Unknown Master of The Blues Chris Kramer

Chris Kramer & Beatbox ´n´ Blues, Album: On the Way to Memphis,

Christian "Chris" Kramer (born March 2, 1970 in Marl ) is a German blues musician , singer , harmonica player , guitarist and dobro player , as well as a singer-songwriter. Chris Kramer's aim is to use the harmonica as an instrument in different genres beyond the blues.
Chris Kramer has over 30 years of stage experience and has worked with many greats in the music business: e.g. with Mel Gaynor (Simple Minds), Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones), Jack Bruce (Cream), Pinetop Perkins (Muddy Waters Band) and Willie "Big Eye" Smith (Muddy Waters Band).

Peter Maffay booked him as a blues harp player for his stadium tours "The Peter Maffay Tour 2010" and the "Extra Tour 2013".

On the CD “Tattoos Premium Edition”, which was released in 2010, Chris Kramer played the harmonica on three tracks (“If I go”, “Without you” and “I'm just a man”).

Because of his expertise as a blues musician, Chris Kramer has often been invited as a studio guest on various TV shows.

Chris Kramer was a guest on the Saturday evening show "Money or Love", which was moderated by Jürgen von der Lippe. His appearance there within the program was followed by an audience of millions. In 2013 he was a studio guest on the WDR program "Planet Knowledge"

Chris Kramer is also the author of the harmonica textbooks "Easy Blowin' Vol. I", "Learning Bluesharp Vol. I" and "Learning Bluesharp Vol. II" and is regularly booked as a workshop lecturer for harmonica workshops.

Since 2013 he has been initiating children's projects at schools throughout Germany and teaching children and young people how to play the harmonica on the junior harp developed in cooperation with Hohner.

Chris Kramer is personally concerned about the musical support of children and young people and therefore founded the "non-profit Chris Kramer Foundation" in 2012. The aim of the foundation is to promote art and culture, especially music.

In 2015, Chris Kramer created the character "The Little Harmonica" and wrote a children's book of the same name with illustrations by Christoph Heuer. This first history of the small harmonica was also published as an audio book. Due to the cooperation with the harmonica manufacturer Hohner, Chris Kramer was able to produce a special edition of a harmonica with an engraving of the illustrated lettering "The Little Harmonica".

The story of the small harmonica was premiered in 2015 as a musical in the Marl Theater in cooperation with the previously established foundation and various primary school classes.

Further musical performances followed in Datteln, Schwerte and Haltern in 2016 and again in Schwerte in 2018, each with around 100 participants per production.

In 2020 Chris Kramer wrote the book "The Little Harmonica and the Corona Viruses", which was also published as an audio book. Other projects followed, in which he taught school children the necessity of the Corona hygiene rules.

Chris Kramer is still on the road as an active musician in Germany, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. Since 2015 mostly with his current band "Chris Kramer & Beatbox 'n' Blues".


The little harmonica
Awards
Winner of the German Blues Awards in the category "Best Blues Harp" (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020)
2016 Winner of the German Blues Challenge (GBC) with "Chris Kramer & Beatbox 'n' Blues"
2019 German Blues Award in the category "Best Blues CD" for the album Way back Home
LYRICS
A song can be much stronger
Than the biggest machine gun
Arts gonna last much longer
Than a little stupid fun
You can act like Humphrey Bogart
Or dance like Fred Astaire
Not a soul will bother
Nobody’s gonna care
But when the lights go out on Broadway
And you’re kickin’ off your shoes
In your lonely hotel-room
Unknown master of the blues
You force yourself to wear a mask
You got to be a grinner
And always look like someone
Who was born to be a winner
You would like to show your ball and chain
But it ain’t allowed
You’re in it for the money
To pay for your way out
But when the lights go out on Broadway
And you’re kickin’ off your shoes
in your lonely hotel-room
Unknown master of the blues

Don’t ask me ‘bout your future
What will tomorrow bring
You will never stop the dance
You always have to sing
They dancing to your music
They see you on the screen
They think they know but everything
That You have ever been versuri.us
And when the lights go out on Broadway
Unknown master of the blues