Shiregreen

In a sense, Klaus Adamaschek, born in 1957 in the heart of the Ruhr area, has always made music. At age 15 he already began writing his own songs, influenced by American songwriters such as Kris Kristofferson, Jim Croce or Neil Young. During his university training to be a teacher, concerts as a German-singing songwriter followed, later he founded “ASA 82”, his own folk- and rock band. In 1985, he entered a 20-year musical break, during which he concentrated fully on his professional career. In 2005, virtually at the height of his occupational career, Klaus Adamaschek rediscovered his love for folk music and songwriting, inspired by his second wife Angelika. He now writes high-level English songs that are inspired by the authentic experiences made in exciting years of his life. In 2006, Shiregreen (which now is his pseudonym) records a first self-produced studio album, supported by a handful of musician friends. “Another Life, Another Song” gets quite a positive echo. “Melodic folk-ballads ... an impressive voice that is sure to give you goosebumps ... every phrase captivates the listener”, that is what the “Hersfelder Zeitung” (HZ) said about the album. With the tailwind of this self-produced album, Klaus Adamaschek seeks and finds professional partners in the music business. His second album is produced by Wolfgang Manns at Toolhouse Studios in Rotenburg, one of Germany's state-of-the-art studios. The album, entitled “Dreams and Shadows”, is released in the summer of 2008 by the label “world-music.cd”, which is located in the Saarland's Sankt Ingbert. “Dreams and Shadows” is a multi-faceted and atmospherically dense singer-songwriter album. Every single one of the 14 songs tells its own story: For example “Coming Home”, vivid, almost whispered, a song about a journey home on the Autobahn in the middle of the night, with a driving, catching beat. Or “Running For Rainbows”, which ironically tells the story of getting older and whose melody is reminiscent of the earlier works of Leonard Cohen. Or the laid-back, mellifluous “Piece of Land”, a kind of folk hymn dedicated to Klaus's own property in the Fulda meadows. “Shiregreen sings of desires, fears and yearnings. Others also have those feelings, but seldom have they been transported better into English words.” (Susanne Kanngießer, “Hessische Allgemeine”, 3/12/2008). The new Shiregreen album is available by internet and within a short time will also hit music stores. In the early spring of 2008, Shiregreen wins the world-wide songwriting contest “ComProsers 2008”. The contest is a cooperation of an artist's forum in Los Angeles and the university of Maastricht. Shiregreen's song “Freedom Fighter” holds sway over competitors from five nations, among those 17 quite renowned solo artists and bands from the US alone. On May 18th of 2008, Shiregreen receives the award (along with 667 € of prize money) at AINSI in Maastricht (Netherlands).