By Peter Struijk
An introduction by Rainer himself:
I played National guitars almost all of my life. It started as a fan of Rory Gallagher who always played acoustic sets in all of his concerts. Especially his songs on the National Triolian knocked me out. And so I startet guitar at the age of 13 trying to figure out what he was doing. Rory always explained where he got the bluessongs from. So I found Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Scrapper Blackwell (who actually played the same model!). I worked as a cabdriver for years and finally ended up working in a guitarshop in Munich where they sold new Dobro guitars and old Vintage Nationals. Early in the 90's the shopowners were so dissappointed with the quality of the new Dobro guitars, that we decided to try our own line of CONTINENTAL Resonatorguitars after we found some guys in Slovakia who offered to produce the metalbodies and the resonators for us. The original inventors of National came exactly from that area: John Dopyera and his brothers! We came on the market with our CONTINENTAL Tricone model first and Don Young and Gregor McGaineswere first with their NATIONAL RESOPHONIC Style O singlecone model. We met at the musicfair in L.A. right at the big earthquake in 1993. Real funny and dedicated guys. And of course Bob Brozman belonged to the gang, too. I learned a lot from this fantastic musician. He opened my musical taste for Hawaiian music, Calypso and all that stuff. I also startet playing Ukulele, Hawaaiinguitar and Mandolin by then.
In Munich I jumped right into a great bluesscene at that time. There was a fantastic bluesclub and a lot of good players that got me a start playing my bluessongs. With Hans O. Graf, one of the shopowners of the AMI company, I started a band called THE SONS OF THE DESERT. We had a lot of fun, playing a lot of gigs and recording four CDs together. In 2002 I startet to work fulltime as a musician and guitarteacher and a writer for the german GUITAR magazin where I explained a bluessong every month with all the background of the players and the music. In 2011 I met Tanja Wirz in Switzerland and we started our duo THE RED HOT SERENADERS. Tanja played Vintage Jazz and Swing all of her life and this added another dimension to my playing. We are playing together since then and recorded two CDs. We also organize a lot of workshops in France and Switzerland, where we teach all about Blues and Jazz and guitar and singing.
"My favourite National is the first good one I got in 1990 – the 1932 Style 0 Serialnumber S3666. I played that guitar on every gig I did since then. That must be around 2000 gigs. Great guitar with a lot of bite in the bass, power in the midrange and sweet, ringing trebles".
Interview
1. Can you remember your first experience with blues/roots music?
- When I was 12 or 13 years old I was a big fan of Rory Gallagher. I loved his acoustic sets in between his electric sets. And he always talked about the old players and where he got his songs from. In an interview he talked about his 10 favorite LPs and I ordered all of them. Blind Boy Fuller, Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Lonnie Johnson and so on. And I was lost for the world to do anything else but study this kind of music. Then I started to look for livegigs where I could find acoustic players. Werner Lämmerhirt, Sammy Vomacka, - but also Louisiana Red, Willie Mabon and all the guys that toured with the AMERICAN FOLK BLUES FESTIVAL.
2. Name your top 3 pre war players and tell us why.
Son House for his intense singing and slideplaying on the National guitars. This guy had more power alone than five Heavymetal Bands with loads of amplifiers. Big Bill Broonzy is another one that I love a lot. He plays with a lot of swing, but in a very bluesy style. And he has so many different styles! It is very hard to choose only three players, but Sol Hoopii has to be on list, too. Fantastic player with a lot of soul, technique and a wonderful tone on the hawaiian-steelguitar. Even though he is actually a hawaian player, he mixes Hawaiian music with blues, swing, tango and uses a lot of humor in his playing.
3. Are they your inspiration sources for your own playing as well?
Yes, plus so many players more. My suggestion for being a good player: If you like Blues - don't listen only to Blues. Listen also to Hawaiian music on the Ukulele, Ragtime on the piano, Django Reinhard for Swing, Giovanni Giovale for Italian mandolin style and include that in your bluesplaying.
4. Besides guitar, you also play and teach mandolin and Ukulele. I know people can find you at workshops. Do you also offer private lessons?
I like teaching! We are organizing workshops in Switzerland, in Provence/France and at Tanja's place in Rüti/Zürich. We are also teaching at a music-school in Zürich called GALOTTI. It is molded after the Oldtown School For Folkmusic in Chicago where Big Bill Broonzy started to teach in 1958 before he died. And of course we also offer private lessons.
5. When learning or writing new songs, do you have a strategy or does it come more naturel?
I am not so much interested in writing songs. There are so many good ones that I still want to learn. And I could never write such good songs. I feel more at home at the tradition of taking songs, try to learn them as accurate as possible. Then after you start playing them, they will start to modify in your own way. Depends of course a lot on the musicians you play with.
6. For our guitar enthusiasts, let's talk about that for a moment. Do you have a guitar in your collection with a special story that you would like to share?
Yes, that is my NATIONAL STYLE 0, that I bought in 1991 from a private collector in Nashville. I had tons of Nationals in my hands, but this is absolutly one of the best sounding intruments. I played that on every of my nearly 2000 gigs I did since then. Another instrument I love very much is a Gibson J-35 from the 30's that belonged to Paul Geremia, one of my guitar-heroes. It was one "decorated" with rhinestones for a countryfan, and that had to be removed and fixed. So you still can see all the scars - but the sound is still fantastic!
7. You're of course a big fan of Nationals too. How is the passion for these instruments started?
Rory Gallagher played on his acoustic sets on his Martin woodbody guitar and a lot of songs on his National sunburst Duolian. That knocked me off my feet and I was dreaming for years of having one of those. I started looking around in the 80's, but there was no chance in Germany to find a vintage instrument somewhere. So I started with a cheap Dobro model - the HoundDog woodbody with a spider cone. Awful instrument! Then I got an upgrade to a metalbody Dobro - still a no-good instrument. Rudie Blazer was playing with the COUNTRYBLUES PROJECT at that time and he gave me a hint, where I could find a vintage instrument in the US. I ordered my first National at the end of the 80's - but the cone was broken and it was only rattle all over the place. So, I took the guitar to Munich to the FOLKLADEN and their luthier repaired it for me. Then I started to listen to all the great National bluesplayers like Tampa Red, Son House, Blind Boy Fuller - and the guys at FOLKLADEN hired me for the shop. In the 90's we started to produce the CONTINENTALguitars, the same time when workers at the DOBRO factory started their own NATIONAL RESOPHONIC Co. in California.
8. You have a nice collection, but do you still have a so called "dream guitar"?
No, I played so many good guitars in my life that I realized how much it depends on the player and not on the instrument. I was a lousy player when I started and not even the good guitars helped much. A real good player can get a good sound on nearly every guitar.
9. As The Red Hot Serenaders you teamed up with Tanja Wirz. I sure enjoy your videos together a lot! Can you tell our readers about your work with her?
I met Tanja in 2011 and on one hand our voices and playing styles matched perfectly from the beginning. On the other hand, I did not know much about Swing-guitar before I met her and I learned many new things through her. She not only plays guitar, but also ukulele, clarinet, cajon, washboard! We play a lot as a Duo, but if we play for swingdancers, we might add a sousaphone, upright bass and a trumpet. And we even have a 7 piece orchestra where we play in a New-Orleans-blues-style!
10. As our last question, can we expect new projects/recordings coming up this year?
We are a bit lazy about recording. Playing live is what we really love. Nobody wants to pay for recordings anyway nowadays, so if you want to hear the SERENADERS, you got to hire them!~
To find out more about Rainer and his duo with Tanja Wirz "The Red Hot Serenaders" visit their website (in a later issue we'll publish an interview with the great Tanja Wirz)
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