By Johnny Petersen 04/27/20
I had the chance to meet with Tim Lothar at a concert in Lund, close to Malmö in Southern Sweden in 2016. He had kindly offered to show a few tricks and licks on the guitar and we also got to talk a bit. He is well known for creating his own interesting chord variations.
Tim Lothar, born 1968, is the unlikely rock drummer who one day after 25 years of playing got up from behind the drums, bought an old guitar and started to play acoustic roots-blues. Just like that. I asked him if he had learnt to play the guitar when he was young, but no. His only beforehand experience of a guitar was when he was 17, he told me. Then he found an electric guitar in waste dump, took it home and tried out some simple chords on it. When a string broke, he threw it away.
It wasn’t until several years later, when an acquaintance asked him home to listen to him playing roots blues, something slumbering inside of him awoke and he felt –“This is the thing I want to do”. That is now 17 years and several CDs ago. Today he is touring all over Europe, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. Mostly he teams up with Old Timey player Peter Nande on harmonica, jug, Jews harp and wash tub bass.
While they have been friends and played together for many years, both Lothar and Nande are engaged in separate activities and are not performing as a duo full time. Catching them together in a live duo performance will not prove as easy as getting to know them through their CDs “Two For The Road” and “Walk Right In”, as well as on their frequent collaborations with the Elite of Danish Country Blues, known as “The Blues Jamboree,” one of Peter Nande’s creations.
When listening to their music, wether on stage or on CD, one can’t help but be taken back to the dusty street corners of Memphis or Greenville in 1920’s. Happy, catchy, crazy and unpredictable. Their stomping feet moves the feet of the audience. A trademark of Tim’s and a reminder of his drumming years is that he always has something to keep the beat with. The simplest is a mic inside the guitar case on which he stomps his right foot. Sometimes he has a small drum item, a bass drum – or an old suitcase with a foot-pedal and a hi hat.
They take turns singing but the main vocal is done by Tim’s hoarse voice. When he is singing Peter may be up to just anything. Buzzing the Jew’s harp, Twanging the rope on his washtub base, blowing his Jug, squeezing the shit out of a toy big. Or simply, playing the harmonica with an intense presence.
Already in 2008, Tim received the award “Best Danish Blues Name of The Year” and the following year he also received the award “Best Danish Blues Release” for his CD “In It For The Ride”. In Germany he received the German Blues Award in 2014. When on his own he has progressed from playing covers of the old heroes from first half of the last century to writing and singing his own music, without losing the abovementioned groove. All of his songs are tales from his own life, often from the life on the road (or rather on trains) and from his home town of Fredrikshavn in northern Jutland. He is intense and personal when he tells stories of his life and then let them turn into songs, skillfully backed up by Peter Nande or, when in Germany, harpist Holger ‘Hobo’ Daub. In 2018 he occasionally teamed up with the Hungarian band Mojo Workings.
On stage he uses two guitars; one simple, worn Dobro Reso from way back when and a Gibson L1 from the seventies, but they sound amazing together with his soulful voice! Note; he recently switched his Dobro for a brand new National Duolian. Peter Nande was happy, -“Now we can play in tune,” he said, when we met up with the duo last summer.
When one delves into the Danish Blues scene it’s quite impossible not to encounter Tim’s co-player, talented Peter Nande. He pops up everywhere, even in non-blues projects. He’s a man with many pots on the stove and he has become the fixer in the Danish blues circles, especially when it comes to acoustic country blues and Old Timey music.
Peter is also born in 1968 and it began already in he’s teens with a mouth harp. He borrowed books on Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Terry and tried desperately to get something out of his harmonica but it took several years before he finally understood how to do it. He realized that he needed better role models so as a 20-year old he moved to Copenhagen in order to learn more about the blues. He has stayed for more than 30 years so far.
Besides his day job as an engineer (constructing wind mills), he has toured and recorded with his own band, participated in more than ten CDs as well as jammed with most of the artists on the Danish blues scene as well as international guest stars. Back in 2007 he received the award “Blues Artist Of The Year” at the annual Copenhagen Blues Festival. Over the years he has developed to be a lot more than just a musician. Today he is a songwriter, concert arranger, band booker och record producer. He is well known for taking new upcoming acoustic blues talents under his wings. He admits that it gets a little too much at times. Sometimes he is so occupied promoting others that he forgets himself. At the same he has reason to be a little proud. Several of the records he has produced has received the award “Best blues production of the year”. Some of these records had also received top critics abroad.
In order to develop his own music making and song writing he has made a number of visits on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In California he collaborated with some musicians such as fellow singer/harp-player James Harman and guitarist Nathan James, resulting in two CDs. They had the idea to work with really old instruments, microphones and amplifiers. The first journey to California was together with his old guitar player Ronni Busac-Boysen.
But his fascination is not just on old acoustic amps – of which he has a room full in the basement. On stage he usually brings some toys like a life size goose, a small fun sounding piglet and more. I had to ask him what gave him that idea. Nande’s answer was, “Well, I first got a plastic chicken from some of my friends that sounded fun when I squeezed it and when I later also got the piglet with its squeak, I had to create a joke about the chicken and the pig. That evolved into a solo number.” Soon the audience began asking for them so they became included in the show. The goose became a mascot for the Jamboree and Nande says, “It symbolizes the way the band functions – when geese flies there are always a leader goose in the front and the rest glides on the air streams from its wings. After a while they change place so everyone is helping out. Goose philosophy turns into quality blues music!”
Even if it’s a lot of work, Nande is glad that he hasn’t put the harmonica on the shelf because of family and work. Tim Lothar and many others are equally happy about it!