There is a bluesman over in Germany. You might not know him, but you should, and once you do you will be amazed. thecountryblues.com has him covered in two ways. Our European correspondent Johnny Petersen interviewed the fiery player and wrote a full profile. Separately, thecountryblues.com editor Frank Matheis was asked to write something for the liner notes to his hot new album Blue River Rising. We share both with you.
By Johnny Petersen 2021
He began playing the guitar at age 15. With his own words, “My older brother had an electric guitar so I sneaked into his room when he was not at home and tried to sound like Joe Strummer, Tony Iommi or Fast Eddie to impress the girls in my hometown. Well, it worked out well, the girls liked it so I kept playing.”
When asked about his inspirations he gives a very poetic answer, “My inspiration has always been the road of life and the stories you run across while walking on it.” It is these small stories van Merwyk is recapturing in his lyrics. He is a true storyteller and so differs from so many of his contemporaries. He is self-taught on the guitar but has taken influences from local musicians like Gerry Spooner and Roger Clarke-Johnson. Over the years he has toured with a lot of musicians who naturally has evolved his playing. He mentions names like Big Daddy Wilson, Louisiana Red and Lazy Lester, just to mention a few of the most famous. He also mentions a whole list of other names of inspiration, too many to be listed here. He is always curious of new music, no matter what style, among others The Black Pumas who currently are rising in fame.
Van Merwyk performs and entertains at large festivals throughout Europe and also at smaller clubs, either as an acoustic solo artist, together in different acoustic duos with either blues harp player and singer Gerd Gorke, the piano giant Christian Dozzler or with Louisiana Blues poet Larry Garner. He also plays with his band “The Jookbox Zoo” and for local gigs he still keeps his school-day-friend-band The Snooks running.
Michael van Merwyk developed his talent when he was a young hungry guitar player in a band, playing at a local venue called the Roadhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, either doing the warming up before the more famous artists or by backing them up. There he played with and learned from a number of famous blues artists such as Jimmy Rodgers, Joe Louis Walker, Jimmy Johnson, which adds to the list above.
Van Merwyk was fortunate to grow up in Rheda-Wiedenbrück as there was a Jazz- and Blues-club with international acts. So he was able to change the German Schlager on the mainstream radio to the music of Howlin Wolf, Sonny boy Williamson II, Raahasan Roland Kirk, etc. The city also had local town-parties with blues, boogie-woogie and jazz. But as so many other young men he began with playing more popular music like the Clash, Judas Priest, Motörhead and stuff like that. The change came when a friend told him to listen to a radio show called “Blues At Night”. The first song he heard was Howlin’ Wolf with “Smokestack Lightning” which hit him just like lightning. He was hooked.
In his early twenties his first child was on its way, so he decided to get a proper job in order to support his new family. He became a graphic designer and raised 5 children, only playing local gigs for the next twenty years. He started booking bands for the “Roadhouse” and among a whole bunch of famous names he became a close friend with Larry Garner from Baton Rouge. Friends in the last 20 years van Merwyk use to play in Garners band when touring in Europe. They also occasionally tours as a duo and recorded a CD together, “Up-close and Personal”. In 2009 van Merwyk began touring full time again because Big Daddy Wilson, after van Merwyk had been backing him at a festival, gave him the opportunity to go on the road as part of his acoustic trio. His kids, now grown, he took the opportunity. They toured all over Europe, went to Memphis, cowrote some songs and van Merwyk played on his “Thumb A Ride” album. van Merwyk has released 13 albums so far as well as appeared on 3 more, the latest one, “Blue River Rising” to be released in October this year.
Between gigs van Merwyk is still doing graphic designs like newspaper layouts, CD covers and posters for a number of International artist like Duke Robillard, Big Daddy Wilson, Mike Zito, Omar & The Howlers, Sue Foley, Jon Cleary, Terry Evans and for other artists on RUF Records as well. On top of it all he’s won a bunch of awards as singer and guitar player and even placed 2nd at the IBC in Memphis.
Van Merwyk is longing to get back out on the road again after the Covid-19 lockdowns. Misses sitting close to the audience, solo as well as a duo and with his band.
CD liner note contribution by Frank Matheis
If you listen to Michael van Merwyk’s music with your eyes, you’ll see a very tall, imposing white German guy, with a Dutch name – an unlikely purveyor of the deep-roots, down-home blues. What’s he going to do, you might wonder. After all, he seems far removed from the origins of American roots music. A much preferential method is to listen to music with your ears. Then you will hear an accomplished, fiery songster belting out fierce and emotive songs in the acoustic roots & blues tradition. He does it with reverence and dignity. He’s not faking a black accent, not disrespecting the African American heritage of this music that was rooted in the exploitation and oppression of the Jim Crow era. He’s not claiming to have invented it; or, giving himself false credit for keeping it alive. He plays it with respect and passionate devotion. in a deep, meaningful way with a tip of the hat to the originators during the golden era of this music. He’s startingly good, as a singer/songwriter and guitarist, slide or fingerpicking. There have been great European blues singers and songsters since the mid-1960 as part of the folk & blues revival. Michael van Merwyk now deserves a seat at the table with the best of them. He sings in a rich tenor, almost baritone voice, and he is a swiftly skilled, virtuosic guitarist. His new release Blue River Rising has everything done right, exquisitely tasteful, well-crafted songs, with hot, superb instrumentation. All that in a generous set of songs, mostly written by van Marwyk. His harmonica partner Gerd Gorke plays along sensitively and elegantly, adding just the right touch to van Marwyk’s powerful and gritty merrymaking. This fine album will give you a deserved dose of fun and joy in this mean pandemic, and that’s what roots & blues music has always done, give you lift in troubled, hard times. We need this now, the real deal, for sure, and it works like dynamite!
