At The Gates Of The City
Peter Ratzenbeck
Gwölb Korneuburg, Austria 20241008
Ten venues in Lower Austria build the community of ‚Bühnenwirtshäuser‘. Easy accessible via train, the Gwölb at the main square in Korneuburg is a stone’s throw away from the Danube. This fall, they welcome likes of Herr Kinsky or Coloured Rock at the basement.
On the tables, it is good to have dinner, few chairs are right next to the stage and at the back is the bar area, where the Korneuburger Bier is served. Similar as at the Tschocherl, the innkeeper leads his guests to their seats and then thanks the sponsors on stage before introducing Peter Ratzenbeck.
Originating from Graz, he likes to repeat his tour-stops like at the Kellertheater or soon at Babü, Theater am Steg or Strandgasthaus Birner presented by Kulturverein Transdanubien. Gwölb, he must have been over twenty times they recall, and still it is exciting every time, what he will play. And 2025 he celebrates a double anniversary: his 70th birthday and 50 years on stage.
„Unterwegs“ actually is a great opener, lending the right vibes immediately. Ratzenbeck has new stories to tell. His wife has an e-bike, and as he had written two third of a song, she took him on a bike trip. And during this one, he finished ‚Out in the fields‘ featuring bottleneck in his head.
„Albatross“ when music was still music was a gift for himself he tells. Reinhard Mey once told him he does not have a voice but this has character. So Schiffkowitz wrote him the lyrics for „Mein An & Olles“ from „Breezy“. Also he loves the bagpipe and to muse and ends the first set after an hour with the „Duschbrunzerboogie“.
After the break, he reveals the mysteries of shaking the guitar (the Doppler effect) and waving the hand in front of the body to influence the vortexes of air (the ‚g-spot‘ of the guitar). Being a mentor himself, he learned when drinking with Angus Young and Tim Hardin („A Frau wia du“ on „Argonaut“ ), Lale Andersen and Comedian Harmonists accompanied him along his musical way.
Finally „Odyssee“ might not be his ‚most beautiful but most important‘ because it was his first composition, and lighting a cigarette, he ends with „Nix is so stü“. Peter Ratzenbeck always holds a new interpretation or story and is moving to tears when he is melting to one with his guitar.