Award ce­re­mo­ny Eh­ren­cor­ni­chon 2022: Blues­max

Since the 20th festival, the Olten Cabaret Days have been awarding the Honorary Cornichon every 5 years, a prize for remarkable cabaret. After Emil, Ursus and Nadeschkin and Ohne Rolf, this year's Cabaret Days honor Blues Max aka Werner Widmer, a musician who has described his own music cabaret direction with his melancholic-funny lyrics and songs.

Blues Max aka Max Werner Widmer, born in 1951 on Lake Constance, has been on stage since 1977. He has written music, stories and songs for theatre, radio and television and has performed them solo and in various formations on small and large stages for over three decades. Important people in his career are Max Lässer as an accompanist on his first programs, Paul Steinmann as a director, and Joachim Rittmeyer as a stage partner. Currently, Blues Max often performs in a trio with the two musicians Richard Koechli and Kaspar Rast.

When Blues Max starts his performance with the sentence "I've had a good time, I canceled 20 concerts with great success." begins, that's typical of his kind. His trademark, a hat, also contributes to this. His songs tell stories. Stories from life, perhaps also inspired by the center of his life for many years. The artist lived in Zurich district 5 for around 15 years before moving to Männedorf. Blues Max's stories and songs aren't in a book, he finds them on the street. Rough pavement, rough voice, soft core. His Zurich dialect characterizes the urban melancholic with the ironic slang of the city.

The Berner Zeitung once described his music as follows: "Blues is the musical crying out of world pain". Blues Max proves in an impressive way that this thesis, which is recognized worldwide, can be interpreted in many ways.

"Imagine it's Monday and you're a musician" or his melancholy ode to the cervelat - or is it actually Gisela? Catchy tunes like this will always be remembered. For all these wonderful thoughts, stories and songs, the Olten Cabaret Days honor Blues Max with the Honorary Cornichon 2022.

www.bluesmax.ch