Germany's Singing Cowboy: Tom Astor

Tom Astor

Tom Astor was born Wilhelm Brautigam in 1943 wartime Schmallenberg, Sauerland and has become Germany's biggest name in American-styled Country & Western schlager.

He started out as a traditional schlager singer in 1963 but in the late 70s Astor decided to carve out a niche for himself in the growing German C&W movement.

In '84 he had his first big C&W hit with Hallo, guten morgen Deutschland, (Hello, Good Morning Germany.)

From there he skyrocketed to fame, performing regularly on German TV and in concert throughout the Germanophonic world. He has released 40 albums and 600 singles with more than 4 million in sales throughout his career.

He has recorded duets with such American Country and Western luminaries as Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Crystal Gayle and Dolly Parton. He appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN -- America's premier Country & Western event -- in 2000 (two years after his female German C&W counterpart, Linda Feller appeared there.)

And his appeal is by no means on the wane. GoldStar TV in Germany aired a "Tom Astor Live" special broadcast of him performing in an open air concert just yesterday evening. August 18th.

Here he is back in his 1984 prime singing his breakthrough hit, Hallo, guten morgen Deutschland



Here is Astor's second Gold record performed in 1990, Jungen Adler (Young Eagles) Interestingly, it incorporates Celtic bagpipes, something never heard in American C&W:





Here he is reprising his signature hit in 2005 before a sizable crowd. Apparently he changes the lyric slightly depending on the time of day as this is Hallo, Guten Abend, Deutschland (Hello, Good Evening, Germany):



And here is a 1996 performance where Astor teams up with the only son of the legendary Johnny Cash, John Carter Cash, to sing his father's anthem, "Ring of Fire," on German TV. While a formidable composer and producer in his own right, son John was clearly not a chip off the old block when it came to singing. Astor actually outshines him here: