Tim Lothar & Peter Nande
Tim Lothar Petersen & Peter Nande
By Johnny Petersen
I had the chance to meet with Tim Lothar at a concert in Lund, close to Malmö in Southern Sweden in 2016. He had kindly offered to show a few tricks and licks on the guitar and we also got to talk.
Tim Lothar is the rock drummer who one day after 25 years of playing got up from the drums, bought an old guitar and started to play acoustic roots-blues. Just like that. I asked him if he learnt to play the guitar when he was young, but no. His only beforehand experience of a guitar was when he was 17, he told me. Then he found an electric guitar in waste dump, took it home and tried out some simple chords on it. Then when a string broke, he threw it away.
It wasn’t until several years later, when an acquaintance asked him home to listen to him playing roots blues, something slumbering inside of him awoke and he felt –“This is the thing I want to do”. That is now 17 years and several CD’s ago. Today he is touring all over Europe, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. Mostly he teams up with Old Time player Peter Nande on harmonica, jug, Jews harp and wash tub bass.
Already in 2008, he received the award “Best Danish Blues Name of The Year” and the following year he also received the award “Best Danish Blues Release” for his CD “In It For The Ride”. He has progressed from playing covers of the old heroes from first half of the last century to writing his own music. All of his songs are tales from his own life, often from the life on the road (or on trains). On stage he uses two guitars; one simple worn Dobro Reso from way back when and a Gibson L1 from the seventies, but they sound amazing together with his soulful voice! Note; he recently switched his Dobro for a brand new National. Peter Nande was happy, -“Now we can play in tune he said” when I met the duo last summer.
On stage he always wears a Stetson cap on his head, he is intense and personal when he tells stories of his life and then let them turn into songs, skillfully backed up by Peter Nande or when in Germany, harpist Holger ‘Hobo’ Daub.
A trademark of his and a reminder of his drumming years is that he always has something to keep the beat with. The simplest is a mic inside the guitar case on which he stomps his foot. Sometimes he has a small drum item, a bass drum – or an old suitcase and a hi hat.
CD’s:
Cut To The Bone, Solo (2006)
In It For The Ride, Solo (2008)
Two For The Road, with Peter Nande (2009)
Stories, Solo (2012)
More Stories, Solo (2018)
Blues From The North, with Holger ’Hobo’ Daub (2013)
Blues Jamboree 1+2, with Peter Nande and others (2014)
Traveling Blues Nights, with Mojo Workings (Hu) (2017)
Robert Johnson Was Here, with H.P. Lange and others (2017)
Walk Right In, with Peter Nande (2018)
When one delves into the Danish Blues scene it’s quite impossible not to encounter Tim’s co-player, talented Peter Nande on harmonica as well as wash-tub bass, Jews harp and jug. He pops up everywhere, even in non-blues projects. He’s a man with many pots on the stove and he has become the fixer in the Danish blues circles. He most often forms a duo with longtime collaborator Tim Lothar.
Peter is born in 1968 and it began already in he’s teens with a mouth harp. He borrowed books on Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Terry and tried desperately to get something out of his harmonica but it took several years before he finally understood how to do it. He realized that he needed better role models so as a 20-year old he moved to Copenhagen in order to learn more about the blues. He has stayed for more than 30 years so far.
In 1998 he formed his first serious band, the Rockabilly band Nande and The Big Difference and they soon set out on countless tours in Europe, also backing visiting American artists such as James Harman, Lazy Lester, R.J. Mischo, and Gary Primich. He is still collaborating with his good friend James Harman to this day. After The Big Differencehe formed Peter Nande Band with a different lie up and a clearer conection to the blues.
Besides his day job as an engineer (constructing wind mills), he has toured and recorded with his own band, participated in more than ten CD’s as well as jammed with most of the artists on the Danish blues scene as well as international guest stars. Back in 2007 he received the award “Blues Artist Of The Year” at the annual Copenhagen Blues Festival. Over the years he has developed to be a lot more than just a musician. Today he is a songwriter, concert arranger, band booker och record producer. He is well known for taking new upcoming talents under his wings.
Through his engagement he has managed to gather a gang of talented musicians around him such as Tim Lothar, Svante Sjöblom (SE), Big Creek Slim (BZ/D), Paul Banks (US), Copenhagen Slim, H.P. Lange, singer Miriam Mandipira (TA) as well as the old maestro Troels Jensen. To all these, and more, he makes promotion, arranges concerts and makes recordings. He admits that it gets a little too much at times. Sometimes he is so occupied promoting others that he forgets himself.
At the same he has reason to be a little proud. Several of the records he has produced has received the award “Best blues production of the year”. Some of these records had also received top critics abroad. Peter Nande has also received the award “Danish Blues Musician of the year 2007”.
The most popular of his projects was the Blues Jamboree, featuring all the names mentioned above, including others. It was a loose formation of those who had the possibility to meet up at a certain venue a certain date. Everybody was equally responsible for fixing bookings, sleep overs, transports and equipment. Age didn’t matter, it differed from 33 to 75 (the oldest were the late bassist Hugo Rasmussen). As mentioned above, today he tours frequently in the week-ends with Tim Lothar Petersen, mostly around the Nordic Countries. A variety of The Blues Jamboree was The Dream Blues Team, also with some of the mentioned artists.
In order to develop his own music making and song writing he has made a number of visits on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In California he collaborated with some musicians such as James Harman and Nathan James, resulting in two CD’s. They had the idea to work with really old instruments, microphones and amplifiers. The first journey to California was together with his guitar player Ronni Busac-Boysen.
But his fascination is not just on old acoustic amps – of which he has a room full in the basement. On stage he usually brings some toys like a life size goose, a small fun sounding piglet and more. I had to ask him what gave him that idea. Nande’s answer was, “Well, I first got a plastic chicken from some of my friends that sounded fun when I squeezed it and when I later also got the piglet with its squeak, I had to create a joke about the chicken and the pig. That evolved into a solo number.” Soon the audience began asking for them so they became included in the show. The goose became a mascot for the Jamboree and Nande says, “It symbolizes the way the band functions – when geese flies there are always a leader goose in the front and the rest glides on the air streams from its wings. After a while they change place so everyone is helping out. Goose philosophy turns into quality blues music!”
Even if it’s a lot of work, Nande is glad that he hasn’t put the harmonica on the shelf because of family and work. There are many others who are equally happy about it!
CD’s:
NANDE & THE BIG DIFFERENCE – (2000)
BIG BOY BOOGIE California Sessions Vol. I – (2006)
JELLY BEAN BABY California Sessions Vol. II – (2009)
ROOTIN’ AROUND California Sessions Vol. III – (2015)
Blues Jamboree VOL. I & II, With Tim Lothar and others – (2014)
HOPE FOR MY SOUL – With Big Creek Slim (2015)
KEEP MY BELLY FULL – With Big Creek Slim (2016)
TWO FOR THE ROAD – With Tim Lothar (2009)
WALK RIGHT IN – With Tim Lothar (2018)
CATAWAMPUS, his latest project with bass player Laust Krudtmeyer Nielsen with the aim to modernize the expression of roots blues. (2019)
- Web: https://www.lotharnande.com/welcome
- Those who would like to get familiar with the Blues Jamboree can download a five-part series of Danish TV-concerts from 2014 on https://youtu.be/9CM-gX3UJ50.
