Hiya boys & girls,

Thanks a bunch for your support on our last three shows.
The Songwriter Jamboree on July 5 at Club L was an all-around great day with fine music from What About Carson, Hannes Conrads, Juli Kapelle, Markus Leidig, Marisa Yeaman and me & the boys. Next time bring your friends and neighbors!

Felix and I had a wonderful gig at Gasthaus Sorgenfrei in Altendorf on July 11. It was supposed to be an outdoors show but we moved it inside ... well, the place was packed. I had a lot of fun having a little more flexibilty in the set list after a bunch of band gigs and I particularly enjoyed that a whole bunch of people in the audience already knew many of my songs. That felt so nice and it's been happening quite a bit lately. Niels Cremer opened and joined us on Folsom Prison Blues. He sounded real good and I daresay Felix and I were in fine form as well.

Three days later we played another full band show with backing vocalist Anja Purps at the Weinfest am Stein in Würzburg. A beautiful location, lots of folks in the audience and we sounded alright. A good one.

I've got a few weeks off now before I play a few dates in England in early August.
Just in time for the England tour an interview I did for Songwriters On Songwriters has been published here.

One more thing I'd like to alert you to: Besides being on Twitter, I've also started playing around with Audioboo. Every now and then I'll post an informally recorded vocal-guitar version of a new song, a rearranged old one or a cover that happens to strike my fancy. These are very rough versions ... but then again, you might enjoy some of them. Currently you can check out a rearranged version of Nowhere Begins there. Again, these are not professional recordings but since they're not downloadable as mp3s I allow myself to post some home recorded working versions there.

Have fun looking around, see ya soon,
Markus

Würzburg, July 4, 2009

Hi guys,

thank you for all the positive feedback I received for our festival gigs at the Würzburg Umsonst & Draussenand Jam am Fluss in Nuremberg. I had a heck of a time playing with the band, they're all great guys and wonderful musicians.

This Sunday, July 5, I'm hosting a festival, the Songwriter Jamboree, at Club L in Würzburg. Please come out, we're going to have six acts starting around 2.30 pm and going till about 9.30/10 pm.
You'll get Marisa Yeaman, a fantastic Australian songwriter-guitarist, my good friend and supreme songwriter Robert Oberbeck, acoustic indie act Juli Kapelle, Würzburg's own Hannes Conrads and What About Carson from Nuremberg. Of course, I'll also be playing a set.
I think it's going to be a real nice event, provided you all come out and bring all your friends & neighbors.

See ya,
Markus

Würzburg, June 27, 2009

Hi guys,

on my recent trip up north, I swung by Balcony TV in Hamburg with my buddy Sven "Boogie Augustin". We played "The Things That Count", check it out: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1G_u59WDDI

Hope you like it.

One more thing: My debut CD "Gunslinger's Tales" had been sold out for a little while but we've noe released a reissue with four bonus tracks. One of the bonus tracks is a new recording of "Wild Coyote", a hidden track on the original album. I like how it came out, you can check it out right here at
www.myspace.com/markusrill
The other three bonus tracks are live recordings from Radio Hot FM from back then.
It's still a real nice CD and you get a lotta bang for your buck: 14 songs, 10 Euros, order by sending an email to markusrill@yahoo.com

Keep cool, see ya,
Markus

Würzburg, June 23, 2009

Hiya folks,

whew, that was a busy weekend. Here's my short recap.

On Thursday night we played a warm-up gig for the festival with the full glorious band of Jan van Bijnen (guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, lapsteel, baritone guitar and vocal), Felix Leitner (guitar, slide guitar, dobro, acoustic guitar), Christoph Reiss (bass),  Robert Oberbeck (drums, vocal) and myself (vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, harp).
We played two sets at club Lucky 7 in Würzburg to a minuscule audience. It was still important to play under live circumstances as opposed to getting together in the rehearsal room. After the show we weeded out a few songs for Friday's 75 minute set at the Umsonst & Draussen.

Things were a little difficult at the big Umsonst & Draussen festival gig on Friday. It's really hard to get good stage sound when you only have a 15 minute changeover. I still don't know if anybody heard the dobro out front. And even though Jan stood right beside me, I didn't hear much of him on stage.
Filming this show for a possible DVD release may have added to us feeling a little more tense than we would've liked to.
I do think we presented a load of good songs and played them well for the most part. We did get a fantastic audience reaction and received some very positive feedback. And yet I think we all felt we could've done a little better. I still remember exactly where I played a wrong chord or made a small mistake - and I hope it won't screw up the sound and video recording.

Not surprisingly, Saturday's gig at Jam am Fluss in Nürnberg was the most enjoyable. The pressure was off, the stage was small (which enabled us to hear one another very well) and we were all loose.
This guys really are a kickass band and I'd love to get a chance to tour with all of them. The new songs sounded really cool and the guys are a lovely, funny bunch.
Oh, and with Robert as the instigator, the band earned itself a new name. Henceforth we will be known as Markus Rill & The Troublemakers.

From Nürnberg I hurried back to the U&D where I participated in a tribute for Michael Lorz, a local musician who passed away last year. Since Michael was a friend who had played mandolin and dobro on my first two records and soccer with me for ten years, I played two songs off "Gunslinger's Tales" in his memory. I feel like we played a nice tribute show for him.

See ya soon,
Markus