What happened 2005?

After 200 Live-Shows in 2004, I decided to cut back a little on Live Shows, which did not really work out - 2005 saw some 180 shows and about 60.000 km on the road...AGAIN! (this is why this page still has no pics or audio, I'm just too busy to take proper care of the website...)

THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO CAME OUT TO SEE THE SHOWS!!!

So what happened that year?

Probably my greatest musical experience ever was the chance to attend Mark O' Connors Fiddle Camp in Nashville and to learn from and play with some of the greatest fiddle players alive like Mark O' Connor, Darol Anger, Buddy Spicher, Mark Wood and many, many others.
At the camp, I met Markus Fahrenberger from Vienna, whom I joined back in Europe later in the year for the Loonaloop Europe Tour. Markus is one of the few European Electric Violinists and we planned to collaborate in the near future.

Like the years before, the Duo project with guitarist/singer Wulli continued to grow and in 2005, we finally managed to put a poster out that shows both our faces...
For the three previous years, we did not even have a poster and we still don't have a demo; recording one is our priority for 2006 (like the years before ;-).
I'm not really sure if this is a good idea because instead of a demo we would need a year with 730 days - Wulli cut back from 340 (!) Live-Gigs in 2004 to about 280 in 2005. (Besides, he is still organising 365 gigs per year at his Music Club "Strohalm" in Erlangen - I have no idea where he takes that energy from)

Skyinbow from the Shetlands approached me for an endorsement deal and so it happened - They build great electric violins based on Fishman Transducer technology and they sound great. Kenny from SKB invited Wulli and me for a tour on the Shetland Islands but we had to call it off due to too many bookings ahead, we aim to do this in 2006.

2005 also was the 6th summer open-air tour in a row with Chawwerusch Theatre Company as an actor and musician (besides violin also on Didgeridoo, Shruti and other exotic instruments). I really love the "Chawweruschkies" and loved the tours but I decided to take a break from it, to be more "available" in summer, putting music more in the foreground.

I did not really have time for a holiday in 2005, but I could make up for it by playing with Tom Kellers Acoustic Lounge on the island of Fuerteventura and with Amarillo, Mark Bender and Rock'n'Rodeo on a cruise through the Mediterranian Sea and with Australian Electro-Dance band Loonaloop in Prague and Plzen.

Throughout the year, I also had some great gigs with my Folk-band Bunt, the Country Boys and Girls from Amarillo and Bluetrain and of course some great shows with the Killer-LineUp Bands from my hometown area (Mannheim), ME & the Heat, Tom Keller, Uwe Janssen Band and Thursdayclub. I shared stage with many folks from that scene also at gigs with ThisIsHowWeDoIt and MondaysClub.

And of course, there were lots of things that didn't get done which means that 2006 won't get boring either...See you out there!