Road Music Made In Switzerland

Power Blues Rock

Acoustic Bluegrass Instrumentals

Swiss pop

80 strong Choir

it all started when I was 11 years old with my school teacher who’d play acoustic guitar and sing songs to her class. I knew I had to try it and persuaded my parents to buy me a second hand three quarter size guitar .I used to practice a lot and the guitar started to take over my world. As I didn’t have an amplifier I would borrow my fathers reel to reel tape recorder, put the microphone inside the guitars soundhole and leave the recorder paused in record mode so that I could hear my ‘electric’ guitar via the recorders speaker. I also started experimenting with song writing and recording.



I joined a school rock band and we had a lot of fun playing gigs and partying – my school work definitely suffered but all I really wanted to do was play music. We were playing songs by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rory Gallagher, The Rolling Stones etc as well as some of my own originals. I also became interested in the classical guitar (parent pressure to play some proper music!) and eventually studied the classical guitar at the Guildhall School of Music in London.



I left the music college in 1981 and began working as a professional musician. Although primarily a rock and blues player I had good sight reading abilities and worked in many show backing bands and orchestras including the Rob Charles Orchestra and Singers, and The London Tijuana Showband (featuring the late great Paul Ringham), I moved to London in 1984 and became active in the West End Musical scene playing ‘Evita’, ‘Cats’, ‘A Chorus Line’, “Me And My Girl” & “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers”. I was also playing studio sessions and various special concerts – The Bolshoi Ballet was particularly interesting!



On September 14th 1988 my life changed although I didn’t know it at the time. I started a 6 week European tour of the rock musical Hair. It was an amazing time and the 6 weeks became four and a half years on the road. I finally “stepped off the bus” in 1993 after hundreds of Hair shows (interspersed with a couple of other tours) not only as a guitarist but also as the musical director. I was now living in Switzerland with my swiss wife Babsy and a young family. I decided to try something different and recorded a solo CD acoustic singer/songwriter style and began playing a lot of gigs in Switzerland. Next came a second CD which was recorded in London with some of my studio session buddies. The style changed to indie pop rock and again came more gigs including a promo tour in the UK.



A chance meeting with a music executive in 1999 led to me visiting Nashville, the home of country music, and a genre I did not previously know much about. I was very impressed with the modern country sounds and upon returning to Switzerland became involved in the swiss country scene. Country bands started to include my songs in their repertoire and I recorded with The Tennessee Heartbreakers , Valerie Joy and Aleinah Crane. In 2001 I recorded my own ‘country/pop’ CD and managed to get a top 40 radio hit in America with the song “When You Find Love”. I was the musical director for the Swiss Country All Stars concert at the 10th anniversary Klewenalp Open Air festival in 2004 and subsequenty spent 3 years as musical director for Switzerlands first lady of country Suzanne Klee Also during this time the indie rock band Blotch recorded two CDs of songs featuring my lyrics and Cyril Mauderlis music . In 2003 my old yearnings for playing rock and blues returned and I joined the band Chickenhouse. To date we have recorded three CDs together and played lots of cool shows. One of my favourites was supporting Lynyrd Skynyrd before 2500 people in 2009. After several years playing occassional single shows with Dusty Boots the band asked me to join as a permanent member in 2007. Since then I have played around 100 concerts with the band, produced two CDs , one DVD and had a great time.

Blotch have metamorphised into the pop band Macy and released their first CD "Calling Out " (still featuring my lyrics) in 2009. The second will be released in 2011.

In 2009 I also released an album of acoustic instrumentals "Too Many Flies".

As a “jobbing” musician I still play any gig that comes along inbetween my commitments with Dusty Boots and Chickenhouse.

Mundart FarmerRock