Press release East Blues Experience - The Fire in the Furnace Is Called the Blues ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When EBE was founded in 1991 in Berlin, no one could have known that the band would eventually be counted among the best of the international roots groups. In hindsight, however, the ingredients were clearly there: innate musicality combined with road-tested professionalism, strong compositions, powerful lyrics and the willingness of each band member to be personally responsible for the audience having a damn good time, every time. Not wanting to pigeonhole themselves from the beginning, EBE made a conscious effort to avoid becoming too comfortable. Peter Schmidt, the singer, guitarist and lyricist who founded the band, explains it this way: "If you back yourself into a corner, youīre going to feel a little claustrophobic. Our musical interests are so varied, from Robert Johnson to Ry Cooder to Ozzy Osbourne and Mahavishnu and Frank Zappa and Abba and and and... itīs like a furnace constantly melting music into something new. And the fire fueling that furnace is called Blues. I canīt just play Chicago Blues, to the exclusion of all else - my world is much bigger. But the Blues, a powerful lense to view the musical world through - people like Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, David Lindlay, KebīMoī and many others feel the same way. To be comfortable is to be musically dead." So it was that EBE came to renown for its mix of Blues, Rock, Soul and Funk. Wherever the band played, they were invited back. But what is so special about EBE concerts? To answer that question, hereīs a clip from a concert review of Germanys leading blues magazine BLUESNEWS: "The biggest surprise of the festival was East Blues Experience. For the first time all day you got the feeling you were watching musicians who knew exactly WHY they are onstage... the excellent musicians played a combination of bone-breaking Texas Bluesrock, intensive Slow Blues, soulful Funk and Biker Rock. And this they did in the most imaginative ways, with a thousand tricks and details that left the listener completely satisfied. The concert more than lived up to the promise of EBEīs nuanced and multifaceted CDs." Case closed!