Philipp Fankhauser is a Swiss blues musician and songwriter. At 11, he started playing guitar after moving to the Tessin. In 1977, Fankhauser formed his first band in Locarno. By the mid-1980s, he performed solo and wrote for a Berlin-based blues magazine. He founded the Checkerboard Blues Band in 1987, which gained prominence through collaborations with US singer Margie Evans. Their album Blues for the Lady (1989) led to extensive European touring. Between 1991 and 1994, they released three more albums: With a Feeling (1991), Dedicated (1992), and Thun - San Francisco (1994). Fankhauser's solo career began with On Broadway (1995). After a hiatus in 1999, he returned with Welcome to the Real World (2000). He released several notable albums that charted on the Swiss Hitparade, including Love Man Riding (2008), which peaked at number 7, Try My Love (2010), which peaked at number 3, Home (2014), which peaked at number 2, Let Life Flow (2019), which peaked at Number 1, and Heebie Jeebies – The Early Songs of Johnny Copeland (2022), which also peaked at Number 1. His work has been recognized with awards for music sales in Switzerland.
