Horst Klauser began playing American rock and roll as a lad hanging around American installations in Germany. He continues to perform swing and rock with his newly-named Fredericksburg band The Raggedy Cats. Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
Horst Klauser and The Raggedy Cats play swing, jazz, and real 50s rock and roll at the Officers Club, VFW, Auslander, and for private parties. For booking information, call 830-990-4314.

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Horst Klauser:
Blowing his horn

by Phil Houseal
Dec 20, 2006

It's a long way from military officers clubs in Germany to the Officers Club at the Hangar Hotel in Fredericksburg. But it's the journey Horst Klauser has made, following the siren song of the saxophone.

As a lad growing up in Gelnhausen, Germany, Klauser so desperately wanted to play a musical instrument, he signed up to learn how to build them.

Unlike schools in America, German schools did not offer music as part of the curriculum. But Germany did have something America did not have - an apprenticeship system. So Klauser became a woodwind instrument builder. From age 14 to 17, he worked in a factory, making clarinets.

"As part of the training, we had to learn to play the instrument, so we'd know more about them," he said. Once Klauser got a reed between his teeth, he didn't let go.

His first love was Dixieland. But when Klauser turned 18, American rock and roll music rolled across the globe. Fats, Elvis, Jerry Lee... all called to the young German. Gelnhausen happened to be home to an American installation, so he began playing in the GI camps and officers clubs. Klauser traveled to camps in Germany and France, playing rock and roll in groups with names like Fats and His Cats, and Blondie's Rock Cats (a blonde girl played bass).

In 1962, Klauser packed up his sax and came to the states. He wound up in North Dakota, not exactly a hotbed of... well... of anything.

"There were not any jobs in North Dakota," he said. So four weeks later, he joined the U.S. Army. Klauser was back playing in military installations, this time as a member of the 62nd Army Band based in Fort Bliss, Texas.

After a career working on military bases, he decided to retire to Fredericksburg and start a community band.

"In Germany, almost every town has a town band and children's bands," he explained. "They are sponsored by the government, and they help kids start playing together as young as age 11 and 12."

So Klauser formed the Polka Dots. For 10 years, they played at many town functions. But interest dwindled, to Klauser's chagrin.

"I don't understand musicians who quit playing two years after high school and sell their horns. They are not musicians!" growled Klauser, who vows "to keep playing until I don't have any teeth in my mouth."

Klauser does just that with the The Raggedy Cats (who - during this interview - decided to change their name from the Barons Creek Boys so people "will quit thinking we play country music.") Duncan Holmes, Gary Lachmiller, and Hugh Patton join Klauser in playing swing and rock from the 1920s to the early 1960s ("I don't care too much about the Beatles," Klauser said. "The new trend of music they started is hard to follow for us 'old' musicians.")

But Klauser continues to love to play. "I think about music all the damn time... nothing else," he said. "I breathe, think, and eat music. Some people have hobbies. I get up singing; I go to bed singing."

Klauser especially loves live performance, and holds strong opinions on how it should be done.

"You have to play and look at the audience," he said, "to see if they are smiling or making a bad face. If it's a bad face, you have to change it up so they don't get bored. If you want to play for yourself, you might as well go home."

We know where Horst Klauser would rather be.

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