A wandering encyclopaedia of the Blues

From London to Fürth: the English Blues and Folk guitarist Richard Smerin is now living in Germany.

"Everything's different." Richard Smerin still has to get used to life in Fürth.

The move to Germany was no easy matter. Nor is it easy to adjust to life here. "Everything is different, starting with traffic on the right. Then there's the language and the way people think. It takes some getting used to. I need to learn, and feel my way in slowly." Smerin also had family reasons for choosing Franconia. His ancestors came from Poland and Russia and he is one-third Jewish (it would be hard to be one-third anything - I'm totally Jewish, R.S.). He is conscious of living in a town that formerly had a strong Jewish presence. And close to Nuremberg, where the Third Reich proclaimed its race laws. He does not find this particularly painful, but others have reservations. "Many of my relatives wouldn't come here. They can't understand why I should want to. I myself have no problems with the past. Nor have I had any negative experiences since I've been here." (I never said these last two sentences. Furthermore, they're not true, R.S.).

Smerin feels no special attraction for Jewish music. "If I had a conflict, it was rather that of a white man playing black music. Until I understood that Blues isn't a competition. At least I'm blacker than Keb Mo!," he adds with a laugh.

After 24 years as a performer, Smerin is a wandering encyclopaedia of the Blues. "My first record was by Mississippi John Hurt He never gave concerts, only recorded. (Of course, untrue. Gronau has confused something I said about another player, R.S.). My encounter with B.B. King was amusing. I opened for him in Birmingham. After my set I found him sitting in the only dressing room, a huge, cold barn of a place. Then people began carrying in photos, sofas and mirrors. All for B.B. He never even gave me a glance."

His meetings with Blind Boy Fuller (highly unlikely. Fuller died over twenty years before I was born, R.S.) and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee were quite different. They count among his fondest memories. Smerin accompanied the legendary Bluesmen on their last European tour. "It was simply the greatest thing just to listen to Sonny warming up in the dressing room." Smerin cut a CD of classic Blues numbers with Danish musicians Kim Gutman and Jorgen Lang. He also played with Steve Baker, Abi Wallenstein and Bernd Kleinow. Home is where your friends are. When you lose a friend, you lose a piece of the world. Last August, Smerin toured America for two months and performed at the legendary "House of Blues". The reason for the trip was the death of American songwriter Les French (Les French was English. He was not the reason for my tour, but his death after ten years of illness at the age of 44, made him the complete focal point, R.S.) who is unknown in Germany. In Boston, Richard Smerin recorded a CD of his friend's songs, with backing from Blues duo Paul Rishell & Annie Raines and guitarist Ken Selcer. He himself worked on the posthumous publicity. "One-Off Chance" is an intimate tribute to Les French, who was a key figure in Smerin's development. In the notes to the CD he writes: "This collection of songs was put together in a state of high emotion, with an excessive degree of love and care. Les French has been the single biggest influence in my entire adult life."

Fürther Nachrichten 23.04.1998
Photo: Gronau

Musicians are wanderers. They lead their lives between the applause of the public and the loneliness of a hotel room, between encounter and farewell. Many are restless and always looking for something. Others need a focus, a centre from which they can organise their guest appearances. English Blues and Folk guitarist Richard Smerin comes from London. He started playing at the age of seven and gave his first public performance at 14. At 19 he moved to Copenhagen and soon established himself on the Danish music scene, opening for Alexis Korner, Bert Jansch and Joan Armatrading. Now, at the age of 37, he has come to live in Fürth. Last November he gave a much acclaimed concert with local Blues singer Klaus Brandl and decided to stay on. Why Fürth? "It just worked out like that," says Smerin. He has now made Fürth the centre of his "one-man business", organising concerts in music clubs and Irish pubs throughout Germany. "It's a lot of work, but I like talking to people. I'm not shy. And it's all the same to me whether I'm playing for 50 people or 500."