Alex Panter is the musical alter ego of Axel Potthoff, a Highland breeder from the Oberberg region. In his music, the singer-songwriter incorporates influences from Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, and Joe Strummer into a completely unique sound rooted in a wide variety of musical genres.
His new album, "Some Time Now," sounds correspondingly diverse. Partly recorded in his living room with brass and strings, it blends rhythm & blues, rock, soul, jazz, and folk numbers into a striking, powerful whole, defined by the multifaceted English lyrics and expressive vocals.
Themes of the album include the populist zeitgeist of our times in the swinging “Something's Really Wrong With My Baby,” a historic taxi night shift in the whimsical sing-song “Independence, Low Budget And Me,” and the experience of loss in the solemn “Let It Rain.”
Alex is supported by a band of accomplished multi-instrumentalists:
Salossi (Zydeco Annie And The Swampcats, Matt Robb), who has since been replaced by Düsseldorf guitarist and keyboardist Fabio Nettekoven (Judy Spellmann And The Phavior Adelic, Richard Bargel), played lead guitar, blues harp, violin, viola, and bass on "Some Time Now." Pete Coutts (Northern Sky, Ballad Of Crows) and Steve Crawford (Le Clou, Ballad Of Crows, Northern Sky), both Scotsmen living in Remagen and Bonn, played bass, keyboards, lead and rhythm guitar, mandolin, and banjo, as well as drums, percussion, and acoustic guitar.

Cologne singer Astrid Foerst also joins the band, complementing the polyphonic vocals and performing a duet with Alex on the Latin ballad "All Over Again." Guest musicians Pascal Reinhardt and Sebastian Zink, both from Oberberg, contribute trumpet and trombone on the album's title track and the hypnotic "A Brighter Day."
In addition to the tracks from “Some Time Now,” the current live set features a few previously unreleased numbers as well as some tracks from the band’s 2013 debut album “Sunday Sessions Club,” including “Private Radio,” which was played on WDR 2.