Gisbert zu Knyphausen

Saw the talented (and delightfully named) Gisbert zu Knyphausen last night in Berlin! This may not do all that much for the non-German speakers among you, but he really is one of the best young German singer-songwriters out there, one of the few people writing smart, quirky, creative lyrics and actually doing it in German.

Here, watch Gisbert and a clown in the video for one of his most famous songs, Melancholie. (Essentially, he's singing a song to depression, personified.)



Live, he's a warm and loveable presence, despite that fact that his songs are unremittingly, well, melancholy.

We also got the sense he's not yet quite used to people making such a fuss over him. He played two encores, looking a little startled that the audience kept calling him back, and my friend Naomi joked that there was one song left (two, but then he played one of them in the second encore) he hadn't played in the concert, since so far he's only released two albums.

(The second song he didn't play, for what it's worth, was the cowboy song.)