Texas Lightning

Texas Lightning
Jane Comerford and Jon Flemming Olsen appearing on Texas Lightning in September 2007
General information
Genre (s)	Country
founding	1996
Website	www.texaslightning.net
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar , keyboard	Malte Pittner ("Marshall") (since 2009)
Vocals , ukulele , keyboard , violin	Jane Comerford
Drums , guitar , keyboard , vocals	Olli Dittrich ("Ringofire")
Electric guitar , 5-string banjo	Markus Schmidt ("Fastfinger")
Double bass , electric bass , Hammond organ , melodica , stylophone , vocals	Uwe Frenzel ("Friendly")
former members
Vocals, guitar	Jon Flemming Olsen ("The Flame") (1996-2009)
Singing, guitar , mandolin	Susanne Eder ("Miss Susu Belle") (1996-2004)
Double bass , vocals	Larry "The Psychodoc" Kils (2001-2003)
Drums , vocals	Stefan "Texas" Hansch (1996-2004)
double bass	Chris "The Greyhound" Walther (1996-2001)
Electric guitar , Dobro	"Little" Mick Schulz (1999-2002)

Texas Lightning is a country - band from Hamburg . In addition to cover versions of classic country hits, the five members interpret popular pop songs such as Like a Virgin ( Madonna ), Man in the Mirror ( Michael Jackson ) or Ticket to Ride ( The Beatles ) in country style. The group took 14th place at the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with their self-written country song No No Never . The piece reached number one in the German single charts.

Band biography

The band was founded in 1996 by Jon Flemming Olsen . The first appearance came on December 23, 2000 in Knust, Hamburg, the band name was then Texas Lightning and the Rodeo Rockets. After numerous concerts and two self-produced CDs, the musicians took part in the first “Country Music Prize” in 2004 and won.

Two of the band members left the band and Olsen ("The Flame"), known as the takeaway owner Ingo from the TV show Dittsche ( WDR ), was able to win Olli Dittrich, alias "Ringofire", as a drummer . The Australian Jane Comerford became the new singer . Markus "Fastfinger" Schmidt and Uwe "Friendly" Frenzel are also members of the group. On 22 August 2005, the second was released studio album of the band Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ... with country cover versions of popular rock and pop tracks such as Kiss of Prince . Like a Virgin was released as a single . In autumn 2005, Texas Lightning went on tour in Germany .

Texas Lightning prevailed on March 9, 2006 against Thomas Anders and Vicky Leandros in the German preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and represented Germany in the final on May 20, 2006 in Athens . For their competition candidacy they recorded a self-written country song ( No No Never , music and text by Jane Comerford) for the first time , which was number one in the German single charts for several weeks. In the decision in the contest they finished 14th out of 24 participants. In September they released the single I Promise and in October a new edition of the old album under the title Meanwhile, Back at the Golden Ranch ... with six new songs and a bonus DVD .

Although Texas Lightning announced the end of their collaboration in November 2008, the new album Western Bound was released on April 17, 2009 - a kind of soundtrack to the children's film WineToons - The legend of the treasure in Silbersee  - whereupon the band in cooperation with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra new songs recorded. Seven Ways to Heaven was released as a single, and a video was also produced. On August 28, 2009, Texas Lightning announced that founding member Jon Flemming Olsen would leave the band and be replaced by Deichkind's Malte Pittner .

Surname

Olli Dittrich in Texas Lightning (2011)

Former band leader Jon Flemming Olsen has explained the name of the band on several television talk shows. According to him, the formation was already named Texas Lightning when it was informed about the meaning of this term by the American actor Larry Hagman . According to this, Texas Lightning is an ironic term in US colloquial language for arson with the aim of insurance fraud , known in German as "warm renovation", "burning up" or also as "hot demolition".

The name of the album Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ... refers to a phrase commonly used in the USA to initiate a change of subject and which originally comes from the Horse Operas (television westerns from the 1950s).

Awards

• 2004
  • Country Music Award (as Texas Lightning and the Rodeo Rockets)
• 2006
  • Winner of the German preliminary decision at the Eurovision Song Contest
  • Honoring the Greek ESC fan club
  • Honorary Citizenship of the US state of Texas
  • Honorary Citizenship of the City of Texas, Queensland Australia
  • German Country Music Awards
    • Newcomer of the year
    • Group of the year
    • Album of the year
    • Best Songwriter
    • Single of the year for No No Never
  • Napster Award
    • Most played German artist
    • Most Played German Song

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2002	Call the Firebrigade, Honey, the Neighbors Got ...	-	-	-	as Texas Lightning and the Rodeo Rockets
2005	Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ...	DE3 gold (32 weeks)DE	AT13 (15 weeks) AT	CH28 (19 weeks) CH
2006	Meanwhile, Back at the Golden Ranch ...	DE31 (10 weeks) DE	-	-
2009	Western Bound	-	-	-

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2005	Like a Virgin Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ...	DE91 (1 week) DE	-	-
2006	No No Never Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ...	DE1 platinum (38 weeks)DE	AT4 (34 weeks) AT	CH6 (34 weeks) CH
	I Promise Meanwhile, Back at the Golden Ranch ...	DE51 (9 weeks) DE	AT61 (3 weeks) AT	CH87 (2 weeks) CH
2009	Seven Ways to Heaven Western Bound	DE80 (1 week) DE	-	-

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Susanne Eder ( Memento from June 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ texaslightning.net:The Texas Lightning News - Seven Ways to Heaven, February 21, 2009.
4. ↑ CMN: Jon Flemming Olsen leaves Texas Lightning . Retrieved August 29, 2009.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH
6. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Call the Firebrigade, Honey, the Neighbors Got… review 

Web links

Commons : Texas Lightning  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Texas Lightning website of the band