Selection from songs by Karel Kryl: Kateřina, Srdce a kříž, Morituri te salutant, Píseň Neznámého vojína, Veličenstvo Kat, Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka, Tak vás tu máme (Bratři), Rakovina, Bludný Holanďan, Vánoční, Lásko!, Karavana mraků, Irena, Písničkářský bacil

Singer-songwriter Karel Kryl was the main representative of Czechoslovak anti-communist protest songs, he often provoked with his songs and opened social topics. His compositions “Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka”, which became a symbol of opposition against the occupation of Czechoslovakia, “Veličenstvo kat”, “Píseň neznámého vojína”, “Morituri te salutant” and many others have become popular. His repertoire included short strong pamphletic songs as well as longer poetic and melancholic compositions. Sometimes he is nicknamed the “poet with a guitar”. The festival prepared two concerts on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain which will be fittingly held in the military district of Boletice. One of them will be the concert of the musician of many faces Petr Samšuk, which will take place in the spaces in front of St. Nicolas Church and for which he has selected the best of Kryl’s works. The power of the messages in Kryl’s songs consists in their original form without any modifications and this is the form of the songs you will hear.

No intermission

A musician of many faces, Petr Samšuk plays the guitar and the accordion and sings. He most often appears with his own band called Sam’s Band but also with smaller formations and gives solo performances. The repertoire of Sam’s Band includes projects dedicated to the works by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Petr Kalandra. His first project was Bob Dylan’s Birthday Concert in 2016, a concert lasting almost three hours depicting the legend’s life’s works in many forms. The musically rather demanding program in honour of the magician of the guitar and atmosphere, Eric Clapton, followed. The concert evening titled Uzenej večer pro Petra Kalandru (in English “Smoked Evening for Petr Kalandra”) was a logical continuation because Petr Samšuk was influenced by Kalandra’s works after coming to Prague to study in the 1980s. Sam’s Band still has these three concert programs in its repertoire and repeatedly plays them in Prague but also in Brno, Olomouc, České Budějovice and other cities. In the folklore trio Petr Samšuk dedicates himself to his beloved folk songs from different fields. As he says about himself, “he left half of his heart in the region of Horňácko”. He gives solo performances above all with the selection of songs by Karel Kryl. Instead of adapting the songs, he prefers to maintain the power of Kryl’s songs played and sung by one interpreter. Petr Samšuk is preparing several concerts for 2019 which will commemorate the 75^th anniversary of Karel Kryl’s birth and also 30 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain.