This album is dedicated to the work of a legend in music history,who has played since 1962 in several Bands, like The Impacts, The Exiles, Fapardokly, H.M.S. Bounty, Mu and many solo projects with such high graded musicians as Nicky Hopkins, John Cipollina, John McEuen, Ed Cassidy, Willie Nelson and many more.
It's a great pleasure and honor for me to present this tribute album and keep his spirit alive.
I actually heard the name Merrell Fankhauser for the first time in german radio broadcast at the end of the 80s.
I have a big passion for 60s music, I was always on the search for "new" old unknown stuff, following compilation albums like "Nuggets" and "Pebbles" and ordered many vinyl records and CDs from mailorder catalogues. One day in the mid 90s I was going through the list and found a band called Fapardokly that was a Sundazed records reissue. In the catalogue description was the name Merrell Fankhauser again and I decided to order the CD.
I was impressed when I heard it. My favorite songs were "Sorry For Yourself" because the beginning reminded me of "Everyday" by Buddy Holly and "Too Many Heartbreaks"which had a great Ricky Nelson feel to it. Shortly after I discovered more music by Merrell Fankhauser and bought several albums wherever I could get them. I was very impressed especially by the Exiles and H.M.S.Bounty.
I always wanted to know, what makes a song special to the listener. There are songs that you like and others you dont. So I figured out the chords and riffs on the guitar to find the secret.
I didn't had a band, so I had to record each instrument myself.
During the 1990s I recorded over 150 songs on a 4-track tape recorder. Amongst them are 5 Merrell Fankhauser songs, that you can hear on this album.
Early 2008 I joined YouTube and posted a video clip with my version of the Exiles song "Shake My Hand".
Merrell Fankhauser himself commented on it and I was really surprised to meet the 'Man From Mu' this way. Quickly the idea was born to record a whole album of Merrell's music and I began to record 8 more songs for this project. The result is a mixture of my favorite songs, mainly from his 60s works.
I hope you will enjoy and also discover the magic, spirit and music of the legendary Merrell Fankhauser !

Shake My Hand