Although this is the first time I hold an album by German artist Trailhead in my heads, I did hear the name before. A fellow DJ at Dollard Radio (the station that sadly went under) liked the music by Tobias Panwitz and even set up a showcase for him at a venue in the region. As he always has good and often similar musical taste, my expectations are quite high! Let's take a look at Trailhead's BIO first:

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Tobias Panwitz in his own words:

"I guess I started actually understanding the English language after reading "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" by Tom Robbins. It turned out part of the reason why I feel drawn to the language, musically even more than to German. There's more to it though, I haven't yet given up on figuring that one out...

In the 90s I spent some years moving between places and countries, trying to figure out what it might be that makes me feel most alive, what it is that I want to keep doing after I found it. I didn't find anything that kept me, but that moving around was my escape from boredom. I felt stuck with everything and everyone after some time and it took me a while to admit to myself that in my case music was the only thing worth pursuing, which is what I've been doing ever since returning to Berlin in the early 2000s.

My traveling years included some time of roaming the United States. And when being asked where my affinity to music and the English language comes from, I sometimes feel inclined to refer to, apart from reading Tom Robbins, the U.S. For the language, that is certainly true. As for music though, who knows. Growing up in a family of classical musicians, one takes in a lot of musicality and understanding for harmonics.

Songwriters teach you how to write songs though. We start becoming ourselves by imitating people we admire. So I did, I bought all the Beatles records on vinyl and easily fell for other giants: Neil Young, Tom Petty, Crowded House and later people like Ron Sexsmith, Wilco, Gillian Welch, Dan Bern, Jackson Browne, Gordon Lightfoot... Most of all it's their incredibly powerful, melody laden songwriting that gets to me, that move me before I ever started my travels."

 

When Trailhead was invited to play a showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto in March 2012, it all came full circle for him after traveling North America for the first time sixteen years earlier, laying the groundwork for his music today. This kicked off Trailhead's first tour in Canada, with successful concerts through Ontario.

Born and raised in East Berlin, songwriter Tobias Panwitz weaves his songs around journeys through various parts of the world and musings on relations, past and present. While roadside encounters pass by the listener, Trailhead recounts his travels along Spanish caminos, Swedish islands, Baltic coast lines, Latvian rivers and American scenery.

After years of traveling wide parts of the U.S.A., Greece, Sweden and Spain, Panwitz decides in the 2000s to return to his home town Berlin. Many a song has been written upon many a path, and while pursuing life in urban Berlin, singing the stories from the road is what keeps the tales alive. With a 'trailhead' being the point where a trail begins, it felt like the perfect name for the new music venture, echoing the folky americana sound of the 60s and 70s classics.

Between 1998 and 2006 Tobias Panwitz is touring and recording in various line-ups, releasing four records: 'Some Things Are Beyond Reason' (1998); 'High Tide At The Baltic Sea' (2001); 'North By North East' (2002); 'Selected Road Songs' (2006).

In 2009 Trailhead releases his debut album 'The Road To Salamanca' on Berlin based Folk/Americana label Cannery Row Records, with rave reviews in the German music press and airplay on a wide number of public and privately owned radio stations in Germany and The Netherlands, also on various Internet stations. It features thirteen original compositions with guest contributions by musicians from Germany, Spain, Denmark, England and the U.S.A. Promotional touring, solo and with band, follows in Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland (the renowned festival Picknick Country) and repeatedly throughout Germany. In 2010, the music video for the album's title track "Road To Salamanca" is produced. It combines the motive from the lyrics, walking the Spanish Camino de Santiago with Spring atmosphere in the surrounding landscape of Tobias Panwitz's home town.

In February 2012 Trailhead's second album 'Bodies In The Basement' is released on Cannery Row Records. Trailhead combines folk pop with soaring harmonies and dreadnought melodies, focusing on the hidden and concealed areas of the soul, revealed only between the lines of the songs.

In the Summer of 2012 three songs about Berlin and Brandenburg are released on the 'Berlin Brandenburg EP'. As they are in the German language, the EP saw the light under the name Tobias Panwitz, rather than Trailhead. 

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The new album 'Leave Me To Learn' has a very nice lay-out with lots of pictures and even a lyrics booklet!