When men reach a certain age and are confronted, completely unprepared, with the fact that the speedometer of their lives is showing the remaining running time for the first time, this is usually information that is as confusing as it is unacceptable for men of this age.
And if men in this situation decide to process these experiences creatively, for example, by writing songs about their current state of mind, then there should always be a fully fueled getaway car waiting outside. Because that's guaranteed to be embarrassing.
Martin Meinschäfer is a man of this age, and he has written songs about how he views himself and life. And just listening to the first bars of the album "Ring frei" (Ring Free), you'll wish not for a getaway car, but for a better stereo system. The term "stereo system" is a deliberate choice, though, because the music of Martin Meinschäfer and Stephan Baader (the two know each other from their youth in the Sauerland region) is so comfortably rich and warm that even the digital sound file sounds like a record. This is certainly due to the fact that, with his Megaphon recording studio in Arnsberg, Martin Meinschäfer is one of the most sought-after specialists in analogue music production, and as a guitarist and producer, Stephan Baader brings so much experience and musicality to the table that only good things can come of this duo.
Name-dropping and a list of the gold and platinum albums the two are involved in are not necessary here and would only distract from the extraordinary quality of “Ring frei”.
Also because the 12 songs are an impressive statement for understatement.
That's perhaps the best news in this production: We no longer have to leave the country to experience casual sovereignty. Meinschäfer plays an extremely relaxed rhythm guitar, Baader assists with down-to-earth virtuosity. Not a single bar is a greed for recognition, not a single note is bragging, not a single line is smug, not a single word evokes self-pity.
Of course, Martin Meinschäfer has something to say about all of this. After all, he's a man of a certain age, and thus equally amazed, doubtful, and shocked by the phenomena of our time and its spirit. Yet he always has such a broad grin in his voice, with which he finds a demeanor that not only men of a certain age should envy.
In short: Meinschäfer and Baader succeed in making difficult things easy. I could call it art, but that would certainly be uncomfortable for them.
01 Sixty is the new forty
02 New Heroes
03 Boxing ring
04 The Best
05 Little Lights
06 Journey into the Self
07 Cruise 'til I die
08 Star Wars
09 Lengerich
10 More Sea
11 You annoy me
12 Everything new again
