Recalling Lucius Reichling, of Germany's historic country band Truck Stop

Lucius Reichling & Truck Stop at Geiselwind Trucker and Country Festival, 2007 Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber


I've just learned of the death six weeks ago of Lucius Reichling, one of the founding members of Germany's oldest and most enduring country music band, Truck Stop. Lucius, who was 65, passed away August 15, from complications of pneumonia and cancer.

I met Lucius, who sang and played fiddle and guitar, in 2007, when I attended Truck Stop concerts at the Geiselwind Trucker and Country  Festival and at Pullman City Harz, the wild west theme park in central Germany.

Lucius Reichling (c) and Truck Stop at Pullman City Harz, 2007. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Truck Stop is Germany's most durable country western band and set the tone for a lot of the home-grown, German-langauge country scene that developed in Germany from the 1970s.

It was was formed in Hamburg in 1972, and though its musicians came from rock and jazz backgrounds, Truck Stop adopted a cowboy image from the start. Band members, then in their 20s, wore long hair, beards and moustaches like any rock musicians of the era, but they dressed in cowboy boots and hats and over the years have adopted ever more elaborate cowboy costumes. 

The Truck Stop logo includes a pair of western pistols forming one of the "T"'s. At first, the group sang American country western standards in English. Hoping for a bigger market, however, they switched radically in 1977, and began to sing in German.

They have recorded numerous of CDs, LPs, DVDs and tapes, more than two dozen of which are available on their online store.

Their 1977 LP "Zu Hause" (At Home) included a song that became a hit, defined their style and helped them achieve cult status. It also opened the door to a broader genre of German-language country. "Ich Moechte so Gern Dave Dudley Hoer'n" (I'd Love to Hear Dave Dudley) tells of the frustration felt by a German truck driver, on the road late at night, unable to pick up the American Armed Forces Radio (AFN) signal and hear his favorite American country singers: Dave Dudley, Charley Pride and Hank Snow.

Here's a clip of it from a few years back -- with Lucius Reichling on fiddle.

Truck Stop ICH MÖCHT SO GERN DAVE DUDLEY HÖR`N - MyVideo

For more information, clips, photos, etc, see this NDR.de report