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1
Die erste Begegnung der "großen Art": In München erlebte ich am 29. Oktober 1960 Roy Acuff und seine Smoky Mountain Boys. Der Gitarrist Paul Yandell (bei Kitty Wells und den Louvin Brothers u.a.) spielte zu der Zeit in der Band von AFN- DeeJay Jim Carter. Danach gab es kein Halten mehr. Und der erste Opry-Besuch fand dann erst 17 Jahre später statt. Hier traf ich Roy Acuff ein weiteres Mal.
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Hillbilly-Zeitschrift
Im November 1962 ist die erste Nummer der neuen monatlichen Hillbilly-Zeitschrift „EUROPEAN HAYRIDE" erschienen. Die „EUROPEAN HAYRIDE" ist die erste deutsche Zeitschrift, die sich mit der „Country & Western Music" oder Hillbilly-Musik befaßt. Sie basiert im wesentlichen auf einer kleineren Publikation, der EUROPEAN COUNTRY & WESTERN HITPARADE, welche seit Januar 1961 an einen großen Kreis von Hillbilly-Anhängern versandt wurde. Neben aktuellen Berichten, Plattenneuerscheinungen und Plattenbesprechungen wird in jeder Ausgabe in längeren Artikeln über mehrere Hillbilly-Sänger berichtet. Die drei jungen Leute, die für die „EUROPEAN HAYRIDE" verantwortlich zeichnen, sind der ehemalige AFN (München) Plattenjockey Jim Carter als Herausgeber, der Postinspektor z. A. Hauke P. Strübing als Redakteur und Ulla Klimmer als Sekretärin. (Adresse: 717 Schwäbisch Hall, Postfach.)
Leitgedanke der „EUROPEAN HAYDIRE" ist es, die Hillbilly-Musik in allen ihren Formen zu pflegen, bekannt zu machen und zu fördern. Durch sie sollen Hörer einer weniger anspruchsvollen Musik auf eine ursprüngliche Musik hingewiesen werden.
Die Hillbilly-Musik — sie wird auch Country & Western Music oder Mountain Music genannt — ist die ureigene Form des nordamerikanischen Volksliedes, des Folksong oder Traditional. Als Nachfolger der englischen, irischen, schottischen, deutschen und französischen Balladen und Volksgesänge, die von den ersten weißen Siedlern aus Europa nach Nordamerika eingeführt wurden, stellt sie eine Mischung der verschiedenartigsten Musikgüter dar, in der sich die Geschichte einer wachsenden Nation, die Freude und das Leid ihrer Bewohner widerspiegelt. Die Grundtendenz der Hillbilly-Musik ist von Natur aus sentimental. Die Themen sind aus dem Leben gegriffen.
Von größter Bedeutung ist beim Hillbilly neben Melodie und Text das Arrangement. Als Instrumente werden nur Zupf- und Streichinstrumente verwendet, wie Gitarre, Steel-Guitar, Banjo, Dobro, Autoharp und Fiddle, die gegen die Brust gesetzt wird. Melodie, Text und Arrangement allein bestimmen einen Hillbilly.
Erschienen im Juni 1963 in "Der Plattenteller" (4. Jahrgang, Nr. 6, herausgegeben vom Evangelischen. Presseverband für Bayern, 8 München 2).
3
“A strange kind of opera”
He's Germany's No. One country music fan
Story and photo by RUDI WILLIAMSSCHWABISCH HALL, Germany — When Hauke Struebing was 16 he was scanning a magazine listing of German radio programs, looking for opera offerings. He saw AFN's listing of "Grand Old Opry," so he turned the dial to AFN. He thought it was a strange kind of opera but he didn't touch the dial. "I wanted to see what kind of strange opera the Americans were playing," he recalls. After listening for a while, Struebing got hooked on the knee-slapping, foot-stomping country-and-western sound. Now, at 40, he claims to have the largest personal collection of country music in Germany. "I have 30,000 songs," he said with a big grin. Opening his record file, Struebing said, "I have 4,378 records — 2,415 albums, 1,861 45's and 102 LP's." He celebrated song number 30,000 early in March with a bottle of champagne. Struebing said that 25 years ago there weren't any country-and-western records in Germany.
"That was exotic music to Germans — with some strange instruments like the banjo and steel guitar," said Struebing, who is the German telephone company's liaiso
n with the Army at Dolan Barracks. "AFN was the only source we had to listen to C&W," he said, and so he became an avid listener to such programs as "Stick Buddy Jamboree." As his appetite for "opera" increased, he decided to visit the station in Munich to meet the disc jockeys. "I felt they could tell me more about C&W than I had read," he said. He met Jim Carter, who had a C&W show and C&W band, on his first visit. "I used to go just about everywhere the band played in the Munich, Bad Toelz and Augsburg areas," Struebing said.
Two dreams started forming in Struebing's mind: to become a country-and-western disc jockey and to visit Nashville. "It took me over 20 years, but I made it to Nashville last year," he said, "and I really had a ball. "About 80 country-and-western fans from Germany and Austria went along. This was the first time a C&W fan group made it to Nashville from Germany," he added. A music industry organization gave a party for the group and they met a "lot of people from the country music industry. We liked the southern hospitality. They made us feel like kings," Struebing said.
It didn't take him quite 20 years to become a disc jockey. "I did my first show on Jan. 3, 1975," he said. "They put me in the studio with an engineer and said, 'Live or die.' " He now has an hour-long program on German radio station SDR (Sued-Deutscher Rundfunk) in Stuttgart every two months. "The other month I write a special half-hour program," he said. Struebing has done special programs of country Christmas music, a portrait of John D. Loudermilk, and Johnny Horton and Jim Reeves memorials and in 1973, he wrote a half-hour Hank Williams memorial program. "I also play Grand Old Opry records and give the history of the Opry," he said.
Struebing, who is well-respected throughout Germany for his knowledge of C&W, said, "A few years ago, a German record company wanted to start putting information on their album covers, so they asked me to write it." Since then he has written liner notes for several albums.
Since making his two dreams reality, he is about to make a third one come true — "I'm going to Texas this year," he said. (Sgt. 1.C. Rudi Williams is assigned to the Public Affairs Office at USAREUR Hq.)
Veröffentlicht am 6. April 1978 in "The Stars and Stripes" (Authorized unofficial publication for the U.S. Armed Forces).
4
West Germans Concerned Over Lack of Country Product
By MARGIE BARNETT
• NASHVILLE Among 80 country music enthusiasts visiting Nashville recently from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg, were six German-speaking deejays and country music magazines' representatives who vocalized their problems in getting country product into their countries to be played, reviewed and sold.
At a reception hosted by ASCAP April 4, Hauke Struebing, deejay and editor of Country Corner magazine, said, "The basic problem is the reluctance of the record companies to release new material in these countries. If and when a release is ever made, it is usually several weeks to several months after the initial U.S. release and the country fans in Germany have already bought the records from the U.S., Holland or England. Consequently, the record companies complain of little or no sales, citing lack of audience iterest as the reason, when in actuality it is the fact that the consumers have the product aready and like most people do not buy the same record twice."
The five West German representatives were Struebing, Manfred Vogel, deejay and writer for Country Corner (also a member of the CMA and the European Country Music Assn.), Kurt Rokitta, writer for Country Corner; Ruediger Sommer, deejay; and Waltraud Thiede, Cyclus Publishing Co. and RCA in Hamburg. Peter Anderl of Hillbilly magazine was visiting from Austria.
Radio
There are eight German radio stations broadcasting country music. In order to get product to play on the air, Struebing said that he and others found it necessary to order records from Holland, England or the U.S., in which case they must not only buy the records themselves but pay postage and custom charges as well.The same problem exists for the Country Corner and Hillbilly magazine writers when it comes to reviewing country product. They also find that there is a demand for information on country records and artists, but a definite lack of this information is available to them.
Breakdown
Each of the German industry officials commented as to the service provided by some of the major record labels, and all were in agreement that more often than not, the releases are collections of old material, much of which has been released previously.A breakdown of the companies each was discussed. A general consensus of the panel revealed the following: ABC/Dot and United Artists have Ariola as their licensee and all agreed that their service is the best. The new U.S. releases are promptly delivered in the European countries and promo copies are automatically sent out to the deejays and writers. Capitol and Hitsville are handled by EMI with Capitol having only one or two releases last year and Hitsville slightly more. CBS has only released a couple of albums, as is the case with WEA Intl. and the product from Elektra/Asylum and Warner Brothers. MCA, having recently changed their licensing agreement to Metronome, is now beginning to release more product. Mercury and GRT have little or no product out for the German audiences. RCA, along with most all the companies except ABC/ Dot and UA, doesn't release until several months after the U.S. release.
EMCA
In Holland and Luxembourg, country music is more established, product is more readily available and the radio stations can program more music. This has given rise to the European Country Music Assn. (EMCA), which is composed mainly of fans. It was started a few months ago, the main purpose being to collect and disseminate information about country music and to bring in touring acts and schedule television appearances.TV
Struebing said that TV appearances are mainly responsible for breaking country artists in Europe. Don Williams' appearance on TV in Germany about six months ago spawned a great European following as the successful sales of the single "I Recall A Gypsy Woman" and the Lp, "Visions," would indicate. Manfred Vogel feels that the labels should actively support the tour dates of their artists in Europe.The growing pains of country music in Germany are to be expected, but with frank discussions of the problems between record company executives and the German representatives, perhaps many of the plaguing problems can be alleviated.
Veröffentlicht am 16. April 1977 in "RECORD WORLD". RECORD WORLD war neben BILLBOARD und CASHBOX eine der drei großen Musikzeitschriften in den USA. Der Artikel erschien nach einem Besuch in Nashville Anfang April 1977. (Wiederveröffentlicht auf dieser Seite am 19. September 2004).
