Hi folks,

there'll be a new song of ours out soon. Let me tell you the story behind it.
Late last year I was asked to participate in a fairly original project for a CD called "Momentaufnahmen" (Snapshots). The idea was to put various local singers in a studio with a talented cast of local musicians and have them work out acoustic arrangements for songs that the producers pick. Record these unrehearsed songs on the spot.

Although the concept did sound interesting, it was a little too vague for me. I like to call the shots concerning which songs to record and who to record them with. There were very good musicians in the group and I had worked with some of them before but the Gunslingers had just come back from our short tour of Germany in December and we wanted to use that opportunity to record together for the first time (Rüz, our drummer, was still fairly new to the band then). Anyway, they agreed to let me play with Ed, Andy and Rüz and Hans Heinl joined us to add some organ.

Figuring that an all-acoustic album would probably not be lacking in ballads and slow stuff, I suggested to record an original uptempo boogie-rock thing called "No Penitentiary." Again, the producers let us have our way. I think we got a nice version of it in just one afternoon with some wicked dobro licks provided by Ed. Other songs on that CD worth checking out are Julian Fischer's version of "Ballad Of The Snow Leopard And The Tanqueray Cowboy", a David Rodriguez-song that Lyle Lovett recorded for his "Step Inside This House" album, and Dennis Schütze's original composition "Leave This Town" featuring Gunslingers-drummer Rüz.

Anyway, the whole project will be presented live on Saturday night (June 24th) at the Umsonst&Draussen-festival (www.umsonst-und-draussen.de) in Wuerzburg. Ed is the musical director of the band and I'll be contributing "No Penitentiary" plus another song. Markus Rill & The Gunslingers will play an hour-long set on Sunday (June 25th). Ed and his blues band, The Bootleggin' Hobos, will also appear on Saturday. You'll find more live dates on this site.

Take care,
Markus