Rainer Brunn

The German Blues picker and singer Rainer Brunn started playing Blues– and Folk Guitar as an autodidact at the age of 17 before he began his studies in Classical Guitar with Kurt Hiesl at Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg. After his studies Rainer played a lot of Folk and American Oldtime music and gradually came back to Acoustic Blues.
 

Rainer's Style: He mainly concentrates on Country Blues Classics, Piedmont Style and Ragtime and has developed his unique style characterized by clean picking, powerful groove and expressive singing. His work has found a lot of recognition by thousands of followers on Facebook and YouTube.
 

Published Tutorials and Articles: In 2019 the legendary Blues guitarist Happy Traum invited Rainer to record Blues Guitar tutorials for the world famous label HOMESPUN. Also various professional journalists and Blues bloggers became aware of Rainer ́s art and published articles of his music. His concerts are travels through the history of Country Blues and always well received by an amazed audience.

Interview

1. Out of all your guitars, water is rising and you have to leave the house. Which guitar means the most to you (and why) and will you take with you?
Let´s hope this will never happen. Let me please take two with me, because I need one in standard tuning and one for sliding. For standard tuning I would rescue my 1933 Gibson L1 and for sliding my 1933 KayKraft Venetian. Both guitars sound incredibly good for my style of music and have this old time mojo you just don´t get on a modern guitar.
 

2. I can say that you're a pretty "technical" player (in a good way), is that the result of your conservatory background?
Well, to be honest, I don´t think so. Classical guitar is a totally different thing, you use quite different techniques. And some techniques you use in Blues music you would by no means use for the classical guitar. You see, my goal has never been to become a virtuous player. Virtuosity itself is a totally stupid concept if it does not have musical targets. All abilities I developed were achieved just by my musical will, meaning I wanted to be able to play a certain piece of music exactly the way that I wanted it to sound. This sometimes forced me to train myself, my hands, my fingers and my brain. I don´t care if this can be called virtuosity. And I dearly hope that if people like my music they like it for its sound and not for an apparent virtuosity.
 

3. What's your strategy for writing arrangements of blues standards?
As I already said first comes my musical will. How do I want a certain piece to sound like. Which tempo do I want? Which kind of groove? Sometimes I stay pretty close to the original, sometimes I feel, I cannot play it that way, then I search for solutions that satisfy me. This can be quite a long process. There are some songs which I have been carrying around with me for several years before the "ultimate idea" came to my mind. Mostly I make my arrangements from the memory which I have of a certain piece. When I start arranging I mostly do not listen to the song at all and try to find my own way of playing it.
 

4. As a full time player/teacher you spend a lot of time playing your beloved guitars. Do you have any advice for keeping out of physical trouble due playing?
This is a difficult question! I guess I have just been lucky enough to keep my tendons and muscles working. But I think it is very important to gain physical power in your hands without overdoing it. There have been times when I really had to calm it down a bit. By all means you have to listen to your body. Everything can be important: the way you hold the guitar, the way you sit, the way you use your left hand thumb to enable the fingers to optimally transfer the pressure to the fretboard etc. There is no absolute correct way of staying healthy when playing guitar over the years. You must feel good with what you are doing. I am still experimenting with certain things myself.
 

5. As a musician I personally played a lot in Germany but mostly band oriented stuff. What is your favorite place to see traditional acoustic music in Germany?
Well, it´s a shame but so many venues had to close down. There are not so many left and often they do not pay a fixed fee. You have to take what comes in at the entrance or they pass a hat around. But mostly that´s OK as people appreciate musicians´ work and donate generously. There are two locations I want to mention, here in Bavaria where I live. One is the "Schrottgalerie" in a little village neary Munich, called Glonn. And then there is the "Bluesstadel" in Falkenstein which is run by two brothers. Only private concerts, visitors must have an invitation. Great place to play.

6. Most of the people know you from Youtube and your Homespun lessons for Happy Traum. Happy sadly passed away recently. How did you ended up at Homespun and did you ever meet Happy?
Ohh, that is so sad. I always had the wish to meet Happy in person but this should not happen. I did not know that he was ill until I heard he had died. We only corresponded by email, but what I can say is that he was an open minded and very generous man, who helped me in different ways. I could not believe it when I got his first email in which he asked me if I was interested in doing tutorials for Homespun. I was lucky enough to have good sales and so I did 7 programs and my Blues Picking School with Homespun.
 

7. Any new records coming up?
I just released a new album together with my duo partner Al Lindinger. We called ourselves "The Bear Root Sheiks" and the album is called "Rhino & the Alligator". I think it´s pretty good, at least we had a lot of fun in Al´s studio.

8. Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
I am very happy having been invited again for this years Bluesweek in Northampton / UK. I will be teaching and playing together with Tom Feldman, Guy Davis, Lightning Wellsand lots of other artists and teachers. I will also teach at Blues weekend in England in November this year.