The Detroit Experience Photos

on October 5, 2017October 5, 2017

Purple Lights, The Detroit Experience.
See some photos from our time at the Sound Shop Studio.

Purple Lights, The Detroit Experience

CD out now

on October 4, 2017October 12, 2017

Purple Lights The Detroit Experience CD out now!
Order your copy at urs@purplelights.ch

Purple Lights, The Detroit Experience CD, 6 Purple Lights songs, including booklet with songtext and photos.
For our US and Canadian friends: $14.00 incl. shipping,
European friends will get it for €13.00 incl. shipping,
for Swiss friends we will send it to you for CHF 12.00 incl. Porto.

All you need to do is, send an E-Mail with your exactly address and we do the rest.

Story 4

on September 12, 2017September 24, 2017

Through the UP

Sometimes you know what you have to do right away, without question or hesitation.
The morning after our show at the Blue Goose Inn in Detroit I met Tammy for breakfast in Fenton . The day before, Tammy had flown from Japan to Detroit and drove 180 miles from home and back to join our show. In other words she was 30 hours without sleep.
And now we were together, sipping our coffee, staring at the ham and cheese croissants and were wondering if we should eat them. One word led to another until we talked about Tammy’s plans for the next few days: driving to her parent’s farm in Wisconsin, departing in one hour!

mackinac bridge — Photo © Peter Hungerbuehler

And I immediately knew I had to go with her, without having spent a single thought or word on it before.
Truth be told my band members were very “surprised” and I had to answer a lot of questions. In the end Luca helped me book my flight back.
So Tammy and I left Fenton and drove 240 miles north over the Mackinaw bridge

and 260 miles west through the UP.
We talked, we laughed, we sang, we cried. It was a wonderful time with my sister-in-law, the godmother of my youngest son, Tammy. Her hands flew, her eyes wandered, everywhere – but not ahead, and I thought : “Don’t worry Peter, she’s a helicopter pilot, she can drive a car…!”

Story 3

on September 12, 2017September 12, 2017

Something about Tammy

What, who’s that, Motor City Josh? I’ll tell you in one of the next stories who he is and how we found him. But now, I’ll talk about Tammy.
An adventure like ours had to finish with something special. That’s why we visited the Motown Studio Museum in Detroit. It was the last day of two busy weeks. We were tired and emotionally inside out.
Our museum guide was smart and funny. He spoke – especially for a guy like me with two bad ears and also bad language skills – too fast and too complicated.
It was a shame because others on the tour had a great time and they laughed over and over again. And I – I bravely tried to laugh as well.
I understood only a few words but enough to catch something about the first song ever recorded at this place: “Tammy” by Debbie Reynolds.
Now, you ask yourself “Is this worth mentioning?” And I reply ” Just wait!”
You know, in Autumn 2016 my sister-in-law sent me a message: “Hey, we’re here in Fenton in our local BBQ Bar listening to a live blues band. Come on over once and play here too!”
And that’s the reason why we did our band trip to Detroit.
I wonder if my sister-in-law was named Tammy because of this song – I’ll have to ask her…

Story 2

on August 21, 2017August 24, 2017

What the he… he’s talking about

Blue Goose Inn, St. Claire’s shore. 20170703_PL_BluegooseInn_0025 Sunday night is usually open jam time.
But on the second of July 2017 it was different – a Swiss blues band was performing for the first time there. But nobody knew it. That’s why everybody who came was a musician of some sort or another wanting to play. Best requirement for our first show in a foreign country. The expectations were high, our nervousness as well.
“Come on, let’s do what we can!” With this attitude we stepped on stage.
You know, nobody in Switzerland cares about the lyrics and my little mistakes. But here in the States, I realized right away it’s different. Sure, this circumstance didn`t help me to remember the right words. They knew every word in every cover song we did that night. It was really hard!

” The next song we play for you is a Rock’n’Roll song, it`s called: further UP ON the road!” And a big smile came onto Motor City Josh’s face, as he commented with the words : “What the hell he’s talking about!”

Story 1

on August 21, 2017August 24, 2017

The purple Suitcase

“I’ve got a purple suitcase.” Andy was convinced, that he is the one and only far and near in the Detroit airport with a purple suitcase, and so were Urs and I. I mean, is there anybody on earth with a purple suitcase? An incredible color for luggage.
20170821_Purple_Suitcase
Anyway, we were waiting by the luggage carrousel and who would have thought, one by one more purple suitcases were riding on it, only Andy’s was still missing.
“Hey, there it is!” Andy spotted a big one, which popped up on the carrousel. “What, that one, the BLUE one? Andy, that’s not purple, that’s dark blue!”

“Look, Andy, this one or that one is purple, but not yours!”

And then, in the rental car office, where we were waiting for our car, I sat there and a lovely family with three little girls came in, and with them three- yes!- three purple suitcases….. It was really funny….

The Detroit Experience

on August 21, 2017October 5, 2017

Purple Lights are just back from Detroit, the heart of Motown, Blues music and car industry.
We left Switzerland with our songs in our mind, one bass guitar, one purple and two regular suitcases, an uneasy feeling inside and summer clothes outside.
Fenton, a beautiful little town 50 miles away from Detroit, was our base camp. Thanks to the two beds, a couch and an 80 bucks Walmart mattress in the base ment, we slept all there. All neighbours held us a warm welcoming there and they were our good angels in every case.
Soon we visited the Sound Shop Studio in Macomb and met Motor City Josh, a great musician and sound engineer. The next few days he supported us with all our ideas and projects. Like a mountain guide he brought us safely and together to the top and back.
“Keep it simple and figure it out” was our creed.

Tosha Owens, a famous blues singer in Detroit, who we met on our first show in the Blue Goose Inn, came to the studio to sing “I will never let you down” in a duet with us.
In these five days we recorded and mixed six own songs successfully.