Timo Gross

Biography

Blues Rock Soul from Germany ! Timo Gross has been living in Heidelberg for about twenty years.He lately has moved to a small village close to the French border to raise his family and find some quietness, when he's off the road. He got into music, back in the late Seventies, after watching a documentary about the history of modern music on German TV. He saw a backstage interview with Clapton, where he improvised some little Blueslines, and he got hooked. The same year he started playing Gig...

Blues Rock Soul from Germany !

Timo Gross has been living in Heidelberg for about twenty years.He lately has moved to a small village close to the French border to raise his family and find some quietness, when he's off the road.

He got into music, back in the late Seventies, after watching a documentary about the history of modern music on German TV. He saw a backstage interview with Clapton, where he improvised some little Blueslines, and he got hooked. The same year he started playing Gigs and hasn't stopped since.

Through Cream's "Crossroads" and "Spoonful" he 's got connected with the old Bluesguys. But for years he's also been shopping left and right from the Bluespath. Country, Blues, Soul, Funk, Jazz. There is so much inspiring music out there: Prince, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis were sources of inspiration as well as Albert King, Little Walter or countless other heroes. With curiousity he's also been playing in Country-, Soul-, and Rockbands. It all made sense to find himself as a singer, producer, songwriter, guitarist and a person. Finally he and the Blues – it fits like a glove!

So after twenty years as a sideman backing up Major Artists like Kathy Kelly (Kelly Family), Chris Norman (Smokie) or the German-Boy-Band Bed & Breakfast, he finally made his first Blues Record "Down to the Delta" in 2005. It was reviewed very friendly by the German press. The renowned (German) Bluesnews Magazine recommended it as Album of the Month and considered it as "Modern Blues from Germany with versatile guitars, emotionally played, varied and far off any cliches". The French DNA marked me simply as "Un grand monsieur du Blues". The Mannheimer Morgen added: "His Blues doesn't explode from emotional overheat, but fascinates from glimmering lightness and glowing filigree," while the Meier Magazine simply nailed it as "…cool modern urban City Bluessound".

This lead them into touring national and international as well. We've been playing in France, Switzerland, Easteurope and all over Germany. His new album „Travellin'" resulted from these impressions. Written on the road between homesickness and wanderlust, songs were created about arriving, lingering and parting. The experiences he made, were a kaleidoscope of life. Shallow, fragile, intense and enduring. Smokefilled clubs at nighttime and coffeebars at day. Encounters with joy and pain. And isn't it the Blues, as one of the most intense and genuine musicforms, predestinated to mold these experiences into sound? "Travellin'" should celebrate all these shades of life.

Musically of course he was inspired by the tradition of the great american songbook, but he put his own stamp on it, to keep the music and the spirit alive. He's not interessted in copying the old guys. He can't play like the Kings, the Vaughns or Robben Ford. He just can play like Timo Gross. With his soul, time and phrasing – and he's proud of it! The same goes for the singing, songs and the arrangements. It's all about soul, emotion and inspiration. He is seeing himself as a part of a small, but growing worldwide Bluesscene, keeping the Blues alive, without loosing the respect to all our musical forefathers. Without them we wouldn't play a single song or a single lick.

Now he's able to present his new album "Travellin'" to the audience in Scotland and North England for the first time. He's really excited about that, making lots of new friends and fans out there. On stage he's supported by two longtime companions on his Blues mission. Michael Siegwart (Drums) und Frowin Ickler (Bass): „Tight and compact, always keeping the groove in the centre" (Concerto, Austria) this rhythmsection after 500 gigs runs like a machine. "This trio starts where others play their encore" the Rheinpfalz wrote in an euphoric critic. We are a band that's grown, suffered, partied and lived together. A band that interprets the Blues always new, but always remains to be faithful to its melancholic and emotional soul.


For more information and some songs from the brandnew Album -Please visit:Timo Gross on myspace !


Timo Gross.com

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