Richard Koechli's books

«Probably the most intelligent book on music I've ever read!» (Marc Loison, blues radio broadcaster and music columnist in France)

An in-depth tribute to Mark Knopfler; written by an award-winning musician and book author. Following the success of Volume 1 (Dire Straits), here is Volume 2: a 420-page track-by-track analysis of the first half of Mark Knopfler’s solo career. A third volume will follow at a later date.

(traduction française) (traducción al español) (deusche Original-Ausgabe) (traduzione italiana)

What can readers expect (Vol. 2): →Download table of contents & preface

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-3-384-91021-9 
Hardback ISBN-13: 978-3-384-91022-6
E-Book ISBN-13: 978-3-384-91023-3
US-Edition Paperback (digest size): 978-3-384-95529-6
US-Edition Hardcover (digest size): 978-3-384-95530-2

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Swiss blues musician and author Richard Koechli continues his in-depth exploration of Mark Knopfler’s musical universe. This second book traces the beginning of Knopfler’s solo journey – from the roots-oriented collaborations with the Notting Hillbillies and Chet Atkins to the richly atmospheric solo albums that shaped his artistic identity throughout the1990s and early 2000s. Across more than 400 pages, Koechli presents the first comprehensive track-by-track exploration of Mark Knopfler’s solo work, combining musical insight with a deep sensitivity to sonic atmosphere, lyrical poetry, guitar craftsmanship and artistic evolution. Each album is placed within its wider musical and cultural context, revealing how Mark Knopfler gradually moved beyond the stadium-rock years of Dire Straits toward a more subtle, intimate and deeply personal musical language influenced by Celtic folk, blues, country and Americana traditions. Avoiding academic heaviness while offering a rare level of depth and detail, the book also features an exclusive eighteen-page interview with Mark Knopfler, conducted in 2000 by Swiss journalists Hanspeter Kuenzler and Miguel Cid, revealing the artist’s musical thinking during a pivotal phase of his solo career. Combining careful research, musical expertise and an accessible narrative style, Richard Koechli paints a vivid portrait of one of modern music’s most distinctive songwriters and guitar stylists. A compelling read for Mark Knopfler fans, guitar enthusiasts, audiophiles and anyone fascinated by musical storytelling, timeless songs, musical history and the art of deep listening.

The book is accompanied by the double album ‘Laidback Universe, Remembering J.J. & Mark’ (stream it), which includes the 28 best songs and instrumentals from Koechli's career,as a tribute to the two grandmasters of laid-back music, J.J. Cale and Mark Knopfler.

Richard Koechli talks about Volume 2: "Compared to Volume 1, two major changes stand out. Firstly, I no longer select individual tracks: each album is examined in its entirety, song by song. Whilst this certainly increases the length, it is the only way to pay full tribute to a body of work as a unit. Secondly, the focus has shifted: music and lyrics are now analysed on an equal footing. Mark Knopfler’s evolution from star guitarist to sensitive and refined poet justifies this broadening of the concept. Once again, this in-depth exploration goes beyond the scope of a single book; Mark Knopfler’s solo career is simply too rich to fit into a single volume. The good news is that the journey will continue later — with a third volume..."

The Swiss guitarist, singer-songwriter and author Richard Koechli is a proven expert in blues, folk and country music. His book 'Masters of Blues Guitar' received the German Music Edition Prize, his music has won the Swiss Blues Award, the Swiss Film Music Award and the PRIX PLUS Culture Prize. The 64-year-old lives in France and Switzerland; he has released 15 music albums and 10 music books. Exclusive 7-page interview with Richard Koechli in the legendary British magazine BLUES IN THE SOUTH, two great features in UK's leading blues magazine BLUES IN BRITAIN.

In the same series (‘Laidback’ music history), Richard Koechli's successful book about J.J. Cale (336 pages) has now also been published in bookstores (it was released in 2020 exclusively in music stores as a giant CD booklet) – available in paperback (ISBN 978-3-384-55942-5), hardcover (ISBN 978-3-384-55943-2) and E-book (ISBN 978-3-384-55944-9). Find out more about this J.J. Cale-book

An in-depth, 500-page tribute to Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits; written by an award-winning musician and book author. Volume 2 (covering Knopfler’s solo career) has now also been published.

(traduction française) (traducción al español) (deutsche Original-Ausgabe) (traduzione italiana)

What can readers expect: → Download table of contents & preface

Available worldwide as a paperback, hardback, e-book, and also in a special US edition (digest size), not all editions might be available at every retailer.

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-3-384-55244-0 
Hardback ISBN-13: 978-3-384-55245-7
E-Book ISBN-13: 978-3-384-55246-4
Paperback (US edition) ISBN-13: 978-3-384-61390-5
Hardback (US edition) ISBN-13: 978-3-384-61391-2

To order the book from one of the retailers below, click on the logo and you will be taken directly to the book (there are many more worldwide retailers). Amazon is the market leader, but we encourage readers to also support other retailers or independent local bookstores whenever possible.

Swiss blues musician and author Richard Koechli takes readers deep into the musical universe of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. This first volume of his multi-part exploration traces Knopfler’s artistic journey from his early years to the rise and evolution of Dire Straits, placing the music within its wider cultural and historical context. Across more than 500 pages, Koechli combines musical insight with a deep sensitivity to songwriting, guitar craftsmanship and artistic development, exploring the stories behind the songs, the atmosphere of the recordings and the influences that shaped one of the most distinctive sounds in modern popular music. Rather than offering a conventional rock biography, the book approaches Mark Knopfler’s work as a living musical landscape — shaped by blues, roots music, folk and the changing spirit of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Written in a personal, passionate and occasionally light-footed style, the volume combines careful research with the perspective of a lifelong musician and devoted listener. Rich in anecdotes, background stories and multimedia listening references, it invites readers to rediscover the music through a deeper and more attentive form of listening. A second volume exploring Mark Knopfler’s solo career is now available. A compelling read for Mark Knopfler & Dire Straits fans, guitar enthusiasts, audiophiles and anyone fascinated by musical storytelling, music history and the art of deep listening.

→ Download book cover (print) → cover (web)

The book is accompanied by the double album ‘Laidback Universe, Remembering J.J. & Mark’ (→stream it), which includes the 28 best songs and instrumentals from Koechli's career, as a tribute to the two grandmasters of laid-back music, J.J. Cale and Mark Knopfler. Book buyers will receive a link to download the album for free.

Richard Koechli about the book: "Why such a thick tome, with more than 500 pages? The reason is that I'm interested in the whole picture: the companions, the predecessors, the philosophy behind the art, a thousand details from different areas. Music history is an incredibly exciting puzzle with thrilling anecdotes and background stories. In addition to the protagonist, the book features countless famous and not-so-famous artists, and also talks about producers, recording studios, legendary guitars and equipment of all kinds. A trip through Anglo-American music history that has something for everyone – not only (but of course more than enough) for Mark Knopfler fans."

Richard Koechli: The Swiss guitarist, singer-songwriter and author is a proven expert in blues, folk and country music. His book 'Masters of Blues Guitar' received the German Music Edition Prize, his music has won the Swiss Blues Award, the Swiss Film Music Award and the PRIX PLUS Culture Prize, among others. The 63-year-old lives in France and Switzerland; to date, he has released 15 music albums and 10 music books. Find out more about Richard Koechli: Exclusive 7-page interview with Richard Koechli in the legendary British magazine BLUES IN THE SOUTH, two great features in UK's leading blues magazine BLUES IN BRITAIN.

By the way: in the same series (‘Laidback’ music history), Richard Koechli's successful book about J.J. Cale (336 pages) has now also been published in bookstores (it was released in 2020 exclusively in music stores as a giant CD booklet) – available now in paperback (ISBN 978-3-384-55942-5), hardcover (ISBN 978-3-384-55943-2) and E-book (ISBN 978-3-384-55944-9). Find out more about this J.J. Cale-book

Searching for the Blues

The whole truth about Robert Johnson and the Crossroads myth

Robert Johnson did not sell his soul to the devil. But how did he crack the Blues code...? → book trailer (Youtube)

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While modern music historians have now almost completely stripped the Blues of its myths, award-winning Swiss singer-songwriter, slide guitarist and book author Richard Koechli gives him back the soul in a philosophical way. With a mystical story that deeply explores the question of what exactly might be behind the legendary „mojo“ of the great Blues masters.

Koechli embarks on a trip to the temples of the African-American musical soul, gets involved in strange thought adventures, meets all kinds of stars of Blues and Rock history – and in the end is haunted in a dream by the most famous of all Blues figures, by Robert Johnson (1911-1938). Johnson 'tells' him what really happened in Mississippi back then, how he got the Blues secret – and whether the devil really played a role ...

Richard Koechli: «The concept of my book may surprise, the subtitle ("the whole truth about Robert Johnson") even irritate. I didn't want to write a theoretical, bone-dry book about known historical facts of Blues history. My goal is to interpreting the existing facts and soulfully animating them on other levels. In literature, there are various narrative forms for this; meeting Robert Johnson in a dream does not mean to invent imaginary nonsense - it simply means that R.J. is speaking to me in a certain way through the known facts (within my personal dealings with those facts). Those who consider that Blues (as an example of soulful work) can be completely learned by practicing or via the academic/scientific route - will hardly be interested in this book. Blues greats like Robert Johnson proved and still prove that the whole truth is much greater ...»

A stirring story for all Blues lovers; full of light-footed poetry, spiritual depth and music-historical precision. You can feel in every line that Koechli is not a theorist, but a Blues artist down to the core.

Available as hardcover, softcover and e-book (english translation of the German edition):

ISBN Softcover: 978-3-384-04055-8

ISBN Hardcover: 978-3-384-04056-5

ISBN E-Book: 978-3-384-04057-2

The cheapest way to get the book: Pay 7 euros / dollars / pounds to paypal.me/RichardKoechli, and you will receive a PDF e-book directly from the author within one day (don't forget to include your e-mail address!)

More books from Richard Koechli ...

An English translation of the original German edition is now available (hardcover, softcover, large print book, e-book); --> book trailer (Youtube)

Tampa Red - The Forgotten King Of Blues

The very first biography about the pioneer of Chicago Blues

--> order directly from the publisher (worldwide)

Hardly any book tells more about the history of Chicago Blues. Hardly any biography reveals more anecdotes and secrets of the Blues. Tampa Red (ca. 1903 - 1981) should be mentioned in the same breath with legends like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters or B.B. King. For more than 20 years Tampa Red set the tone in Chicago; the first with a brass guitar, one of the first with an electric guitar, pioneering slide virtuoso, author of more than 300 song pearls, mentor of many later stars. But Hudson Whittaker, as his real name was, lost glory and health towards the end of his life, died lonely as a forgotten man. To this day, no comprehensive book has been published, no film, nothing!

Now, finally, this great gap in blues literature is filled. The award-winning Swiss specialist book author and blues musician Richard Koechli traces Tampa Red's life sensitively and historically precisely and prepares a worthy end for him with the help of a literary trick. Embedded in a fictional conversation with the young nursing assistant Anna and her music-obsessed friend Eric, Koechli lets Hudson Whittaker tell his own story right before his death: About life in Chicago, about love, about his music and his songs, about famous and less famous colleagues, about grief, despair, about the fear of dying – and finally about the happiness of reconciliation with his own history. "Thrilling like a thriller, touching like a drama, clarifying like a history book," raves the online magazine bluesnews.ch. "With this book, Koechli makes public an important and hitherto hardly noticed chapter in music history; for Blues fans a bubbling source of knowledge with plenty of aha moments."

ISBN Softcover: 978-3-347-62428-3
ISBN Hardcover: 978-3-347-62429-0
ISBN E-Book: 978-3-347-62430-6
ISBN Large Print: 978-3-347-62431-3

--> Press Review

Holy Blues - The 400-year trip of a musical soul

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Two wonderful videos (for the songs "Feel Like Going Home" and "Schacher Sepp") were produced by "Relaxing Blues Music" (USA)!

--> "Holy Blues" wins the PrixPlus 2022 (Swiss art and culture award)

What do blues, jazz, soul, R&B, rock'n'roll, folk, country, rock, pop and hip hop have in common? Their origin, their fire! Holy Blues was the source of fire. Holy Blues, also called Gospel, is the source of all the roots music we love. The history of gospel music is 400 years old; its spirit even much older, and without it we simply would not be able to be enchanted by soulful music today. Reason enough to trace this good spirit. Award-winning blues musician and author Richard Koechli (Swiss Blues Award, Swiss Film Music Award, German Music Edition Award) sets out on an adventurous trip through American cultural history and shows with countless concrete examples how high the influence of faith on the music and its producers has been throughout the centuries, how decisive and mysterious the divine dimension shapes the music at every moment. Koechli does this in a double package: as a blues artist with idiosyncratic interpretations of timeless Holy Blues songs, and as a book author with an inspiring, 150-page history trip.

--> Video-Trailer --> Book Cover (print/web)

Both offer surprises: The book takes a passionate, precise and sometimes new look at the 400-year journey of our music, and the album shows how independently gospel music can be interpreted without betraying tradition. Koechli relies on mostly acoustic slide guitar sounds - and contrasts! Sometimes meditative and without words as in the title track «Holy Blues» or in «Nishlam» (together with the blind musician friend Gerd Bingemann), then again as a laidback and blues singer as in «Feel Like Going Home» (in a duet with the renowned jazz singer Bruno Amstad) or even as a courageous acapella singer of little-known spiritual hymns - and last but not least even with an idiosyncratic, touching version of perhaps the only Swiss Holy Blues song, the legendary «Schacher Seppli».

«Holy Blues» is available in music stores (as CD & german book) and simultaneously in bookstores (as english book & mp3 download link).

Music Stores (CD & german book): Fontastix 324227, EAN-Code: 7640149284508, Distributed by: www.cede.com

Book Stores (english book & free mp3-Download):

ISBN Softcover: 978-3-347-62750-5
ISBN Hardcover: 978-3-347-62751-2
ISBN E-Book: 978-3-347-62752-9
ISBN Large Print Book: 978-3-347-62753-6

Digital Music Retail (Streaming, Download): on all platforms

new book: MUSIC and TRANSCENDENCE – STORY OF A DREAM TEAM (the mystery of sounds, from Antiquity to Psychedelic Rock)

new album: TRANSCENDENAL BLUES

Richard Koechli's latest multipack - a book about music and transcendence (in a German and an English edition), and at the same time the psychedelic gospel blues album "Transcendental Blues". Plus an 8-minute video clip produced in the USA by "Relaxing Blues Music" and the single "Love endures everything" (radio edit).

--> Book & album trailer --> Video clip "Love endures everything" --> Download press release --> book cover (print) --> book cover (web) --> album cover (print) --> album cover (web)

Stream and download the album:

Order book (German edition) incl. CD (worldwide): --> cede.com

Order english book (paperback, hardcover, e-book) incl. free mp3 download directly from publisher (worldwide): -->tredition.com (scroll to the bottom (right) of the tredition website to change the language from " Deutsch" to English)

Order english book (paperback, hardcover or e-book) incl. free mp3 download from bookstores:

Music exhilarates, enchants, fires, liberates, calms, comforts, heals. Like hardly any other medium, it lets us take off into a world beyond time and space. How does it do that? What is the secret of sound? There are theories, suppositions and hunches from the most diverse fields, but in no epoch has it been possible to finally lift the veil.

Tenaciously, playfully and at times ironically, Swiss musician and book author Richard Koechli searches for answers as to how and why music touches us and, in the sense of "transcendence," even takes us beyond ourselves. What processes are going on there, in the brain and in the soul? How has all this influenced the history of humanity? Meticulously, Koechli examines explanations from musicology, natural science, psychology, music therapy, sociology, literature, philosophy, mysticism, spirituality and metaphysics. He passionately quotes legendary stars as they experience the magic. Concerned, he also asks why, since time immemorial, the "drug" of music is often not enough for us, why we believe we can top the high with some substance or occult practice. Last but not least, Koechli ends the 200-page adventure with a fascinating foray through the history of "psychedelic rock", because that music from the hippie era also taught him how to take off back then.

For anyone involved in music in any way. A relevant book because it multiplies respect for the mystery of sounds. A stirring one, because it takes the love for music to infinity.

In his role as a multiple award-winning blues musician and singer-songwriter, Richard Koechli combines it all with a very personal album: "Transcendental Blues", a complex musical trip through the ups and downs of being human.

Richard Koechli: "Both are an experiment; the book to get to the bottom of the millennia-old musical miracle as well as the psychedelic spirit of the hippies in an interdisciplinary way - and the album to reflect the roller coaster of life in a musical-personal way. The heart of the album is a 30-minute composition with mystical lyrics, divided into 6 scenes. The scenes are also on the album as individual songs, and beyond that the whole thing as an instrumental mix to chill out."

"Originally, the project was created as a purely instrumental composition; different moods and scenes that blend into each other in a harmonically, melodically and rhythmically sophisticated way. Strong contrasts, which I connect pauselessly and fluently, partly underlaid with noises. In life there are no pauses either, everything contradictory merges."

"In the end, I felt like singing anyway and representing various emotional states lyrically as well. I felt the desire to dive into my personal spiritual home - which is why I referred to very specific Bible passages that mean a lot to me for a considerable part of the song lyrics. For example, the words about the nature of true love (1 Corinthians 13), which I quote in the song Love Endures Everything (the album's radio single), they are hard to top in terms of wisdom and poetic beauty."

The album has no direct reference to the book; "as a musician, I can't be a generalist and look for answers in different disciplines - I can only reflect completely subjectively in my own personal language as a blues and folk musician."

It's Koechli's most elaborate studio production to date; "more than 2 months went just into mixing the album ... - thankfully in my own studio, otherwise I would have ended up in jail long ago, heavily in debt, haha."

It was worth the effort, the album sounds excellent and very dynamic, also thanks to the fantastic collaboration of his long-time live musicians Fausto Medici (drums) and Michael Dolmetsch (piano, Hammond) and the very sensitive mastering job of Philippe Schneeberger (Lakeland Studio).

ISBN Softcover (incl. mp3-download): 978-3-347-92836-7

ISBN Hardcover (incl. mp3-download): 978-3-347-92837-4

ISBN E-Book (incl. mp3-download): 978-3-347-92838-1

Sponsoring: Many thanks for the generous support to Marlise and Walter Köchli (my parents), Thomas Bühlmann, Sylvia Frey and Cyrill Deschamps!

Slide Guitar Instrumentals - the mulitmedia playbook

--> Youtube-Trailer --> reading sample

Richard Koechli's guitar book «Slide Guitar Styles» has been the standard work in the German-speaking world for over 20 years. Now the Swiss author publishes as a supplement a playbook with extensive practice pieces: 12 instrumentals from different styles (Blues, Folk, Pop, Rock, Country) with a medium to high degree of difficulty. Tunes that are fun to play and don't need to hide from the audience. The book is multimedia, with video and audio download, QR codes, additional e-book and trilingual translation.

ISBN: 978-3-7482-6698-3 (tredition-Verlag)

UK / USA: