Ragnar Ólafsson – Kulturkeller, Limbach-Oberfrohna; October 20th, 2023
It had been quite some time since I’d seen Ragnar play a solo show, but then again, he hadn’t played many of those since April. It made me really happy to be on the road again and see him perform. We all had a joyful night at the Kulturkeller.
My trip to Limbach-Obefrohna started in the morning and upon arrival in the afternoon I first took a nap. Next, I went in search for some food and settled on ice cream. 😉 The café I chose was ext door to the venue and also sold tickets to the gig. while I was hanging out, Raggi, Marta and Conny arrived and sat with me while having dinner before the show. Marta stayed while the others went for sound check and some time later we joined them at the newly renovated Kulturkeller. The previous year it had been still under construction and now it looked really nice.
I found a seat at the front and waited for the show to start, curious what songs we where going to hear and which duets Ragnar was going to sing with Conny. The previous year there had been a few great surprises.
After a short introduction from Conny, Raggi kicked off the show with ‘Warsaw’, always a good start. He told us he’d been writing many new songs on his recent trip to the US and continued with ‘Homeless’, written by a lake in Tennessee. It sounded great and is one of my new favorites. <3
Raggi spoke about his solo project and all the different types of songs he writes, especially the duets. Conny joined him for ‘Dozen’, which was beautiful. We learned about her knowing his songs better than he does and always creating harmonies for the ones that don’t have any and they continued with a powerful version of ‘Deva’. 🙂 They played ‘Petals’ together – no matter who sings with him, I never grow tired of it. <3
Of course ‘Bravery’ had to be there. Even after all this time it is still a song that always works. He told us how different places give him different idea, but people didn’t seem to listen much. They loved the music though. Raggi mentioned, how he can’t force songs, but has to wait for them to happen – thus he was inspired to write a Blues song and played ‘Muddy Waters’ for us. The squeaky bathroom door added some extra sounds. 😀
After a short break he started with stories about Mexico and how their car broke down, inspiring ‘Time’, because apparently being stuck in a desert in the middle of the night makes you wonder who you are and what you’re doing. 😉 Staying with the same tuning, ‘Needle and Thread’ was next, introduced as “a song about picking up the pieces of your life and moving on”. I loved having the song back in the set.
He moved over to the piano for ‘Örlög’, which means fate and told us a story about three Icelandic witches, believed to weave the threads of your life, knowing exactly how your life would unfold. The sing along was wonderful. A lovely version of ‘Water’ followed.
Picking up the guitar again, Raggi forgot his mic at the piano, making everyone laugh. He then surprised me with travel stories from New York and ‘Every Brick in Manhattan’. <2
Conny was back again and they briefly debated which order they should sing the songs in, then decided on ‘Message’. It was brilliant. Then, for ‘Southern Nights’ everyone could join in again and there were some truly great singers in the house. ‘Dragonfly’ ended the set, with Marta joining them in a lemur costume and playing the glockenspiel. It was fun!
We cheered loudly for encores and got the murder ballad double of ‘Where the wild Roses grow’ and ‘Sleep now’ with Raggi walking across the room. However, that wasn’t enough and people just kept clapping and cheering until he came back. We voted for a happy song next and got ‘Łódz’ with some extra sounds from the squeaky door again. 😉 It was still lovely. We still would not give up and he asked us for suggestions so I requested ‘Trans American Trail’ and we got it, with some stories about traveling there. He ended the night with a cover of ‘Hey Jude’ – it was fantastic.
We talked a little afterwards and everyone was happy with how the evening had gone. All of us were tired, so we hugged goodbye, knowing we’d see each other the next day.
Setlist
Warsaw
Homeless
Dozen
Deva
Petals
Bravery
Muddy Waters
Time
Needle and Thread
Örlög
Water
Every Brick in Manhattan
Messaage
Southern Nights
Dragonfly
Where the wild Roses grow
Sleep now
Łódz
Trans American Trail
Hey Jude