“With your Beisl blues and your beery groove you’re on the go because you’re looking and you’re looking,” sings Reino Glutberg, self-referentially, in the opener Treibhuiz his debut album “Freilondstroß” on the label HASN Music, with which he frees himself from the blues and finds folk with light country vibes.
Freilondstroß is a kind of concept album on which Glutberg hitchhikes the listener. Lots of stories come from behind the wheel, says Glutberg, because there is no public transport in the country. On an atmospheric album journey, folk and a little country are elegantly balanced in the Burgenland dialect. The songs sound relaxed; a lived serenity that succeeds.
The primary reason this art works so well is that it’s an art that you believe in, because it has roots through which it can flourish. Because it is written in the Burgenland dialect and not in the foreign language. If you hear Glutberg singing regarding his youthful outsiderness and his guitar strings ringing, you can hear the June bugs buzzing – you escape the city and escape the grey, sloping house walls to the clear expanses of the Freilondstroß.
The folk can be found in the touch techniques, but also in the spellbinding fingerpicking of June beetle, which unfolds its magic especially live; the country influence in the crooning of the Mia gheat nix Refrains and harmony vocals by Jennifer Halper, and bass jumping in fifths in Countryrockstar. The most concrete change from blues to country manifests itself in the fact that the bottleneck is repurposed from Beisl blues to a lap steel substitute for country vibes and glissandi.
The influences mentioned in interviews by Glutberg are Townes van Zandt. JJ Cale and Ernst Molden, the former probably with the balancing of folk and country influences, the latter, Ernst Molden, above all with the well-dosed second guitar sprinkled on the chords. Some possible thematic parallels and lyrical analogies to Molden’s “schdrom” album can be read in one or two songs like Treibhuiz and June beetle, that might have been inspired by the schdrom album – only Glutberg himself will know. The lyrics often take exciting turns when Glutberg arrives following a three-minute drive Fürn or Freind slips into the role of the oidn friend and sings: “Kingdom[…]Thank you for taking it with you / the five tschick di mog i give there“. Or in I bin net dowith the last plot-changing line “Put the letter away / because everything is in it, I don’t mean it like that”. This shows very nicely the importance of the ending of a song and what a difference it can make.
The production was successful once more, Dominik Hofstädter is responsible. You can hear the buzzing of the guitar strings, the sliding of your fingers on the fretboard, everything seems to breathe, to live, the details of the individual instruments flash through once more and once more. No striving for flawless soullessness, but small pleasant imperfections. Towards the middle of the album, the arrangements are varied: Bei I bin net do by expanding with the album debut of the extremely accomplished guitarist Asel June beetle by reduction to acoustic guitar and at Countryrockstar by further expansion with Martin Rupp on bass. Another reason the record works so well is that Glutberg has a highly recognizable voice that he always knows how to use appropriately to the situation – it carries the songs and gives them expressiveness.
The highlight of the record is definitely the song I don’t hate anything which stands out among all the songs on the composition for perfectly complementing verses and choruses, both of which are equally catchy – complete with the crooning (the most magical moment on the record), also finding peace with the circumstances of the world in the very last verse line in Mia gheat nix is a beautiful moment: “you don’t get anything for free in life […] / not quite right recently, we gave a pen / although I still didn’t choose it”, as well as the highly emotional I bin net do and of course the single Lederjacken, the opener Treibhuizwhich is in Modern Lovers Roadrunner-Feeling rushing forward Caroline, as well as the album mood-defining storytelling piece Fürn or Freind.
Freilondstroß is a record that has a lot to tell, but also offers the short catchy melodic phrases in the chorus that are necessary for good catchy songs. Also some catchy tunes, often from the strophic melodies. Also a song or two like June beetle who complete the album with other facets and bring in variety that needs a longer drive and ensure a good balance of the song selection. The journey takes 36 minutes and 17 seconds. One likes to listen to the full length – the eleven stories on the Freilondstrasse are too entertaining and thoughtful.
Guitar music and concert sketches
