Seven plus Seven by Dirk Busch

In 1972 I saw Gordon Lightfoot in a concert in Cleveland, Ohio. With only three musicians on stage he sang his smash-hit "If you could read my mind" and many other beautiful songs. No big light show, no spectacular effects. Just handmade music, feeling, emotion and smart lyrics. He told his stories in such an impressive simple and direct way that overwhelmed me. And not only me but 5.000 other people in the concert hall, too. I left the concert and said to myself: that's it! This is the direction you should follow with your own songwriting. Telling true and simple stories people can relate to. Nothing fake, no false meaning!

Singer-songwriters like Gordon Lightfoot, Ralph McTell, Kevin Johnson, Jim Croce, Neil Diamond, Mark Knopfler, and also singers like Kenny Rogers had a strong influence on my musical career as a writer and singer. Today, 30 years (oh my God - time…) after the Cleveland concert, after 20 years in the music business and after several hundred released Dirk Busch songs I have the strong feeling it's time to show my respect to these people (and do myself a favour, of course). It's a kind of a tribute to my "heroes", a little "Thank U" to those who motivated and encouraged me with their songs to become a singer-songwriter.

So you will find seven of my alltime-favourites on this album, arranged and recorded as close as possible to the original version (no gimmicks!). The second half contains seven of my songs which hopefully show that my stories are also worth listening to and that I've learned a little from those guys. I sincerely hope that you like and enjoy this back to the roots-album. A good song never dies!