Blind Man’s Buff

The four of Blind Man’s Buff call their musical program “Sea Music”, which has its origins on and around the seven seas.  Sea songs, ballads and instrumental pieces alternate, many of them written by the band themselves. With four-part vocals and numerous instruments such as banjo, tenor guitar, mandolin, flute, saxophone, double bass and concertina, the band uses a variety of possibilities to reinterpret traditional music and give it a new, contemporary look, far away from any seafaring romanticism.

The band has been touring the port cities of Northern Europe for over 20 years.  During their long journey they continually picked up new musical influences and thus developed their unmistakable sound.

• Kerstin Lorenzen: flutes, accordion, saxophone, vocals
• Roland Lorenzen: mandolin, tenor guitar, violin, harmonica, vocals
• Andreas Köpke: tenor guitar, banjo, concertina, vocals
• Jörg Carstens : double bass, vocals

This group produced two CDs:  For Sail (2000), and More Sails! (no date shown).  They produced another album, “Wet, Messy Wet …” with Ship’n Whales in 2001.

On 22 March 2024, maritime and folk singer Gunnar Wiegand wrote, “Blind Man´s Buff was a maritime folk band from northern Germany (Schleswig Holstein) at the Baltic Sea. As far as I know they made 3 CDs, one together with a Scandinavian group and the last one in 2023: CECILIE (about the barque Herzogin Cecile).  Except for Ken Stevens’ song and some traditional Scandinavian music, all other songs and tunes were written by the band or their friends. It sounds jazzy, not pure folk. But it deals with the history of that great ship. You may get the CD from Andreas Köpke.

Not to be confused with the German, blues-based rock band.

Apart from Geoff Grainger’s site, there is precious little discovered about this band on the internet.  Any contributions to this listing are quite welcome! [Dean Calin mmdi@seashanties4all.com]