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interFolk - My Folk Music Page
(The midi music selections on these pages are not interFolk recordings, but are all songs that we have played)
"interFolk" on stage in Germany, 1993
Standing, left to right, Joachim Kihl (violin, mandoline, accordion), Klaus Hoelzel (rhythm guitar, tenor banjo), Kevin Webster (harmonica, guitar, vocals), John Dallas (leader - plays just about anything - lead vocals), Rob Harrison (flute, tin whistle)
Sitting, Horst Vater (bass guitar, lead guitar, harmonica)
Missing that day Christian Dehmel (rhythm guitar, 12-string guitar).
HISTORY OF THE BAND... (more to come in due course!)

Back in 1990, a group of people working at IBM Germany in Sindelfingen got together at the instigation of John Dallas, resulting in the formation of a folk band that we christened "interFolk".

John, originally from Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and resident in Germany for many years, having played Irish folk music since he was knee-high to a banjo, put an ad on the company notice board.

A gathering of various interested parties thus assembled, and from those who went along a seven-strong band emerged. In addition to John, there were two Englishmen (Rob Harrison and me) and four Germans (Chris Dehmel, Klaus Hoelzel, Joachim Kihl and Horst Vater).

The original band played regularly together over the next three years, eventually dropping down to five members when Rob and I moved on to pastures new in 1993. InterFolk is still a going concern. Hopefully, through this page, we will all be able to keep up-to-date with new developments!


I have had an email from John with an update on the band... he writes:

inter Folk is still going strong. The past half-year has been a bit thin on gigs, partly because Joachim is on a temporary mission to Schweinfurt for the Company, and partly because we've been recording a CD. Horst, whom you will remember as a perfectionist, has done a magnificent job of engineering the recordings on his PC, and we have all got into the routine
of visiting him singly, putting on headphones, and doing our bit of a tune over and over again until he thinks it's OK. If we had to pay him for the work he's put into it, we'd have to play a gig a week for the whole of next year...

You'll be surprised when the CD comes out, which should be early in the new year. Chris now plays a virtuoso bodhran, and my anglo concertina is featured in a couple of tracks. Horst's double-bass will be new to you - a powerful and versatile instrument, both plucked and bowed.
I'm also working on learning the autoharp, and it may appear on one track of the CD when it's completely finished.

There's some nice guitar work to be heard in the recordings - though I must admit that we took advantage of the studio situation, where you don't have to play everything simultaneously, and Horst did most of the guitar bits,
too...

We're also negotiating to get an interFolk domain - I've already designed a homepage, and we intend to put it up under www.interfolk.de or some such URL. We'll let you know the exact address when it's done, so you can link to it from your interFolk page.


It's done folks! The interfolk web site has arrived! - for the time being it's just in the German language, but who knows what else could appear???

And here's the answer!
The front cover of "Carrickfergus" - the first CD recorded by interFolk
InterFolk 10 years on - January 2001
Left to right, Jok Kihl, Chris Dehmel, John Dallas, Horst Vater, Klaus Hoelzel
This CD has to be heard by anyone who loves folk music, and particularly the Irish variety. A particularly good mix from interFolk's extensive repertoire. Here are love ballads, stirring "rebel" songs, songs of reflection and of parting, sprightly jigs and reels.

There are some old traditional favourites, experly blended by Horst Vater with some original compositions from the not inconsiderable talents of John and himself. The wealth of instrumental competence shows through in every track, from the "Devil's Fiddler" Jok Kihl's masterful handling of the violin, through the foot-tapping rhythms of Chris Dehmel's western guitar and Irish bodrhan (hand-held drum), the piercing and melodious harmonies of John's tin whistle, Klaus Hoelzel's strong tenor banjo and guitar accompaniments, to the deep throb of Horst Vater's double bass and bass guitar. John and Jok both work their mandoline plucking fingers to the bone!
Having been the band's lead harmonica player for its first couple of years, I'm particularly excited to hear Horst's haunting accompaniment to the title track, Carrickfergus(my all-time favourite song).

Unsurpassed as a singer of Irish and Caledonian ballads, John's rich Irish voice has lost none of its obvious origins and simply gets better year by year. His rendering of the Phil Coulter song "The Town I loved so Well" is perfectly suited to this very emotional piece.

The overall impression of this first recording by a band that means so much to me is one of pure joy. "The Lads" have come a long way since that first evening when a group of strangers all met together at IBM in Germany a decade ago.

Perhaps the most revealing comment in my review of this CD belongs to the last track on the recording - the traditonal song from Dublin, "Cockles and Mussels". This was a number that we never managed to get together properly during my time with interFolk. Well, it goes to prove that interFolk is really "Alive, Alive O" and long may you remain so, my very special friends. Hals und Beinbruch Jungs!

Kevin Webster
Lincoln, February 23rd, 2001
Interfolk Home Page (German)
Click here to return to "Kevin's Korner"

Some more Irish folk tunes in MIDI format, representative of the kind of music performed by interFolk over the years (these are not interFolk originals, but have been sourced from different Internet music sites).

Click on a title to hear the song!

Black Velvet Band
Bold Fenian Men
Carrickfergus
Cockles and Mussels
Father O'Flynn
Fields of Athenry
Foggy Dew
I'm a Rover
Irish Rover
The Parting Glass
The Rising of the Moon
Rosin the Bow
Whiskey in the Jar