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Paul Banks
Foto: Stephen Freiheit (via paulbanks.dk)
Modern

Paul Banks

• Denmark• Active: 1970-present

Colorado-born, Copenhagen-based since 1961 - acoustic blues, folk, ragtime and gospel.

Paul Banks has spent more than sixty years turning a childhood immersed in Chicago's folk revival into one of Copenhagen's longest-running blues and folk careers — a genuine borderland artist working the overlap of blues, folk, jazz, ragtime and gospel. Born in Denver, Colorado, and raised in Chicago, he grew up around his mother and stepfather Jo Banks's folk clubs, the Purple Door and Green Door, where he saw performers including Judy Collins, Odetta and the Stanley Brothers (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org; paulbanks.dk). In 1961, at age nine, the family relocated to Copenhagen, and in 1963 his parents opened their own Purple Door folk club on Hojbro Plads (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org). He took up guitar at 11 and became a full-time musician at 22 after leaving law school (Kilde: thecountryblues.com). He launched his recording career in 1970 fronting AN tEARRACH, before a run through the 1970s and 80s that included Side Show (with American musician Bill Hazen), Krolle Eriks Skiffle Band and Paul Banks & MusikOrkesteret, alongside extensive session and touring work backing Danish artists including Sebastian, Kim Larsen and Monique (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org). From the mid-1980s he settled into duo and solo acoustic performance, a regular fixture at Copenhagen's Mojo Blues Club and Bartof Cafe, and has recorded frequently with harmonica player Jorgen Lang, violinist Martin Andersen and bassist Hugo Rasmussen (Kilde: thecountryblues.com; Discogs). Across eleven solo/lead releases from Paul Banks & Jorgen Lang (1979) to Blackberry Wine (2013), Banks has won Folk Musician of the Year (1985), a DJBFA Honours Prize (1992), Danish Music Awards Folk's Songwriter of the Year (2001), and both Best Blues Release and Danish Blues Name of the Year at the Copenhagen Blues Festival (2006), alongside multiple grants from the Danish Arts Foundation (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org).

Musical Influence

Banks's influence lies in embodying a genuinely transatlantic folk-blues lineage inside Denmark for over half a century — a direct link, through his family's Purple Door clubs, to the American folk revival's own performers (Judy Collins, Odetta, the Stanley Brothers), passed on through decades of session work behind major Danish artists and mentorship of the country's acoustic blues scene, recognised with both folk and blues awards on opposite sides of his repertoire (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org).

Formative experiences

  • •1961: Family relocates to Copenhagen, age 9. (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org)
  • •1970: Recording debut fronting AN tEARRACH. (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org)
  • •1985: Named Folk Musician of the Year. (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org)
  • •1992: DJBFA Honours Prize. (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org)
  • •2001: Danish Music Awards Folk, Songwriter of the Year. (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org)
  • •2006: Best Blues Release and Danish Blues Name of the Year, Copenhagen Blues Festival. (Kilde: da.wikipedia.org)

Instruments & Equipment

Collaborators

Jorgen Lang

Harmonica player, frequent recording and performing partner.

Hugo Rasmussen

Bassist on Desperados in Disguise (1981) and other recordings.

H.P. Lange

Fellow Danish blues veteran and occasional collaborator.

Watch & Listen

Featured

The Copenhagen Blues Sessions Vol. 1 - The Solo Performers

Features Paul Banks performing "God's Perfect Miracle".

Ab Borburgh

Watch & Listen

Henter videoer fra YouTube…

Discography

YearTitleProducerStudioLabelChartSalesMusiciansYouTubeNotes
1979Paul Banks & Jorgen Lang——Medley Records——Jorgen Lang (Harmonica)
1981Desperados in Disguise——Medley——Jorgen Lang (Harmonica), Hugo Rasmussen (Bass), Martin Andersen (Violin)With Jorgen Lang, Hugo Rasmussen, Martin Andersen.
1984Twostep——Hofnar———
1987Paul Banks & Steen Vig——Olufsen Records———
1998Time Problem—————
2000White Noise And Diamond Nights——Stunt Records———Critically acclaimed.
2002Comes Live—————
2003Bones and Love Bombs—————
2004One Man Band Live—————Recorded live at Bar Blues, Copenhagen, 5-7 August.
2008Grace————Jakob Dinesen (Saxophone)Featuring Jakob Dinesen.
2013Blackberry Wine——Stunt Records———

External links

Official site YouTube Music

Booking / Contact

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Sources

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