STUBNBLUES - Viennese Working-Class Hero plays the Blues in North America

The Austrian Cultural presents Willi Resetarits (b. 1948, Vienna, Austria) and his band Stubnblues on the occasion of their North America tour on March 25, 2010. The concert starts at 7:30 PM and takes place in the auditorium of the ACFNY, 11 East 52nd Street (between Fifth and Madison). Admission is free, but seating is limited; to make a reservation, please check www.acfny.or or call 212 319 5300, ext. 222.

Willi Resetarits has been in the spotlight since the late 60s. He has been active as a musician, book author, and radio host. In 1994, Willi Resetarits started what has become the Stubnblues. It’s music far beyond blues. It’s funk. Samba. Folklore. Soul. Viennese songs. It’s poems and stories. Back in the days, a Stubn was the only heated room in a house. It was the place where people gathered, ate, talked and sang.

Stubnblues started when Willi Resetarits cooperated with the Austrian author and poet H. C. Artmann, combining music and stories. Stubnblues is versatile in regards to its instruments: percussion, stringed instruments, and an accordion form the basis, additionally if desired the brass and woodwind may be played.

Stubnblues is not afraid to deal with troublesome issues; with something not being right, with failure, pain, and miscommunication. Still all the while, there’s beauty, hope, and joy to it. You can always hear and feel them.

Willi Resetarits (vocals, harp, stories) will be joined by the Stubnblues Allstars – Stefan Schubert (guitar, vocals), Klaus Kircher (bass, vocals), Petre Angerer (drums, vocals) and Christian Wegscheider (accoridon, keys, vocals) – to let the audience experience a very authentic, emotional, and straighforward pairing of Austrian sociability, melancholy, and optimism.

Willi Resetarits has been working more intensively on projects like Stubnblues since deciding to leave behing the character of Kurt Ostbahn in 2003. In the mid-80s, Resetarits created his alter ego Kurt Ostbahn together with author and composer Günter Brödl. Kurt Ostbahn was more than just an musician. He’s a legend: 20 years of rock & roll with lyrics in the Viennese dialect made Austrian music-history and Kurt Ostbahn / Willi Resetarits a working-class hero.

Willi Resetarits has always been politically and socially active, for example by being one of the founding members of organizations such as Asyl in Not, SOS Mitmensch as well as co-founder and chairman of the Integrationshaus in Vienna. He was awarded different prizes for his social commitment such as the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights.

Stubnblues tours North America in March; besides performing at the ACF in New York, concerts will also be played in Washington DC (3/24), NYC (3/25), Chicago (3/27) and Ottawa/CA (3/28).