when we played down by the
bride one of the street-sellers actually called the police on us. He or she
must have a very bad day,
especially since we know, that
most of the other sellers there like us to play and break up their and their
customers daily routine with some energetic music. Oh well, at least the
police woman who came to tell us that we had to move, started out with the
sentence: ?I really like your music and I apologise for the narrow-mindedness
of the people who complained. That was nice. [if !supportEmptyParas] [endif]The next stop, Munich, is much worse for buskers.
There one doesn?t even have to try without a permit, as plain cloth patrols
of the ?Ordnungsamt? are continuously combing the walking street for
street-musicians who are not complying with the many regulations, like using
an amplifier, even a little 20 watt bass amp like the one Soluna uses. And it
doesn`t matter that every accordion-player is louder than us, not to mention
the 5 piece ?acoustic? band from Russia up the road. All this makes Munich a
?Sunday only? town. And that?s what we did and that?s why we were able to
play without problems.Next we went straight down to Lugano, Switzerland.
Talk about rules and regulations. In Lugano one also has to obtain a permit.
After you pay your 20 Franc a day, the grim officer tells you rather sour
that you are only allowed to play 4 days a year, yes a year, and that only on
2 spots, and only between 12.00 to 13.30 and 18.00 to 20.00 when most shops
are closed. One way to keep musicians out of town, I guess. But at least
after having obtained the permit, they left us alone and, maybe because of
these tight regulations and the fact that many musicians don?t even want to
bother to play there, the crowd reaction was very generous and definitely
made up for the cold welcome of the official.Another reason to come to Lugano was to visit my old
friend Moreno Fontana, whom I met many years ago at lake Atitlan in
Guatemala. You can actually see us jamming together there on a photo in the
section ?gallery 1986? of this website. He lives in his self-built house in
an amazing location that is only accessible by foot up in the mounains. He
gave us a copy his new abum called ?Caballo blanco?. All songs written by him
and played with his energetic band ?Tribu? in a fascinating mixture of
Latin-Rumba and Ticino-Folk with a bit of North-American Indian drumming
thrown into it. He?s like a Manu Chao of Switzerland. You can check it out at
their website: (www.ondemedia.com) We originally planned to spend 3 days in Lugano, but
decided in the last moment to cut it short in order to have enough time for a
visit of Soluna?s grand parents and a show in Lucern. And this was a good
intuition as on the very next day 2 trucks collided head on in the 17 km long
St.Gotthard tunnel. The very tunnel we had just driven through the night
before. Many people died, and many more cars and trucks melted to lumps of
metal in the 1000 degree hot fire. But we made it and left the tragedy and
the traffic chaos it caused behind. Once more being lucky after a close
encounter with death.Already the next day we had a planned gig at an old
friends caf? in Sindelfingen, Germany . It was our first ?club gig? and it went down very well. Soluna just
blew them away and we had to give at least 3 encores before we were allowed
to leave the stage. A big thank you for all the cheering visitors who came to
listen to us.The town of Heilbronn where we stopped the next day
seemed very quite and boring, or
were we just still high from the night before? We headed on to N?rnberg once
more to do another Saturday. Manfred Feldhaus, another old busking college,
was there too. If you want to see another street musicians home page have a
look at www.ackerbude.de. I always
enjoy those spontaneous encounters with old friends out on the road, and of
course we sat down and had a pleasant talk after work. But then it was time
to go as we had a 1000 km drive ahead of us, that would take us all night in
order to catch our ferry the next morning back to our windy island in the
baltic sea.As I?m writing this the first snow has fallen
already. Soluna will stay here with her mum and go to school and continue
totake piano and bass lessons until the end of the year. I?ll go back on the
road in the beginning of December to make some more money so we can all go to
Guatemala to get away from winter. Soluna will then go to her Spanish/American school to and we all look forward to see our
friends there, since it has been almost 2 years that we have left our old
home.This will probably be the last time for a while that
I am writing here, unless I can update this on the road as well. So keep well
you all and stay healthy. I hope to see you out there again next year,Love, gee gee.
Sept 19, 2001Hello everybody, After a successful Norwegian tour through the cities mentioned above
we are back on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. Relaxing a bit,
renovating a bit. After 2 and a half
months in the camper we enjoy the space and quiteness of our small farmhouse
here in the beautiful nature. We had some exiting shows, especially at the
different Jazz and Blues Festivals we attended. Soluna got to meet some of
the stars.At the Kongsberg Jazz Festival the band of Bluesman Otis Rush came
down to listen to us several times .
In Molde she managed to meet Erykah Badu backstage,a moment which I
captured on a beautiful photo. B.B. King gave her an autograph as she passed
by his hotel on the way to the car. In Nottoden at the annual Blues Festival,
she decided to do her first Solo-Show, (bass & singing)and soon was
approaches by Clarence `Gatemouth`Browns Bass Player who ended up jamming
with her. I proudly watched them doing a wonderful version of ?Stand by
me?. Soluna is back in school now, but she is still studying music as well.
Taking piano and singing lessons with danish singer/composer Maria Hiort
Pederson and taking bass lessons
at the local music school. In October
she will do some recording sessions with Dagobert B?hm for his up coming production at Ozella
Records. We are exited to see what will come out of that. Ge Ge &
Soluna also plan to do some
recording for a new album of my own songs hopefully for next year.As for the next tour plan , we`ll probably go down to Southern Germany
and Switzerland by the middle of October for 2 weeks. For exact dates you can contact me as well at
ggkettel @hotmail.com Peace, gege.f June, 2oo1
In June things were really happening. At the international
street-music festival in Ludwigsburg Germany I won first price together with
my daughter Soluna. We also recorded our first CD "The Beat Goes
On" together which will be available directly from us or the Ozella
Music label.
In July we will be in Norway,(Kristiansand,Stavanger,Bergen,Molde for the
Jazzfestival and Oslo) in August either Norway or Southern Germany &
Austria (depending on the weather) and in September possibly in Frankfurt for
a few days at the IAA Automobil Show. If you need to know exact dates mails
contact us via email.c ya out there, gege the one man band.
