Swiss western fans point it out like this

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Heels hitting the concrete. The cowboy boot woman pounces on her friend: “I knew I’d meet you here!” To hug. “Have your calves arrived?” By that he means his children. He shook his head, was late, lost his way: “Through the cow dung!” main station. The two walk arm in arm in the parking lot. A western guitar starts to jingle in the inn in Albisgüt.

The two leave the city behind when they enter the concert hall at the foot of Zurich’s local mountain, Uetliberg. A dim lounge with lots of wood, leather and jeans. A sea of ​​cowboy hats bows to the beat of the music, and four grumpy sheriffs play cards. It smells like bacon. The two acquaintances wave to each other again, then seek a place at the Country Music Festival.

The West got closer

“On a hot summer evening, on a train to nowhere,” Marco Gottardi (54) sings from the stage in English. “The Gambler” by country legend Kenny Rogers. Gottardi likes to bring out old hits. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson. People should be able to sing together, that’s important to him.

And indeed: the four sheriffs put their playing cards aside. One of them, the one with the silver bolo tie called the western tie, roars loudly: “So I gave him the bottle.” He used to watch western movies even as a kid. Cowboy – for him it’s not a job, it’s an attitude: “It represents freedom and nature, a simple life.” Is this how he travels in daily life? “No, I’m a computer scientist.”

Two large flags, Switzerland and America, hang above the stage and tables. What has long been popular here has found its way back into the mainstream outside as well. For example, the “Cowboy Core” fashion aspect: Gen Z poses on Tiktok in cowboy boots and hats. Cowboys are galloping again on screen alongside neo-westerners like the blockbuster “Yellowstone”. In short: The lifestyle from the Wild West is booming.

Politically, Europe and the USA are getting closer again. After the American reputation hit rock bottom with the election of Donald Trump (2016) and the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021), the Ukraine war led to a renaissance of the transatlantic alliance. America has regained its importance as Europe’s nuclear protective power, and its relationship with the United States is stronger than it has been in a generation.

Young women dance on stage

Cowgirls and boys in Albisgütlü are cheering, Gottardi starts the next song. Every seat is full, the hall is completely exhausted. Swiss country fans reunited here for the first time since the Corona pandemic. The organizer Albi Matter (71) is enthusiastic: “We were told that after the corona pandemic, concerts are not going so well anymore – with us it was the other way around!” Almost every concert for a month was “pumping”.

In front of the stage, line dancers spin and hit the noses of their boots. Last year, an above-average number of people wanted to learn the typical country dance. The linedans school at Gwatt BE was able to start three new courses at the same time, and the interest and number of questions from Countrybirds linedancers from Oberglatt ZH has increased sharply over the past year. It is a modern form of line dance that primarily appeals to younger women – now dancing its way into the formerly more masculine country scene.

“There are many concerts and festivals,” Gottardi says. He has since stepped off the stage for a break. Many people have the prejudice that only traditional country music is played here. “The genre has long merged with rock ‘n’ roll, folk and pop, making it more suitable for the masses.”

green grass in Tennessee

Gottardi was 18 when country music hit him with all its might while he was driving a truck. Because Chilbi has been doing it for as long as she can remember. From April to November he travels to the Zurich Oberland with his wife Rahel (49) and his family’s fair.

However, 36 years ago, for the first time in Albisgütli, the entertainer himself takes the stage as often as possible. Between concerts with Chilbi, she earned her spurs, sold boots and hats, and met other country fans at the western shop right next to the stage. “That’s how I got in,” she says and laughs. He also met Rahel at a country festival: Rahel took her on stage in her Harley Davidson before one of her performances.

What does he like about music? “Country tells stories a thousand times better than any audiobook”, adoring texts about life in America. Country – this is the bouncing banjo, the steel plucked guitar or the buzzing violin. Plus accordion, piano or harmonica. This genre originated in America in the early 20th century, when traditional elements of Irish and English immigrants mixed with American country folk and blues.

Countless country stars have already sang about the “green green lawn of the house”, Tennessee’s green lawn. The federal state is considered the world center of the genre, which has grown into a multi-billion dollar business and spread worldwide, including Switzerland.

The Federal Palace and the Capitol – a special relationship

Gottardi takes his wedding ring off his finger and places it in the middle of his palm. He and Rahel mined the gold themselves in America. Since then, the couple has shared their love for the USA. They say about their ties to states, “Politically: no, country and people: yes.” In 2014, they purchased a wooden cottage in Alaska, northwest Canada. “There is nothing but silence, forest, deer and bears,” Gottardi says. “Simply great.”

Switzerland and America have had a special relationship since the 18th century revolutions. As historian Jakob Tanner (72) knows, the two states were later referred to as “sister republics”.

Switzerland copied our two-chamber system in the USA when the federal state was established in 1848. During the Cold War, the rapprochement between the two states was strengthened by the common enemy, the Soviet Union. “At the same time, pro-American Switzerland has positioned itself against the European Economic Community,” says Tanner.

Country passes through family

Service workers push through the crowd, balancing oval plates as tall as horses. Gottardi’s Silver Dollar Band plays Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”. Gottardi walks between rows of tables, shaking hands and happy to see them again. Kids in cowboy hats are running around.

Gottardi stops with a family and sings the refrain: “I fell into a burning ring of fire.” I am Trix Neithardt (49) and family: father, mother, sister. They all wear Gottardi jerseys and are in his fan club. New ones join every year, with about 150 people attending. The whole family listens to country music, and for Trix Neithardt the music is childhood memories and trips together at the same time.

The family also traveled abroad, for example to the C2C festival in London, Dublin and Glasgow. It is one of the largest country festivals in the world. “New Country plays there, much more modern songs,” says Trix Neithardt.

The Americanization of Switzerland

Coca-Cola, jeans, tall buildings and french fries: When country music emerged in America at the beginning of the 20th century, the Americanization of Switzerland began. Conservative forces saw it as a threat to etiquette and European traditions. But “America was a rising power with an economic performance that Europe could only dream of,” says Tanner.

At the end of the First World War, Switzerland sided with the Americans. After the Second World War, about 300,000 American soldiers turned Switzerland upside down. They were invited here to rest.

The soldiers introduced the Swiss population to the American way of life and triggered what Tanner called “Americanization from below.” Wearing jeans and plaid shirts, the young hooligans embraced the American way of life and at the same time distanced themselves from the political establishment.

The film industry jumped on the bandwagon by flooding European cinema and television with Western films from the 1950s. John Ford, Clint Eastwood and John Wayne became new role models. These stripes had little to do with the true American West: “Americanization has always been primarily a projection screen,” says Tanner.

Even today, the consumer-oriented American lifestyle is more an escape from reality than the future, it is no longer a promising vision. “Climate change has lessened fascination with what America was envied in the 20th century.” Male western role models have also appeared.

“This is my family”

The whole hall stood up and gave a standing ovation. Gottardi bends down, a little out of breath. Last year was doubly difficult for him: there was a staff shortage in Chilbi, and at the same time, all previously canceled concerts were made up for up to five evenings a week. Some nights Gottardi slept only a few hours in the truck.

Still, he didn’t want to miss the country scene at any cost. “I can’t read grades, I’m dyslexic, I don’t have a higher education. My voice is all I have, it brought me here,” says Gottardi. No matter how tired he is, he charges his battery on country nights. It’s about harmony, community. “This is my family.”

For Gottardi’s final piece, the line dancers storm the stage once again before returning to the hectic, complex world outside. Line up again, forget the time. Follow the clearly given line. Life is easy again for one night. Sometimes you draw circles. But everyone else agrees.

Source : Blick