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Cutting your toe-nails with an open razor while blindfolded is a painful and bloody business, much like attending gigs billed as ‘Singer Songwriter’ evenings. With that little cloud of positive sentiment floating above me I toddled off to see Lucky Fonz III. So, let’s get to the meat and the bones inside the first paragraph and deal with the bad first; it’s a shit name, but then again what band name or act name hasn’t got a whiff of shit about it at first? As for anything else, I am at a loss… He really was that good!

© Henk Langeveld http://www.henklangeveld.nl

Otto Wicher or Lucky Fonz III, as he goes by is a star. I could whittle on for a few hundred words here thus wasting more of my nine-till-five time or I can spit it out in one – 100% pure entertainment and quite the merry little minstrel.

His songbook is three parts traditional American folk, with the obligatory Dylan-esque nod, to one part kooky Dutch bloke with an odd take on his existence. This is where you’ll find the magic. From the opener of ‘I used to be a lady’ with its lyrics of “running like a girl” and “enjoying tea as that’s what ladies do”, to “the boys made of cola and girls made of wine” in ‘Lowlands’ it’s a bit of a puzzle as to where he’s taking himself next. Normally a song that started with an explanation that “it might be easier to understand if you think of me as a lighthouse during this song” would have me reaching for a plastic bag with which to suffocate myself, but this time I’m still entertained by the third sing-along, or rather whistle-along chorus.

Reading this back to myself before posting it online for your beady little eyes to scan and for your brain to pick a fight with, I can see some might say it sounds like a load of random bollocks. Had I not seen it I might be inclined to think that too, but it’s the first time in a long time I’ve thought “f**k me, he should be a superstar!”

Go the mass has ended.

More info: http://www.myspace.com/luckyfonziii