Netherlands - Utrecht

 Singer/songwriter, actor, painter and author Herman van Veen was born in Utrecht in 1945 and has had a glittering career in the Netherlands and Germany.  I have many a fond childhood memory of him as he created fun children's programmes on TV.  His songs were and still are always full of depth and straight from the heart and his live shows full of energy.  I remember seeing him live in Germany in the early 1980's, where he spent 2 hours bouncing around the stage, even climbing up the stage curtains, whilst juggling a multitude of instruments, reciting poetry and singing.  Here's a chanson-like song he performed on his 60th birthday concert called Laat Me (let me go my own way, that's the way I have always done it):

Also from Utrecht, folk band Wolverlei were formed during the 70's folk revival, but only lasted 4 years and 2 albums.  Here's a tune from their self-titled 1978 debut album called Las Las / Het Grote Bed:

Trumpeter Maité Hontelé was born in 1980 in Utrecht.  She began playing the trumpet aged 9 and was so enamoured with Salsa and Latin music, she went to live in Colombia for several years.  Do a nice summer salsa around your locked down living room with Me Da Igual from her 2015 album Te Voi A Querer:

Accordion duo Accordéon Mélancolique have been squeezing their boxes together since 1984.  The duo is based in Driebergen-Rijsenberg in the province of Utrecht, consisting of Cherie de Boer (born in Jakarta) and Jean-Pierre Guiran (born in Vlissingen).  They take most of their inspiration from French musette, but incorporate folk influences from all over the world.  The highlight of their career was when they were asked to play at the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan in Rotterdam in front of US president Bill Clinton and the Dutch crown prince Willem Alexander and the then prime minister Wim Kok in 1997.  Here is a tune from their 2012 album Gratitude called Gratitude III:

Balfolk trio Lirio are from Nieuwegein in the province of Utrecht. They consist of Wouter Kuyper (accordion and bagpipes), Sander van der Schaaf (guitar) and Gerdien Smit (violin).  Here's a tune from their 2013 album Hanterdroom called Mazurka voor een Mus:

That's it for today from the province of Utrecht, next stop the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - South Holland

Rotterdam old port and cubic houses

Although the members of folk quartet Pekel hail from both South Holland and Friesland, they are based in the South Holland village of Greup just south of Rotterdam, which is described as a small village on a dike.  I must have cycled through it, but have no memories of it.  Pekel have been playing folk inspired by the sea since the early days of the Dutch folk revival and are still going.  Here's a track from their 2006 album Dijfolk entitled De Stilte Voor de Storm (The calm before the storm):

 In 1973 prog folk band Chimera were formed in Rotterdam around what was to become husband and wife team Marry and Bas Verkade.  Starting off they played English folk, but soon switched to Dutch folk blended with of folk rock and psychedelia.  They only recorded 2 albums in their initial period, until 1983, but both were very successful.  They broke up, because the couple wanted to concentrate on their family having had 2 kids in the meantime.  However they resumed playing as a duo occasionally 5 years later eventually releasing a new album in 2016 with their son Marijn called Gestolen Lente (stolen spring).  This is the title track from the album:

Rotterdam is where my family is from and as one of the biggest ports in Europe it has always been quite a multicultural place.  Whilst I grew up in Germany I spent all my holidays as a kid in Rotterdam, which wasn't a pretty place in the 1960's and 70's with it's heart bombed out during the war and the port dominating the economy, it was a bit of a rough place with non of the charm of rival Amsterdam.  Our family visits always included (apart from the obligatory visits to grandparents, aunts and uncles) excursions to Blijdorp zoo, a trip to the seaside at Hoek van Holland, maybe a stroll through the woodlands of Kralingse Bosch, shopping at the Lijnbaan, the first pedestrianised shopping street in Europe and finally always a Spido harbour tour, complete with having your photo taken as you boarded, so you could buy it off the photographer as you arrived back.  Here are 3 of those photos ca. 1967, 1970 and 1975:

I'm the little one in the back

Striding ahead this time

In cool denims

Enough of the reminiscing, as I said, before I got side-tracked, Rotterdam is a very cosmopolitan place.  Here's one example, the Senegambian-Dutch music collective Dandana.  Band founder Bas Ackermann surrounded himself by 2 other Dutch musicians as well as musicians from Senegal and the Gambia to play a fusion of electronica and traditional sounds from West Africa.  Here's the title track from their latest 2020 album Free the System:

In 1972 legendary folk band Fungus came to being in Vlaardingen just west of Rotterdam.  Like many Dutch acts during the 70's folk revival they started with English and Irish folk, before digging up traditional Dutch material.  This led to them gaining somewhat of a cult status.  When they reverted back to English language songs towards the end of the 70's, their popularity wained and they soon broke up with only a brief revival in the early 2000's.  Their albums are now difficult to get hold of.  Here is a cheerful song originally written in the early 1900's and recorded in 1974 on their self-titled album about shrimp fishing, Garrenkwak:

Finally, for something a bit more contemporary, singer/songwriter Eefje de Visser was born in Voorburg just outside The Hague in 1986.  Her music has been compared to a young Joni Mitchell and she has garnered quite a following in the Benelux countries.  Here's a song she recorded for the Festival aan de Werf 2012 in Utrecht, called Dat Kan (it's possible) with some nice shots of Utrecht:

This is it from South Holland, next we will neatly be heading towards Utrecht.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - Zeeland and western North Brabant

 

A new year and a new country, my home country, the Netherlands.  First  of all a clarification: the official name of the country is the Netherlands.  Holland are only the 2 provinces of North and South Holland in the west, which contain the main urban centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, but still exclude large parts of the country.  Calling the whole country Holland is equivalent to calling the United Kingdom England.  Secondly the nationality and language of its citizens should be Netherlanders and Netherlandish respectively.  The term Dutch originates from a common Roman term referring to the Babarian tribes north of the Alps and still finds itself in the German name of their country Deutschland, but we'll stick to the more commonly used Dutch for both the nationality and the language.

We begin our musical journey through the country in the southwest in the province of Zeeland.  Jazz saxophonist Paul van der Feen and his 7 brothers and sisters grew up in a musical family in the the pretty seaside town of Middelburg.  They all started playing music from an early age and began performing when still in their teens during the 1990's.  Most notably they performed as the Paul van der Feen Quartet with Paul being joined by his brothers Mark, Matthijs and Clemens.  Here's an extract of them performing a live gig in Amsterdam:

In 1978 Dutch instrumental music ensemble Flairck was born around guitar virtuoso Erik Visser, who was actually born in Indonesia, but moved with his family to Ulvenhout in the province of North Brabant, where he grew up.  The band played a blend of folk, jazz and chamber influenced music and were very successful and productive until about 2004.  This is the title track from their 1978 debut album Variaties op een Dame: 

In 2017 they re-formed under a completely changed personnel with some Belgian influences, including the already featured violinist Anouk Sanczuk, but without Erik Visser.  So essentially its a brand new band, but the philosophy remained the same.  The end of last year they released a new album called Back Alive!  Here's a track from the album, which is a good one to reinforce some Dutch stereotypes: Stoned Wedding:

Moving on to the city of Tilburg in North Brabant, where we come across folk band Wè-nun Henk, who were active between 1995 and about 2008.  They very much show off the folk traditions of their home region.  They only recorded 4 albums in their time including the 2002 album Bar.  Here's a a live recording of a song from the album called De Vagabond.  Apologies for the sound quality:

As we are just into the New Year here is Een Vrolijk Nieuwjaarslied (A happy New Year's song) from the same album:

On this note, a happy New Year to you all and see you next time in South Holland.  As usual you follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.