Blues Rock Generations
SK Press December 12, 2022
EN Translation:
Blues Rock Generations in Piestany
The bluesrock project continues successfully
The Blues Rock Generations band from Piestany, which was formed spontaneously at the beginning of 2021, consists of two generations of musicians: the older one is represented by Stefan "Stevo" Adamec (1953), who plays the acoustic guitar and sings, the younger ones are represented by Jakub "Kubo" Adamec (2009) - solo guitar player and Samuel "Samo" Kolnik (2008) – drummer. They play regularly at La Musica restaurant in Piestany. It is their home scene, so to speak, and they are slowly becoming known to music fans outside their city - for example, on October 27, 2022, they played a successful concert in the Bratislava - Nove Mesto Cultural Center on Vajnorska street. However, their activities are not limited to concerts - this year they have already released two albums - Blues Rock Generations No. 1 and No. 2. There are ten songs on each of them, eight covers and two own. The intention of the project is to release two albums each year, on CD and vinyl. The cover of each album will have the same image, only in a different color version (Twilight image by Stefan Polak). The band plans to do this over a period of five years. The main intention is to document how the younger members of the band will gradually grow in age and musically, and also to collect the best blues and blues rock songs. Blues Rock Generations have their own music studio, they release their albums themselves and do the mastering and production themselves. On Thursday, November 10, 2022, for the second time, I went to the concert of the Blues Rock Generations band at the La Musica restaurant in Piešťany. As I have always felt music in my element, and coffee go well together.
The concert started at exactly 7:30 p.m. The musicians played with gusto and were rewarded with encouraging applause from the audience. Samo Kolník this time did not play on electronic drums, which he is more used to, but on an ordinary drum set, which was a continuation for him. Kubo Adamec, as is his custom, took care of the variety of the band's sound - during the evening he alternated between four guitars, three electric (most often it was a Gibson Les Paul Tribute) and one acoustic. Štefan Adamec remained faithful to the acoustic guitar and crowned the compositions with pleasant and soulful singing. In the first set, songs from the album Blues Rock Generations No. 1. It started with Jimi Hendrix's impressive Red House. With the song Taxman, written by George Harrison, the band got even more excited and confidently rode the blues rock wave. Music brings delicious relaxation. For example, we listened to the compositions of two blues kings - Born Under A Bad Sign by Albert King and The Thrill Is Gone from the repertoire of B.B. King. There were also the Blues Rock Generations band's own compositions: Please Love and Feelings Of Winter (for all of this musical group's own compositions, the music is composed by Štefan Adamec and the lyrics are based on poems by Alexander Guštafík). During the first song, I was energized by the brisk sound of the guitars. The second was a break from the energetic mood and Kubo Adamec played acoustic guitar in it. The set ended with the sharp song Outside Woman Blues from the studio of Blind Joe Reynolds and with a nice solo by Kubo Adamec
.
The second set started with another energizing Year Of Gain, followed by songs from Blues Rock Generations No. 2. After the slow blues Have You Ever Loved A Woman (author: Billy Myles), John Lennon's song Revolution came next. It was a big success, as was the following Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix. Then Carlos Santana's instrumental composition Samba Pa Ti refreshed us. Their own compositions again resonated very positively: the energetic The Latest Friend and the ballad The Road. Joe Bonamassa's Notches was nourishing blues rock. Silence came with the blues song Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, which was written by Jimmie Cox back in 1923. Kubo Adamec played acoustic guitar in it (almost a hundred years later). It was replaced by the blues-rock noise Before You Accuse Me (author: Bo Diddley). The second set closed with Come On In My Kitchen - a classic by Robert Johnson. Kubo shined in it playing the guitar using the slide technique with a bottleneck.
After a short break, Blues Rock Generations played two more songs: Black Magic Woman from Peter Green's author's workshop and the extensive and varied American Pie (author: Don McLean), during which Samo Kolnik diligently encouraged the audience to clap to the rhythm.
That evening we enjoyed a fine two-hour concert, played with youthful energy under the direction of an experienced musician. I can only wish the band Blues Rock Generations that its enthusiasm and inspiration will last, because it is a real enrichment of the Slovak blues scene.
Author: Ruzena Sipkova
SK Press October 24, 2022
EN Translaton:
A memory of a nice concert despite the bad weather:
Lately I've been enjoying concerts in Piestany and the weather is annoying. That was also the case on Thursday, June 16, 2022, when a concert by the Blues Rock Generations band from Piestany was held on the terrace of the La Musica restaurant. I had never heard them play live before and I was curious. I was also attracted by the nice website of this band and the music videos on it. That's why I set out on a journey to the spa town, where I always treat myself to therapeutic exercise: I walk from the station to Teplicka Street and back in the same way.
On that very day, the meteorologists predicted storms, and by the time I reached the destination of my journey, the sky was already looking like that. An hour before the concert, when the musicians were rehearsing, rain and wind poured down, and here and there some distant lightning and thunder. However, this did not deter the bluesrockers or their large audience on the covered terrace.
The Blues Rock Generations band consists of: Jakub "Kubo" Adamec (2009) - lead guitars, Samuel "Samo" Kolník (2008) - electronic drums and Štefan "Števo" Adamec (1953) - acoustic guitar and vocals. It is therefore a connection of two generations of musicians and a return to the older generations of musical genres - to blues and rock. According to Štefan Adamec, Jakub's grandfather, both boys (classmates in the 7th grade of the elementary school in Piešťany, who also attend the local music school) discovered old songs and started playing them spontaneously.
Štefan Adamec knows these songs from the 60s, when he had his own band News. At the moment, he is mainly dedicated to the project "Blues Rock Generations", but he also performs with his own project "Classic Acoustic Songs" as a soloist. The concert on the terrace of La Musica restaurant opened shortly before 7:30 p.m. solo with his own song Albatros, sung in English and Spanish, because according to him, every good band has an opening band. Albatross is a poem set to music, carved into a rock on Cape Horn.
After a pleasant lyrical introduction came the music performed equally joyfully, but significantly more energetically. Electric guitar and drums unmistakably moved the concert into blues rock. The musicians played with ease and insight, Stefan Adamec's singing sounded natural and convincing. During the evening, Jakub Adamec gradually replaced four guitars, three electric and one acoustic, on which he performed impressive solos. Together with Samuel Kolnik, they proved that they are trying in music school and in music practice. The concert began with the song Outside Woman Blues, which was recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929. It is also known by the band Cream. Even older is the blues standard Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out. Composed by entertainer and songwriter Jimmie Cox in 1923, the song is about to celebrate its 100th birthday. However, it is timeless, it was also recorded by Eric Clapton, for example. The rain was quite a pleasant backdrop for me in Piestany while listening to music, because I was sitting on the terrace under the roof.
The band's repertoire also included three famous songs by Robert Johnson from the 1930s (Sweet Home Chicago, Crossroads and Stop Breaking Down). After a bunch of other well-known songs, the most interesting of which was the gentle ballad It's Probably Me (authors: Sting, Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen) with a very nice playing of Štefan Adamec on the acoustic guitar, it was time for the own songs of the musical group Blues Rock Generations. All of them were created in 2021, the music was composed by Stefan Adamec and the lyrics are based on poems by Alexander Gustafik. They were the slow Feelings Of Winter, in which Jakub also played on the acoustic guitar, the really rock Please Love and the equally forceful Year Of Gain and The Latest Friend. They sounded full-blooded and melodic to me. Other songs were also taken over. With the song Sunshine Of Your Love, I was already sure that the members of the Blues Rock Generations band really like songs from different periods of Eric Clapton's career (for example, from his time in the band Cream). During the entire concert, the audience rewarded the musicians with big applause and at times shouts: "Bravo!" Jimi Hendrix's composition Red House was a considerable success, during which enthusiastic applause was heard after the electric guitar solo. Next, two songs by George Harrison - Taxman and While My Guitar Gently Weeps (from The Beatles Revolver and The White Album) were played. After them, the song Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix was a return to harder music. The hard-working band Blues Rock Generations played 24 songs in two hours (with one short break). They ended her performance with a long and diverse song American Pie from the author's workshop of singer and songwriter Don McLean. At the beginning, Stefan Adamec asked the audience to join in the chorus. He willingly complied, and drummer Samuel Kolnik incited the audience's strong applause to the rhythm.
After the end of the event, I had multiple joys: I enjoyed a nice concert, it didn't last so long that I had to leave during it, and moreover, the weather was raging and when I walked to the station (also with the donated CD Blues Rock Generations: No. 1), it wasn't even raining anymore. In addition, I was happy that blues and blues rock music also appeals to the young generation and that it has an open path to the future together with them.
Author: Ruzena Sipkova