Gottfried David Gfrerer

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Man in a plaid shirt with a yellow guitar on his lap leans relaxed against a wooden wall of a mountain hut
Gottfried David Gfrerer in the Carinthian Nock Mountains

Gottfried David Gfrerer (born November 2, 1966 in Spittal an der Drau ) is an Austrian musician , songwriter and restorer of resonator guitars .

Life

Gottfried David Gfrerer was the second child of Gottfried Gfrerer, principal music school director in Gmünd in Carinthia, and Gerta Gfrerer, née. Dullnig, owner of a bed and breakfast, was born. The parents come from mountain farming families on the Pressingberg in the Liesertal.

His great-great-grandfather on his father's side was the noble Carlo Gaetano Lodron (born July 25, 1840 in Trient, † December 14, 1918 in Gmünd).

Gfrerer grew up in Carinthia and received classical piano lessons from the age of 8. During his school days at the Bundesgymnasium in Spittal / Drau, Gfrerer sang in the school choir (together with the later green politician Eva Glawischnig ). At the age of 12 he learned to play the guitar by himself by listening to records. At 17, he won a talent competition that his father had secretly registered him for. The prize money was an appearance on local radio.

After graduating from high school and doing military service with the Jägerbataillon 26 , during which he was a member of the Spittal an der Drau garrison choir, he finally went to Vienna to study mechanical engineering and then medicine.

After initial attempts as a street musician, he began to appear in small clubs, worked as a studio musician and worked as a front and sideman in various formations as a fingerstyle and slide guitarist and singer. During this time a friend brought him an old National Metal resonator guitar from New York, which Gfrerer repaired himself and which served him as a stage instrument and study object for many years.

In 1990 he met the Carinthian writer Bernhard C. Bünker and set to music his texts, some of which were very critical in Carinthian dialect. Result: In 1992 Gfrerer's first sound carrier, a music cassette with a book, was published by the Austrian dialect authors with the title “Karntn is lei a Grobschtan”. He thus launched the “Karntna Bluus”.

In 1996 Gfrerer's first solo album "Gottfried David Gfrerer" followed with his own English lyrics.

A second production by Bünker and Gfrerer, “Wonn du amol geast”, stayed in the drawer because the two ended their collaboration shortly before the release.

In 1999 Gfrerer was invited to England to teach at the London Musician's Institute by the Irish fingerstyle guitarist Eric Roche . In the same year his album “Stainless Steel” was released, whereupon Gfrerer was voted best string and song artist of the year by the Austrian Concerto magazine.

Countless projects, CD productions and collaborations with national and international artists from different genres followed.

In 2009 Gottfried David Gfrerer released his third solo album "Scoop & Run". The album was praised by the press and a comprehensive portrait was published in the magazine " Akustik Guitar ", the largest guitar magazine in the German-speaking region. On the album "Scoop & Run" Gfrerer mainly plays on resonator guitars that he has built himself.

In addition to his work as a musician, Gfrerer began to re-research lost knowledge about resonator guitars over the years, to analyze, restore and recreate original instruments from the 1930s. Today he is one of the few globally recognized experts in this field.

In autumn 2018 his fourth album "Polchrome" was released. To do this, the singer-songwriter retired to an old, uncultivated farm tavern in the Carinthian Nock Mountains for a whole year - with twelve guitars from the 1930s, pencil and paper and a cell phone recorder. The result: an album that moves between Americana , the melancholy of the Carinthian song , Hokum , blues , early jazz , Hawaiian music and the Wienerlied , with consistently alpine storylines.

Gottfried David Gfrerer lives alternately in Vienna and Carinthia.

Musical career

Gottfried David Gfrerer came into contact with the polyphony of the Carinthian song and its melancholy mood from an early age. A lot of house music was played at home and classical music was heard; therefore the classical piano as an instrument was in the foreground at the beginning . He quickly became enthusiastic about compositions by the French impressionist Claude Debussy and Modest Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition”, but also - inspired by the Italian spaghetti westerns - about Ennio Morricone .

Already in his youth he discovered his passion for fingerpicking. With youthful enthusiasm he listened to Paul Simon's version of David Graham's Anji from a music cassette within a few days. Folky fingerpicking accompaniments to songs by Donovan , Joan Baez , Bob Dylan and Reinhard Mey followed . Soon it was more complicated techniques and guitar pieces by Werner Lämmerhirt , Martin Simpson, John Renbourn , Marcel Dadi and Doc Watson . Gfrerer began to write songs himself and set poems to music, among others by the American poet Emily Dickinson . Finally he discovered the slide guitar , completely fascinated by the strong moods that could be built up with it and that it could express yourself between the notes.

He also learned autodidactically the music and playing techniques from old blues masters, such as Mississippi John Hurt (to whom he dedicated the song “Don't You Die until You're Dead” on his album “Polychrome” 2018), Tommy Johnson , Big Bill Broonzy , Blind Boy Fuller , Blind Blake , Blind Lemon Jefferson , Son House , but also those of the younger representatives such as Ry Cooder , John Hammond and Rainer Ptacek. Through recordings by Ry Cooder, he came across Blind Willie Johnson and Joseph Spence, whose completely independent, archaic musical universes cast a spell over him.

He also names JJ Cale , the Kinks , Mark Knopfler , Hank Williams , Woody Guthrie , Louis Armstrong , Franz Schubert , Johannes Brahms , Erik Satie and the French jazz musician Boris Vian as his influences.

Due to his friendship with the Malagasy musician Haja Herivao Randrianaivomahefa, who also took part on the album "Stainless Steel", Gfrerer later began to deal with various African styles of music.

Because of their dynamic and percussive tone, Gfrerer often uses single-cone resonator guitars with a wooden body, similar to the “Triolian” model from National , to accompany his songs , and has developed his own personal style with a high recognition value. Roots music , mainly American, but also European. Folk traditions with modern influences, a remixing of the Old and New World, classical music, impressionism , blues , roots, folk , jazz , world , funk , rock , Carinthian song , spaghetti westerns and even hits .

Gfrerer's texts often have a clear pacifist message and are written in English so that they can be understood worldwide.

Discography

solo

  • Karntn is lei a Grobschtan (1992)
  • Gottfried David Gfrerer (1996)
  • Stainless Steel (1998)
  • Scoop & Run (2009)
  • Polychrome (2018)

With others

  • Chuck LeMonds: Road to Limbo (PUP, 1998)
  • Thomas Leeb : Riddle (Thomas Leeb, 1999)
  • Andreas Julius Fasching: Sporthotel Hollabrunn (2000)
  • Eric Spitzer-Marlyn : Against the Rules (2001)
  • Monti Beton : Let It Be Different (Beton Music, 2001)
  • Bootleg Bluhs-Bänd: Auto (2002)
  • Bootleg Bluhs-Bänd: The Double Murder in Gutenbrunn (2002)
  • Monti Beton: The Kinks Acoustic Songbook (Beton Music, 2002)
  • Andre Heller : Call and Echo ( Polydor , 2003)
  • Country air: Styrian and modern ( Extraplatte , 2003)
  • Thomas Schreiber - Gottfried D. Gfrerer: I'll Fly Away (2003)
  • Monti Beton: A jeda Tog (Beton Music, 2004)
  • Fasching's Kuchlradio: The King of Amstetten (Rauschfrei Records, 2004)
  • Landluft: Übers See (Extraplatte, 2005)
  • Chris Gelbmann: The Pink Beast Called Love (Buntspecht, 2005)
  • The Acolytes: Revelation (Beton Music, 2005)
  • Chuck LeMonds: Pink Roshi (2006)
  • Fasching´s Kuchlradio: Renitent Evil (Rauschfrei Records, 2007)
  • Stiefelbein Bluhs-Bänd: Im Sittl - Live CD (2007)
  • Chris Gelbmann: Songster (Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2008)
  • Oliver Podesser: Columbus (Extraplatte, 2008)
  • Monti Beton: Austro Beton (Beton Music, 2009)
  • Hans Theessink : Birthday Bash (Blue Groove, 2009)
  • Chuck LeMonds: LeMonds (Live-In-Trees-Music, 2010)
  • Illute : It always turns out differently than you think (Las Vegas Records, 2010)
  • Monti Beton: The Bob Dylan Sessions (Beton Music, 2011)
  • Monti Beton: Christman Classics Extravaganza (Beton Music, 2011)
  • Schreiber & Gfrerer: The Hank Williams Experience Vol.1 (Beton Music, 2011)
  • Fasching´s Kuchlradio: Grobn (Rauschfrei Records, 2012)
  • Richard Weihs : Wiaschtln (Non Food Factory, 2013)
  • Hermann Posch: Cold River Blues (2014)
  • Martina Kucera: Honey, Sweet & Slow (Styx, 2014)
  • Monti Beton: Austropop An Appreciation (Beton Music, 2014)
  • Thomas Leeb: Trickster (Thomas Leeb, 2015)
  • Jürgen Posch: The Kölla Saga (2015)
  • Monti Beton: Schlager An Appreciation (Beton Music, 2016)
  • The Ghost And The Machine : The Ghost and the Machine (Lili Records, 2016)
  • Simone Kopmajer : Daydreaming (2018)

Film music

  • The Peasant Princess (Music Country Air, 2004)
  • Eva Zacharias (Music Country Air, 2006)
  • The Peasant Princess II (Music Country Air, 2007)
  • The Peasant Princess III (Music Country Air, 2009)
  • Herbstgold (Music Andy Baum , 2010)

Books

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BG PORCIA Spittal, Carinthia. Retrieved November 11, 2018 (German).
  2. ↑ An angry man's estate in the literature archive . October 29, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed November 11, 2018]).
  3. ^ Association SR archive of Austrian popular music: SRA - sound carrier details: Gottfried David Gfrerer. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  4. ^ Archives of Austrian popular music: SRA - sound carrier details: Stainless Steel. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  5. ^ Association SR archive of Austrian popular music: SRA - sound carrier details: Scoop And Run. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Peasant Princess. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Eva Zacharias. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Peasant Princess II - head or heart. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  9. ^ Peasant Princess III - In the dilemma. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  10. ↑ The blues is not a lament
  11. ↑ The blues expert and his resonator guitars . ( guitaracoustic.de [accessed November 11, 2018]).
  12. ^ Höbart, Reinhard: Conceptual thinking of blues musicians in Vienna. 2012, accessed November 11, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Gfrerer, Gottfried David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian musician, songwriter and restorer of resonator guitars
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century