Höhburg-Buam plays first Heritagefest

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The last time Fritz Nosslback played in New Ulm, it was with a different group.

But five years later, he's back like a few other returning foreign acts and he's brought his new group, Höhburg-Buam, with him.

The band's name stands for "Höhburg boys" and is made up of Nosslback, who plays bass, drums and sings, Franz Ganser (guitar and vocals), Alois Altenhofer (keyboard and accordion), Paul Fuchs-Eisner (drums), Heinz Lang (clarinet, sax and trumpet), Siegfried (trumpet and alpenhorn) and Gerald (baritone).

Höhburg-Buam comes from a part of upper Austria not too far from the German border and has been together for 18 years, Fritz said. On stage, they concentrate mostly on the familiar Oberkreiner style with a couple modifications here and there. They can morph from a four-piece Oberkreiner with baritone, accordion, guitar and trumpet and no drums to a rock band, then back to a 7-piece Oberkreiner, and modify the lineup depending on what the song calls for.

Nosslback said the band formed from a fondness for Oberkreiner music.

"We mostly play Austrian folk music. We like Austrian folk music and we like the Oberkreiner sound."

On Friday evening, they treated the crowd under the Rosen tent to polkas, mostly, but also took some time to allow Fritz to walk among the crowd and sing ballads. Unlike some Heritagefest entertainers, Höhburg-Buam kept the crowd's feet stomping and hands clapping with string after string of lively Austrian polkas and kept the "Ein Prosit" and the "Zicke-zacke" to a minimum.

Throughout their set, members rotated on various instruments. Alois stayed mostly on accordion and served as the band's emcee. Gerald stayed mostly on his baritone. Siegfried stuck with his trumpet, but also demostrated the alpenhorn. Heinz alternated between the trumpet, sax and clarinet. Paul stayed mostly on drums, but came out to sing a couple numbers himself.

When asked what his impressions of New Ulm were, Fritz said, "It's very, very good. The people here are great. We come here and sing more."

He said that once Höhburg-Buam's weekend in New Ulm is finished, the group will travel to Milwaukee for Germanfest and will return to Austria afterwards.