/ 8 August 2008

The ballad of Lucky Fonz III

Amsterdam’s award-winning folk singer Lucky Fonz III has returned to Gauteng for a second tour and will be playing at Oppikoppi this weekend. Fonz is deeply rooted in the American song traditions, his influences traversing Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen to the younger generation of Bright Eyes, Will Oldham and M Ward. His new album Life is Short is a week away from being released in South Africa by Sheer Music.

What has been your impression of South Africa?
It’s been wonderful. Everywhere I have been people have really appreciated the fact that I am touring here and they have been very open-minded towards the music too. Sometimes I play at places and people don’t know whether I am serious or not, but people here seem to get it and they have been very nice to me.

What is the music scene in Holland like at the moment?
It’s very good at the moment. There are a lot of young bands who really have a following. They don’t just have critical acclaim, they have a fan following so there is a good live scene. The scene is very open-minded, a lot of people are pushing the envelope. I’m not with my country songs and my guitar, but I admire the fact that others are.

Holland has a great exchange programme with Oppikoppi. Is this a good opportunity for independent Dutch musicians?
Yeah, zZz have played here and C-Mon & Kypski. They are some of my favourite bands from Holland. It seems every year Dutch bands play here and Oppikoppi definitely has the best of the Dutch.

Has anyone here in South Africa impressed you?
I saw a singer called Paul E Flynn. He used to be the singer for Sugardrive. I saw him play solo and I thought he was a very interesting singer. I have also done some shows with Gert Vlok Nel in the Netherlands and he is one of my favourites, he is one of my heroes. Obviously we come from a similar musical background.

Where do your musical influences come from?
I like a lot of folk music, you know, like the blues, English ballads and old folk songs.

I like the stuff that is more about content rather than form, very lyric-based material. I like a lot of the singer/songwriter stuff like Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, they are my heroes. I also like Bright Eyes’s Conor Oberst is wonderful. I think of Oberst in terms of the Anglo-American songwriters like Hank Williams and Dylan. I am definitely influenced by them.

For more information go to www.luckyfonziii.com or www.myspace.com/luckyfonziii