Search - Reinhard Mey :: 20 Uhr

Rein Reinhard--Great taste, less filler

J. G. Heiser | Sunninghill, Berks | 04/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My Piefke sister in law tells me that Mey is considered 'uncool' by Gen-Xers in Germany. Its no wonder, given the sappy sweetening that clutters up most of his recordings.This live performance, however, is the real deal--pure unadulterated Rheinhard Mey. His musicianship is impeccable; just that rock-solid voice accompanied by his own elegant and deceptively simple pattern picking. For those unfamiliar with the performer, he is sort of a German James Taylor and Livingston Taylor rolled into one--and in his long career, he's probably made more music than both of them put together. His music ranges from the sentimental to the political to the humorous. Even if you don't understand the German, if you like singer songwriters, you will probably enjoy this. Those like me whose first language is not German will find Mey's pronounciation and vocabulary relatively accessible (this is the North American Amazon, after all), so this is also a good choice for students of German language looking for something interesting to listen to.I bought my first tape of Mey in Austria in '81, lucking into this live recording because it had his classic "Gute Nacht, Freunde" on it. I've purchased half a dozen Mey CDs over the last 6 years and have been disappointed with the lame teutonic electronic backup on most of them. After years of waiting, I was very pleased to finally be able to retire that old cassette with this 2-CD set.My recommendation is that instead of purchasing one of the single CDs with the distracting backup groups (some of the stuff in the 80s was awful), you buy this 2-CD set and hear the real Mey with just his guitar. This is one of the world's top singer-songwriters at his best."