Philipp Fankhauser
Philipp Fankhauser is a Swiss blues singer/guitarist who experienced Top Ten success in his homeland after two decades of recording activity. Born in 1964 in Thun, Switzerland, he began playing music during the late '70s after taking an unlikely interest in the blues as a teenager. His interest in the blues was compounded after he attended the 1981 Montreux Jazz Festival, where he witnessed firsthand a performance by Albert Collins. Other American blues legends he saw at the Montreux Jazz Festival during the early '80s included such luminaries as B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In particular, a 1984 performance by Johnny "Clyde" Copeland left a lasting impression on Fankhauser; in fact, the two became acquainted and the Texas legend became a mentor to the Swiss novice, whose performance career was becoming a full-time occupation around this time period.
In 1987 Fankhauser founded the Checkerboard Blues Band and began touring throughout Switzerland, playing dozens of shows a year. The Checkerboard Blues Band featured vocalist Margie Evans, and made their recording debut in 1989 with Blues for the Lady, which Fankhauser produced and on which he also sang. The Checkerboard Blues Band -- sans Evans -- returned in 1991 with their second album, With a Feeling; two other albums by the band followed -- Dedicated (1992) and the live album Thun-San Francisco (1994), the latter featuring Evans -- before Fankhauser recorded the solo album On Broadway (1995) in Memphis with producer/songwriter Dennis Walker. Beginning in 1994, Fankhauser resided in the United States, where he toured with his mentor, Copeland, until the Texan's death in 1997. In the meantime, a best-of album, His Kind of Blues (1996), was compiled as a gap-filler.
Fankhauser subsequently returned to Switzerland in 2000 and resurrected the Checkerboard Blues Band for a new album, Welcome to the Real World (2000). Following a live album by the Philipp Fankhauser Blues Band, the trio showcase Live -- So Damn Cool (2003), Fankhauser signed a recording contract with Memphis International Records and proceeded to release Talk to Me (2004), a solo album recorded in Memphis with producer David Less. Fankhauser then signed with Funk House Blues, a Sony BMG subsidiary, and released his most commercially successful albums to date: Watching from the Safe Side (2006) and Love Man Riding (2008), the former of which was a Top 20 hit on the Swiss albums chart, the latter a Top Ten hit.
© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo
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Let Life Flow
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 13 Dec 2019
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Unplugged Live at Mühle Hunziken
Philipp Fankhauser, Margie Evans
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 26 Feb 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Heebie Jeebies - The Early Songs of Johnny Copeland
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24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Watching from the Safe Side
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 21 Apr 2006
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues for the Lady
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Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 5 Aug 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 15 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I'll Be Around
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 1 Dec 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
His Kind of Blues
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 15 Feb 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live - So Damn Cool
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 23 Jun 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Talk to Me
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 25 May 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Well Hear, It's Christmas
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 9 Dec 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Love Man Riding
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 25 Apr 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Home
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 10 Oct 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
With a Feeling
Philipp Fankhauser, Checkerboard Blues Band
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 20 Sep 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dedicated
Philipp Fankhauser, Checkerboard Blues Band
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 22 May 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Watching from the Safe Side
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 21 Apr 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Welcome to the Real World
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 23 May 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
On Broadway
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 10 Mar 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thun - San Francisco (Live)
Philipp Fankhauser, Checkerboard Blues Band, Margie Evans
Blues - Released by Funk House Blues Productions on 3 Jun 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -