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.