On the Road with Dialect Singer Tobi Enzl

Tobi Enzl pauses at a clearing, halfway up Höhenberg hill. It’s the perfect time to take in the panoramic view on this Sunday morning. Before him lies a stunning expanse of meadows, forests, and rolling green hills. Far in the distance to the left, he can see the Großer Rachel, the second-highest peak in the Bavarian Forest. To the right, along the Czech border, the ridge of Dreisesselberg leads to the Bavarian side of Plöckenstein mountain.

Further ahead, the spire of St. Michael’s church peeks out. There lies Untergriesbach, his hometown. “Someday, everyone comes home again,” Tobi says before softly humming to himself in his Lower Bavarian dialect, “This is today, this is tomorrow, this stays home...” It’s the refrain from his song Dahoam (At Home), a heartfelt tribute to his homeland on the southern edge of the Bavarian Forest.

Of Kowalski the Dog and Beautiful Eyes

It’s the day before, a few kilometers away in Wegscheid. Vacationers stroll down Marktstraße on this sunny late-spring afternoon, heading straight for the beer garden at the “Goldener Löwe” Inn. Next door, in the Cadro-Bar, Tobi Enzl is busy with soundcheck – tuning his guitar, adjusting the volume, and testing the drum effect pedal.

Gradually, guests begin to trickle in. Erika, the innkeeper who took over the place in autumn 2022, pours beer, wine, and Aperol Spritzes. If hunger strikes, Erika has a simple offering: for four euros, she prepares a rustic cheese sandwich on a wooden board, garnished with a pickle. That’s it for the menu – everything here is down-to-earth, which is a perfect match for the music of Tobi Enzl, who also goes by Enzian.

Later, Tobi sings for a good two hours, weaving in stories, lyrics, and anecdotes about his life, love, and home (dahoam). His performance is smooth and charming, with a witty flair that at times evokes memories of a young Fredl Fesl.

One of his songs is dedicated to Kowalski, his dog – a Labrador-Australian Shepherd mix. Tobi wrote the piece for Kowalski’s first birthday. Another song, Scheene Aung (Beautiful Eyes), serves as a heartfelt encouragement for those weighed down by melancholy and gloom. And, of course, the title track of his current album, Blendig (Brilliant), is also part of the evening’s repertoire – a song with a name as beautiful as its melody.

Brilliant with Lots of Emotion

During his performance, just before the halftime break, Tobi shares how his friends’ child coined the delightful term blendig (brilliant). The word, he explains, is now his go-to synonym for “anything you think is amazing.” The term stuck in his head so much that he turned it into a song – like so many other things that occupy him, from the joys he experiences to the sorrows he endures.

If you ask around after the concert among the sixty or so guests at the tables, you’ll quickly hear that many of them see themselves reflected in his songs, such as "He really gets it", "Totally authentic", or simply "Full of feeling".

Do or do not! That’s a sort of life motto for Tobi Enzl.

The next day, during an outing to Gottsdorf, a district of Untergriesbach, Tobi shares how his unique sounds of home journey began. As a small child, he was often here – carried in a Kraxe (a traditional carrier) on his father’s back up Höhenberg hill. This gentle hill on the village’s outskirts rises a modest 120 meters, yet for Tobi, it’s a special place of rejuvenation. “It’s where I always find peace,” he says.

Tobi learned to play guitar during primary school. Later, in high school, he joined the school’s big band but never felt entirely at home with it. Jazz, as it turned out, wasn’t his thing.

As the forest path leads us through a small wooded area, Tobi recalls how he switched to a secondary school in the 8th grade, graduated at 17, and then moved to Nuremberg. There, he founded the band “There is No Try,” inspired by the quote from Yoda in Star Wars: “Do or do not! There is no try.” That mantra – do or do not – has since become a sort of motto in Tobi’s life.

From Heavy Metal to Homeland: The Journey to Dialect Music

Alternative hard rock and metal, heavy riffs, mosh pits, English lyrics – that was the sound of Tobi’s band. Then, in 2018, Tobi took a break and headed to South Tyrol to help with the hay harvest on a mountain farm. “Spending all day out in the fields – it was physically the hardest three weeks of my life,” Tobi recalls.

That says a lot, considering his athletic build, towering at 1.87 meters, and his background as a wrestler. For years, Tobi competed for SV Weiß-Blau Untergriesbach, a traditional club boasting world champions and Olympic medalists, even making a brief appearance in the Bundesliga (premier league).

“You can express emotion best in your dialect.“

During his time in the Ultental Valley, Tobi shared with the farmer’s wife his passion for music and his desire to write a song inspired by his experience – though he hadn’t yet found the right words. Her reply was life-changing: “Then write it in your dialect. You can express emotion best in your dialect.” That ended up being a true game-changer.

Debut with the Mountain Farmer

Tobi Enzl’s new musical journey began with Bergbauer (Mountain Farmer), a tribute to his time in South Tyrol and the challenging life of alpine farmers. Since then, he has released three albums, toured across Bavaria, and even appeared on national television in 2023. His song Bierle in da Sun (A Beer in the Sun) earned him a spot on The Voice, where he faced an unusual experience.

The judges – including Shirin David and Tom and Bill Kaulitz – reacted with bemused indifference to the foreign language of the Lower Bavarian musician. Giovanni Zarrella suggested he reconsider his lyrics, arguing that dialect music caters to a niche audience.

Tobi speculates he might have advanced further if he had worn traditional Bavarian attire and leaned into outdated clichés. But that wasn’t for him. Adapting to fit expectations just isn’t in his nature.

“It was an important and valuable experience,” Tobi says. Yet, he also hints that the entire process was a bit of ridiculous nonsense. After all, who needs The Voice when you have Untergriesbach? From below in Gottsdorf, the 12 o’clock church bells ring up the hill.

From the Bavarian Forest to Styria: A Stunning Mountain Panorama

The full charm of the landscape reveals itself atop the summit plateau of Höhenberg hill. To the north, there’s a view into the Bavarian Forest. To the south, the sweeping expanse of Austrian Alpine peaks stretches all the way to Styria. These are the same mountains that Tobi’s great-grandmother could see when she looked out her window in Untergriesbach, right behind the church. Until the end of her life, she believed there was nothing beyond them – that the world simply ended there.

Far to the right, past Salzburg, stands the Watzmann, Tobi’s favorite mountain range.  He has crossed it twice and even had it prominently tattooed. The image of a Bavarian mountain – perfectly fitting on a man like him.

Back on the loop trail toward Gottsdorf, the path leads past the Kaltenbrunn Pilgrimage Chapel, built near a spring once believed to have healing properties for eye ailments. By the wall of the small chapel, the conversation turns to serious matters—about Tobi’s brother, who moved to Hamburg many years ago and eventually lost touch with the family in Lower Bavaria.  Just a few weeks ago, Tobi dedicated a song to him: Kimmst nimmer (You’re Not Coming Back).

Benefit Concerts for Little Miriam

Tobi shares the story of Miriam, a now nine-year-old girl from the region who suffers from Rett syndrome. This genetic disorder, which almost exclusively affects young girls, causes developmental regression after the age of about one, leading to the loss of motor, social, and cognitive abilities.

Miriam’s plight touched Tobi so deeply that he organized a series of benefit concerts, raising nearly €10,000 to support research into potential treatments. As he said the night before at the Cadro-Bar: “Sometimes we don’t realize how good we have it.”

“Sometimes we don’t realize how good we have it..“

Auf der letzten Etappe der Heimat-Tour geht es noch nach Untergriesbach. Auf ein Mittagessen im „Lanz“, dem alten Gasthaus am Marktplatz, schräg vis-à-vis vom Pongratz, dem früheren Kramerladen. Schnäpse, Schnupftabak und Süßigkeiten, alles habe es dort gegeben, erzählt der Tobi und weckt spontan Erinnerungen an Jim Knopf auf Lummerland und den Laden von Frau Waas, die ja auch alles hatte: Hustenbonbons, Alleskleber, Regenschirme, Leberkas.

On the final leg of the Heimat tour, we head to Untergriesbach for lunch at Lanz, the old inn on the market square, diagonally across from the former Pongratz general store. “Schnapps, snuff, sweets – they had everything there,” Tobi recalls, sparking spontaneous memories of Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver and Mrs. Waas’ shop in Lummerland, where you could find anything from cough drops to glue, umbrellas to meatloaf.

Across the street at Lanz, Tobi’s grandfather, known to everyone simply as Hausl Richard, was a regular. “If he wasn’t at home, he was at the inn,” Tobi says, “and when you walked in, you’d hear him before you saw him.” Hausl was renowned for his storytelling, his deep voice filling the room with captivating tales.

From Church to the Inn: A Beer After the Blessing

Lanzn-Marie was a true institution in Untergriesbach. Every Sunday, she kept a watchful eye on the entrance of St. Michael’s Church from her small serving window in the Herrgottswinkel, or the traditional “God’s corner” adorned with a crucifix. As soon as the church doors opened and the first parishioners began streaming out of Mass, Lanzn-Marie was already pouring the first beers. By the time the guests arrived, the glasses were on the table, freshly tapped and crowned with an inviting layer of foam. It was a streamlined workflow designed for maximum customer satisfaction!

Lanzn-Marie is no longer around, but there’s now a charming terrace on the market square – perfect for one of Tobi’s songs, Bierle in da Sun (A Beer in the Sun). 

The stories continue to flow, weaving together anecdotes of the old, bitter rivalry between the Röhrndler who lived in the lower valley of Untergriesbach and the Marktler who resided in the upper part of town – between the “Drenteren” (those down there) and the “Heroberen” (those up here). Then, Tobi bids farewell with a cheerful Servus, perhaps until next time, at a concert nearby, somewhere dahoam (at home). 

As we leave Untergriesbach, the white peaks of distant mountains once again peek through in the south. And beyond them, it seems as though the world simply ends. Simply blendig (brilliant)!