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The english/german slide-guitar/keyboards-player and singer/songwriter FERDY DOERNBERG was born in 1967 as the son of the british composer and violin-player MARTIN DOERNBERG and the german teacher and writer Dr.GESINE DOERNBERG. As he was 3 years old, his parents moved to Barsinghausen/Germany but he spend some time in England, too. As he was 6 years old he started with piano lessons. At the age of 12 he also started playing guitar and trumpet. After playing in several school and local bands he became the lead guitar player of the locally sucessful punk band "THE WABBLES" with whom he played his first over-regional gigs and did his first recordings for a vinyl-single. Also he played trumpet and piano in a local jazz-ensemble for years. His first professionally orientated band , ROUGH SILK, was founded in 1989. Through the years Ferdy found an own style of playing. As a keyboard-player his favourite instrument is the Hammond organ, the piano and vintage keyboards like the Wurlitzer-piano, accordion and the monophonic moog-synthesizer. As a guitar-player Doernberg fell in love with the slide-guitar and all her relatives like lap and pedal steel, Dobro and the hawaiian guitar. Until the present day ROUGH SILK have recorded 8 albums ( the last one, "A new beginning" , was released in April 2009 !), and toured a lot ( as headliner and supporting for example HELLOWEEN, DEEP PURPLE, SAVATAGE, SAXON, ACCEPT, WHITESNAKE and DIO ) all over Europe. Since 2007 Doernberg is also the lead-vocalist of the band. Doernberg also works a lot as a studio musician ( keyboards and slide-guitars ) and has played on more than 100 albums by ROLAND GRAPOW ( HELLOWEEN ), DESTRUCTION, FREEDOM CALL, METALIUM, TOM ANGELRIPPER ( SODOM ), HOWARD CARPENDALE, CRIMSON GLORY, JOHN WESLEY HARDING, CHRIS CAFFREY ( SAVATAGE ), POWERGOD, SWEET, JANE, SEVEN WITCHES, SARGANT FURY, MASTERPLAN, THE TRACEELORDS and many others. Besides ROUGH SILK he is also a member of the AXEL RUDI PELL-band ( he did 12 albums, 3 DVDs and several tours with him so far !). Ferdy has shared the stage with many different musicians like JOHN WESLEY HARDING, JASON RINGENBERG ( JASON & THE SCORCHERS ), ex/SCORPIONS-musicians ULI JON ROTH and FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ, , JULIAN DAWSON, JOSEPH PARSONS, JEFF KOLLMAN ( U.F.O., GLENN HUGHES ), WARREN DE MARTINI( RATT ), ROBBIE KRIEGER ( THE DOORS ), ROY Z., TONY FRANKLIN ( WHITESNAKE, BLUE MURDER ), DAVID PAICH ( TOTO ), JEFF SCOTT SOTO, DON DOKKEN, CHRIS POLAND ( MEGADETH ), THERION, SNOWY SHAW, ( MERCIFUL FATE, NOTRE DAME ), MESSIAH MARCOLIN ( CANDLEMASS ), GAMMA RAY, the award-winning country-act AUTUMN LEAVES, FREEDOM CALL, JON OLIVA ( SAVATAGE ), AL PITRELLI ( ALICE COOPER, MEGADETH, SAVATAGE ), EMMA BUNTON ( SPICE GIRLS ), OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN ( TV-show "Wetten Dass." ), the legendary drummer MAX WEINBERG of BRUCE SPRINGSTEENs "E-street-band" ( Frankfurt-music-fair), AXXIS, ANA POPOVIC and many others . He has toured in Europe, South-America and the USA so far. Doernberg had the honor to be asked by the legendary german thrash-metal-band DESTRUCTION to add a slide guitar-solo to their all-star-song "the alliance of hellhoundz". Other artists appearing on this song are among others : BIFF BYFFORD ( SAXON ), DORO PESCH, PAUL DI ANNO ( ex- IRON MAIDEN ) and MESSIAH MARGOLIN ( CANDLEMASS ). He also appears in the videoclip to this song. FERDY DOERNBERG also runs an own recording-studio, the "Droehnwerk", at Bad Nenndorf, nearby Hanover/ Germany, where he lives. Since 1998 he has produced and engineered albums ( or tracks ) by ROUGH SILK, JOHN WESLEY HARDING, DESTRUCTION, MIKE TERRANA, TARAXACUM, BRAINSTORM, IT'S M.E., HEAVENLY, A.O.D., FREEDOM CALL, MASTERPLAN and many more in his studio. So far FERDY DOERNBERG has released 4 solo-albums as a singer/songwriter. The first one, "Just a piano and a handful of dreams", was released in 1995 on SPV-Records. The second one, "Storytellers Rain - a rock musical"" was released in 2000 on Massacre-records / Sony. The lyrical concept presented 12 ghoststories with philosophical and ironical undertones - told by the main character called "the Storyteller". The music follows the "ups and downs" of the stories through progressive rock, classic, jazz, heavy metal, folk, country and bombast rock elements. A lot of unusual acoustic instruments like dobro, violin, sitar, didgeridoo, trumpet, trombone or zither can be heard on the album, too. MIKE TERRANA ( Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, Steve Lukather ), AXEL RUDIPELL, ROLAND GRAPOW, ULI KUSCH and MICHAEL WEIKATH ( HELLOWEEN ), TOM ANGELRIPPER ( SODOM ), TOBIAS EXXEL ( EDGUY ) and also all the members of ROUGH SILK participated on the album. To promote "Storytellers Rain" Doernberg played many shows as a solo-artist. Besides solo-performances - the largest was on the Wacken-open-air 2000, where Doernberg performed solo just with a Dobro, a lap steel and a piano, between all the louder Heavy-metal acts - he also did a tour through Germany supporting JOHN WESLEY HARDING in 2002. After his solo performance he and Joerg OHLSEN were also Hardings backing-band ( aka "the Barkins" ). Also he opened up for the legendary THIN LIZZY, JASON RINGENBERG; NILS LOFGREN, BRYAN ADAMS, JEFF KOLLMAN, countrysinger RICK MONROE ( USA ) and the german pop-metal band AXXIS. With his dark english humor and his intelligent songwriting Doernberg seems to be able to work with bigger rock-crowds as well as with seated audiences in small folk clubs. In May 2007 Ferdys 3rd soloalbum "till I run out of road" was released on Rebellion-Records. It is a singer/songwriter-album with guest-appeareances by JOHN WESLEY HARDING, JEFF KOLLMAN, MIKE TERRANA, ANDRE HORT ( Rough Silk ) and Doernberg's brother CURT ( TREIBHAUS ). Doernberg again played counltless solo shows to promote the album and also reactivated his first band Rough Silk with new members. They released a new album called "a new beginning" in 2009 and played on several festivals and also opened up for bands like SICK OF IT ALL, AGENT STEEL, W.A.S.P. and DEMON. Doernberg also continued working as a studio musician and went on tour as a sideman with different artists. Also he is still a member of the AXEL RUDI PELL-band. Doernbergs 4th soloalbum "travelling light" was released in December 2009 and is again a singer/songwriter album with a lot of slide guitar and piano features. Parts of the album was recorded in Ney York City and this meltingpot of cultures inspired the music on the album a lot. The album before, ".till I run out of road", was more "earthy" but many songs on "travelling light" have some kind of "big city athmosphere". Also Doernberg integrated more jazz and soul-influences into the music. His 3rd instrument, the trumpet, is also more in the focus than on the previous albums. JOHNNY GIOELI ( HARDLINE, AXEL RUDI PELL ) sang a duet on "Mutants at the shopping-mall" The drums on the album were played by MIKE TERRANA, ALEX WENN ( ROUGH SILK ) and Doernbergs brother Curt. The basstracks were performed by ANKE SOBEK ( NIKKI PUPPET ), who also played upright bass, ECKI HUEDEPOHL and ANDRÉ HORT ( ROUGH SILK). Doernberg played everything else apart from one song "integrity" where MICHAEL HANKEL ( HOLY MOSES ) played electric guitars. On the same track HOLY MOSES leadsinger, SABINA CLASSEN, did some growling and - this may be a surprise for many of her fans - clean vocals as well ! The song "May God save us from religion" is a duet with JOSEPH PARSONS, who contributed an incredible vocal performance and also co-wrote the lyrics to this song. "Travelling light" is a singer/songwriter album with folk-, jazz-, rock-, soul-, pop and even classical- and world music-influences and intelligent lyrics.
Doernberg again proves that he is a real good songwriter and of course an outstanding slideguitar-player and musician in general.
If you're interested, please check out Ferdy's official website www.ferdydoernberg.de or just leave a message !
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