Blue Side of Town

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------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------- --------------------------------------Blue Side Of Town is the most stable and oldest permanent bluegrass band in the southern part of Germany. Their home is Freiburg im Breisgau, where 75% of the band members have lived and worked for a long time.It was in the early 80s, when two members of the local Folk & Blues Club in Freiburg Germany began to play bluegrass music. Harald Richter and Michael Zumstein were keen to build a band, they looked for a banjo and bass player and thought of a suitable name. "Tequila Turnpike" was born and began playing this style of music to the local audience.Just in time for the opening of the local Jazzhouse (a place for all kinds of music styles – not only jazz) in autumn of 1987, the band reformed and Harald and Michael joined up with Harm von Lintig on Banjo, Walter Jungwirth on Bass and Thomas Klähn on Fiddle. 1992 they decided that ten years of "Tequila Turnpike" was enough and they all disbanded.However, in Basel, Switzerland, a new bluegrass band named "Blue Side of Town) was formed by Stephan Behler (originally from Göttingen Germany, but then studying in Basel, Switzerland) and three musically unemployed bluegrass musicians: Thomas Klähn, Harm von Lintig and Hubert Huber (who had been with Tequila Turnpike before Walter). This lineup stayed the same for about three years until in 1995 Michael Zumstein replaced Stephan, who left for professional reasons. Since then, Blue Side of Town can be heard in Switzerland, the eastern part of France up to Northern Germany regularly.Since 1987 (as "Tequila Turnpike”) Thomas Klähn and Michael Zumstein have been playing bluegrass music togehter. The bass part was shared between Walter Jungwirth and Hubert Huber during the entire time, changing shifts again just at the end of 2006, when Hubert took Walters part. Once and again there has been a creative break, one or the other took a timeout, but nevertheless the foursome met again and again to play their favourite music together. So we are now speaking of a 75% original "Tequilla Turnpike” lineup, completed by several banjo players, which is currently Robert Rott (from boardering France). Many other musicians from Germany, France and Switzerland have been part of Blue Side Of Town since 1993 and each of them has contributed to the multifolded style of the band. In addition to the already mentioned musicians these were Andreas Wäldele (fiddle), Eric Cousin (banjo), and Pascal Spitz (banjo).official band website: www.bluesideoftown.de