Holger Saarmann:  So küsste mich meine Friseuse

Tracks:         (Collected audio samples on >> and >> !)

1. Bahnsteig gegenüber   (Saarmann)

2. Liebe neu erfunden   (Saarmann)

3. Fi-di-bum   (Saarmann)

4. Treppen   (Saarmann)

5. Der Gast   (Saarmann)

6. Meine Friseuse   (Saarmann)
7. Ode ans Diesseits '09   (Holger Saarmann)

8. Briefballade   (Saarmann)

9. Gleisbesetzer   (amerik. Trad/ dt. Text Saarmann)

10. Begleiter   (Saarmann)
11. Stiller Schlager   (Saarmann)

Bonus (solo):
12. Bahnsteig gegenüber   (Saarmann)

13. Briefballade   (Saarmann)

full length audio samples

Finally, here is the first Saarmann album exclusively with Saarmann songs!
All the hits from the past years in colourful (re-)recordings, performed together with highly requested musicians, plus two solo bonus tracks for the purists.
Appr. 60 minutes running time.
These were involved to create the rich sound:

Reinhild Kuhn (accordion & piano), Budi (percussion & bass), Jan Gaensslen (piano) and Vivien Zeller (violin).

The record was recorded and mixed at Freeborn Sound Studio and mastered at Noemptyfeeling. 
It's issued on the Bluebird Café Records Berlin label.

16 pages booklet, including lots of colour pictures and all lyrics. Click here to download the English translations.
CD & Booklet in a ProfilePac (= a cardboard double cover, avoiding plastic)


Price: 15 Euro + postage/ packing

(>> Conditions of sale)

This CD is also available via mail order at "Bluebird Shop Berlin".

Holger Saarmann & Vivien Zeller

Lieder, so deutsch wie der Wilde Westen

Tracks:        (Collected audio samples on >> !)

1. Auswanderlied   (Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

2. Wu ich in des Land bin kumme   (Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

3. Unser deitsche Brieder   (Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

4. Der Guckguu   (Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

5. Sie gleicht der Schwalbe (She's like the Swallow)   (Trad./ German lyrics: Saarmann)

6. Vergiss mich nicht   (Karl May)

7. Ballade des armen Webersohnes Karl May   (Trad./ German lyrics: Saarmann)

8. 900 Miles   (Trad.)

9. Follow the Drinking Gourd   (Trad.)

10. Stan' still Jordan   (Trad.)

11. Wo sind unser Brieder   (Pennsylvania Dutch Spiritual)

12. Geschder war der Michel do   (Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

13. Ei, du Zustand! (Oh! Susanna)   (Stephen Foster/ Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

14. Katy Cruel   (Trad.)

15. Oi Oi Oi   (Pennsylvania Dutch Trad.)

16. Ave Maria   (Karl May)

17. Heim zu gej   (Pennsylvania Dutch Spiritual)

18. Wanderlied (Wayfaring Stranger)   (Trad./ German lyrics: Saarmann)

Bonus (solo):
19. Vergiss mich nicht (Version 2)   (Karl May)

"Lieder, so deutsch wie der Wilde Westen" – (mostly) full length audio samples
(The presentation was added for radio play at lastFM  and is not included on CD.)

Many attempts have been made to create German country music.

This album documents our research on the original: German songs from America in ancient times, when banjo and fiddle were still being played to the rhythm of steam trains and boats.
We scout out the legendary New World in facts and fantasy, showing how America was germanized, long before Germany was americanized.

We discovered German spirituals, farmers' and children songs, with lyrics both earthy and cunning.
While we translated some of the English lyrics by ourselves, others remained English.
The result is a colourful album, full of contrasts and surprises, showing "How the West was Dutched".

The CD version of our programme "Winnetou ist ein Christ ..." was (co-)mixed by Phil Freeborn at Freeborn Sound Studio (former nuphobia Berlin) and issued on the Label Bluebird Café Records Berlin. The 16-pages booklet includes all lyrics and a comment for each song.

An English booklet translation can be downloaded here (pdf file).

All arrangements: Holger Saarmann (vocals, guitar, accordion, percussion) & Vivien Zeller (fiddle, vocals)

Price: 15 Euro + postage/ packing

(>> Conditions of sale)

This CD is also available via mail order at "Bluebird Shop Berlin" and at the "Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg", as well as at the Villa Shatterhand's museum shop (Radebeul).

Holger Saarmann  "Hüt dich, schöns Blümelein!"

My CD debut, recorded in winter 2000/ 01.

Vocals, guitar & all arrangements: Holger Saarmann

Tracks:         (Collected audio samples on >> !)

1.  Lied vom Brombeerenpflücken  (Trad.)

2.  Flogen einst drei wilde Tauben   (Trad.)

3.  Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär   (Trad.)

4.  Nachtigall ich hör dich singen   (Trad.)

5.  Hinaufschauen   (Holger Saarmann)

6.  Wie schön blüht uns der Maien   (Trad.)

7.  Feinsliebchen, du sollst mir nicht barfuß gehn   (Trad.)

8.  Ukrainisches Abschiedslied   (Trad.)

9.  So grün als ist die Heiden   (Trad.)

10.  Reiterlied   (Justus W. Lyra/ Georg Herwegh)

11.  Graf und Magd   (Trad.)

12.  Zufriedenheit   (Georg Neumark/ Trad.)

13.  Ach Blümlein blau   (Trad.)

14.  Schnitter Tod   (Trad.)

15.  Zecherbündnis   (Trad./ G. E. Lessing)

16.  Lied für die Pariser Kommune   (Trad.)

17.  Es ist ein Schnee gefallen   (Trad.)

18.  Mädchen am Haff   (Trad.)

19.  Ich weiß mir ein Maidlein hübsch und fein   (Trad.)

20.  Herbstlied   (Trad./ August Mahlmann)

21.  Abendlied  (Der Mond ist aufgegangen)   (J.A.P. Schulz/ M. Claudius)

22.  Ode ans Diesseits  (Solo-Version)   (Holger Saarmann)

German Folk, as presented by the mass media, is mostly commercial Schlager music, disguised in traditional costumes. 

Combined with the impressions of Munich Oktoberfest, that is also the image of current German Folk music abroad: Lots of Hump-ta-ta with beer.

This album will offer you a completely different view: It presents German Folk in its most intimate purity, just vocals and guitar. 

This album reveals the roots of the romantic Lied composers, such as Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn.

Collected here are rarely performed ancient songs of love and farewell, of deaths and maidens, of dukes and beggars, of revels and revolution, of luck and loss, of rings and riddles, of seduction and devotion, of green pastures and cool valleys.

72 minutes playing time!

In addition to the 8-pages CD-booklet, the lyrics (German/ English) are included on two extra sheets.

(You can also download a pdf file here.)

Price:  13 Euro + postage/ packing

(>> Conditions of sale)

This CD is also available via mail order at "Bluebird Shop Berlin".

Holger Saarmann  "Der Mond geht auf die Reise"

Tracks:        (Collected audio samples on >> !)

1. Leise, Peterle, leise   (Anonymus/ Paula Dehmel)

2. Verstohlen geht der Mond auf   (German Trad. / Zuccalmaglio)

3. Aj-lju-lju   (Yiddish Trad.)    Vocals: Fetija Jasari

4. Scarborough Fair   (Engl. Trad.)

5. Nachtigall, ich hör dich singen *  (German Trad. from Wolynia)

6. Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär *  (Swiss Trad/ J.F.Reichardt)

7. Flogen einst drei wilde Tauben *  (German Trad. from the Memel area)

8. Stiller Schlager  (Solo-Version)  (H. Saarmann)

9. Rest sweet Nymphs   (Francis Pilkington)

10. Abendlied (Der Mond ist aufgegangen) *  (J.A.P.Schulz/ M. Claudius)

* track taken from previously released CD

Mara Petersohn, who did the cover artwork, commissioned me to record this album of lullabies – for her son and for all the little children of her friends. Repeat orders came in quickly.

New songs issued here are "Leise, Peterle, leise", "Verstohlen geht der Mond auf", the english classics "Scarborough Fair" and "Rest sweet Nymphs" and the yiddish "Aj-lju-lju" (sung by Fetija Jasari). It also includes four tracks from "Hüt dich, schöns Blümelein!" and – exclusively – the first version of my "Stiller Schlager".

Ten lully songs from five centuries and six countries.

Vocals, guitar, glockenspiel & all arrangements by Holger Saarmann –

except for "Rest sweet Nymphs", which is an original composition from 1605 for voice & lute

This CD was first "issued" in December 2003, starting with 15 copies. It will be "burned" on request and (instead of a label) signed by hand, packed in a slim-case, together with a beautiful colour-copied cover inlay.

Price: 7 Euro + postage/ packing

(>> Conditions of sale)

Note: This CD is a self-burned, hand-lettered provisional! I use "Platinum" CDs which were judged "good" by "Stiftung Warentest" in 2003. However, I cannot take any guarantee for their life expectancy. It is left to your discretion to copy the CD to a medium of your confidence.
Please consider that many older CD players are not fit to play self-burned CDs (faultlessly). In such case, I recommend to copy your CD, by PC, to a blank disc of a different brand.

Sheet Music

The following songs are also available as sheet music for solo vocals and classical guitar:

Bahnsteig gegenüber   (Saarmann)
6 pages

Liebe neu erfunden   (Saarmann)
6 pages

Briefballade   (Saarmann)
3 pages

Der Gast   (Saarmann)
4 pages

Hinaufschauen   (Holger Saarmann)
4 pages

Ave Maria / Vergiss mich nicht   (Karl May)
Two songs on 3 pages

Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär  (Trad.)  /
Abendlied  (Der Mond ist aufgegangen)   (J.A.P. Schulz/ M. Claudius)
Two songs on 2 pages


All songs are printed in notes (no tabulature!) with fingering.

Price per issue:  4 Euro

(>> Conditions of sale)