Rattlebrained

Jeizinen is a charming Valaisan alpine village perched above Gampel-Steg. I can imagine that it hasn’t changed much in the recent years, no big ugly tourist apartment “chalets” to be seen nor are cars allowed; it’s not even clear they would make it through the village’s pathways. Although the lack of snow would have made it easy for us to drive up to it we had been warned that the parking lot was a lot farther away from the Restaurant Bielti than the top of the village’s teleferic (cable car), so we drove to the bottom of that as planned.

Having checked out the timetables we expected a 45 min. wait, but once the guy there found out we where the musicians he had us move all are gear directly into the cable car, a small box for maybe 10 people, and up we went…

Keep Reading...

This next Friday (Jan. 14th 2011) Swamp train will be performing at the Musigbar Grenchen, so if your in the area why not come and check us out!

The concert starts at 21h30.

Keep Reading...

Last week we (Swamp Train) realized that we didn’t seem to have any pictures with all the band members in it until Blaise put his hands on the above taken last summer at La Capsule, the first time Alain played with us.

We’ve all agreed that it’s not that exciting…

Keep Reading...

It must be said that learning to play the washboard alongside blues guitarist/singers who are used to playing alone has it’s downsides, and in my case the one I’m still fighting the most with is that I learned how to follow the lead musician’s rhythms and not how to hold a steady beat. This was noticed during Swamp Train’s week in Bellwald last October and I was asked to use a “click track” which in that case was just sticking on earphones with a metronome beat. To everyone’s surprise it worked OK, mainly because, thanks to Bill, I have been practicing with a metronome long enough for it already to have gone from being my enemy to being my friend. About 3 years…

Keep Reading...

Seems like Dominik, Swamp Trains bassist, has been out hustling to find gigs because we have a few lined up now which is cool. The next one being a trip back to Bellwald to inaugurate the Bellagio Lounge & Bar on December 18th, a new place for the local fauna and a good one if you consider their choice for the band! ;-)

He asked me to translate the bands bio into English for the flier he’s sending around which I did this morning. However I must admit here that I had found what had originally been posted on our MySpace page a bit dull so I decided to spice it up, hopefully this one is better:

…

Keep Reading...

Last Saturday Swamp Train played at the Vully Blues Festival, our first “serious” gig, starting at 19h00, 4 sets, over three hours of playing. The above video of use playing Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful” is from the beginning of the first set and if the crowd seems a tad scarce it’s because folks were still arriving, by the second the place was packed.

Keep Reading...

Got back Sunday night from a week of 10 hour a day practice with Swamp Train and am still a bit numb…

We recorded a few tracks that still need to be mixed and didn’t leave the chalet except for getting bread and stuff at the nearby village. Fortunately the weather was mostly dreary removing the temptation to take advantage of the beautiful alpine surroundings. Listening to the “raw recordings” this morning really gives me hope for the band’s future, compared to just three months ago the improvement is obvious. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a few tunes ready to be posted soon since what we have up on our myspace page at the moment is pretty awful, it will also be nice to present the songs we’re working on that aren’t old blues covers…

Keep Reading...