Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Wilco, Gillian Welch, Arcade Fire, Jose Gonzalez, Charles Mingus, Andrew Bird, Radiohead, and others...
Sounds Like
...an accumulation of events put to word and music.
A troubadour of the old breed, Ian Fisher is a true man of the road. Growing up along the Mississippi River in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, Ian quickly became accustomed to the constant motion of life. Nestled in this picturesque Midwestern landscape, Ian lived, laughed and loved along the same winding waters that once inspired Mark Twain, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Cash in their day. At the age of 13 Ian was existentially drawn to the world of music. Picking up a rustic old bass he strummed day and night to scare away his small-town blues as well as to enchant his high school sweethearts. After delving deep into the works of Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, and others Ian began to transcend the looking-glass of the regular consumer life. Writing his own songs, Ian started to express his ideas of and feelings for the world around him. Entering Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, he became very interested in political science and the machinations of the shameless powerbrokers and rich influence-peddlers that populated his country. Recognizing the blurred reality and various distractions that surrounded him, Ian realized that truth was what he defined from personal experience and not what was prescribed to him by the establishment.
Pent up in his dorm room, Ian composed his first album Invasions in 2006. Inspired by many long days of political philosophy courses and hapless relationships Invasions represents Ian’s ode to adolescence and college in America. Influenced by the widespread domestic anguish of the Bush years, as well as the apathy all around him, Ian’s focus gradually moved from love and emotions to more serious social and political issues. In the tumultuous summer of 2008, fate found Ian on a nationwide tour with the very politically-minded band Holy!Holy!Holy! That summer he also released his second acoustic album Pawn Heart. Recorded in one furious take, Pawn Heart is the product of a year of sporadic but extensive traveling around the US. Thoroughly enthused with an ethos of “money buys freedom in America and a lot of people are running out of money," Pawn Heart is a perfect reflection of the turbulence and anxiety of the first decade of the 21st century.
Longing for more personal freedoms and opportunity, Ian departed for a new beginning in Europe in the fall of 2009. Settling in Vienna, Austria, he quickly found his way into the local independent music scene and toured all over Austria and Germany with such bands as A Life, A Song, A Cigarette and Bernhard Eder. In the spring of 2009 he released his third album Stained Glass. Written over his two year stay in St. Louis, Stained Glass manifests Ian’s romantic ideas of love and of the potential for political and social change. Also in 2009 he formed the band Nowhere Train with four other Austrian musicians. Their two week "grassroots" tour through Austria was painstakingly documented on film and was followed by Austria's most popular alternative radio station; FM4. Recently, Ian finished his first European album, Vienna You White Moon. Constituted as a musical diary of his first year in Austria, it was composed mostly while in the depths of a cold and rainy Viennese winter. Resonating with a sense of confusion and isolation, Vienna You White Moon expresses Ian’s feelings of loneliness in a foreign land but also his exuberance of living for the first time in a place in which he didn’t long to leave. Although hard to pinpoint in one place, Ian Fisher continues to sing, tour, and live around the world sharing his ideas and passions with all those willing to listen. In spite of the fact his address may often change, Ian’s music will always remain authentic and from the heart, no doubt flowing from his lips with the same beauty and consistency as that grand old river of his youth.
Written by Andrew Sheeley, 2009
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Artist: Ian Fisher -
Title: Manmade Mountains -
Album: Vienna You White Moon-
Animator: Thaddäus Stockert -
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Artist: Ian Fisher --
Title: Cowboys and Indians --
Album: Invasions --
Animator: Thaddäus Stockert --
just to say it again: great gig @ vorstadt. i'd actually say your performance was classes above mine. although i had a bunch of pedals and a sampler... :)
