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.

Wales - The Middle and Southwest

Before leaving North Wales, I realise we should have stopped in Wrexham, where 2 of the members of The Trials of Cato come from, the third being from Yorkshire.  The band actually formed in Beirut, where they were teaching English and there is a bit of a Middle Eastern flavour to their folk.  They have been dubbed the Sex Pistols of folk and their 2018 debut album Hide and Hair has caused quite a stir winning the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for best of album.  Here's the opening track of this album, called Diffyrwch:

Brother and sister Roy and Linda Griffiths and their neighbour John Gittins from the village of Meifod in Mid-Wales formed the Welsh language folk group Plethyn, which was most active between 1978 and 1995.  They specialise in close harmony singing of the plygain tradition, which is based on a traditional Welsh Christmas service.  The name of the group means braid or bond.  This is the title song from their 1994 album Seidir Ddoe (yesterday's cider):

Based in Llanybydder near Lampeter in southwest Wales are Celtic folk group Ffynnon.  They have a contemporary take on traditional material with some Jazzy influences at times.  This is a song from their 2006 album Celtic Music fom Wales called Beth yw'r Haf:

From the Clettwr Valley in the Ceredigion region of West Wales hails Owen Shiers who started a project to reclaim some of the traditional music of his area and recording some of it under the name Cynefin.  They are some beautifully crafted Welsh language songs.  The debut album was launched this year called Dilyn Afon, Follow the River.   Here's a song from this album called Y Fwyalchen Ddu Bigfelen (The Yellow-Beaked Blackbird):

Now for something a bit different again with some Indie Rock from Carmathen in the shape of young, all-female trio Adwaith (Reaction).  They only launched in 2015 by Hollie Singer and Gwenllian Anthony, who have been friends since they were 3 years old, and who are joined by drummer Heledd Owen.  They are proudly Welsh and proudly feminist with all their lyrics in Welsh.  In their short career they have already been awarded with the Welsh Music Prize last November.  Here's a song from their only album to date, Melyn, recorded in 2018.  The song is called Fel i Fod (not sure what it means...):

Welsh harpist Catrin Finch from Llan-non apparently was the official harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2000-2004.  I didn't know anybody needed an official harpist, but there you go.  If anybody would like to apply to become my official harpist, please comment below... Some of her most exciting work has been when she collaborated with other world musicians such as Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita and Colombian dance band Cimarrón.  First up from her 2009 live album with Cimarrón, Yn Byw.  The song is called Quitapesares.  Have you ever heard the harp played like that?  And the dance steps towards the end are something else!

Next up the opening track from her 2018 album Soar with Seckou Keita called Clarach:

That's it for today from Wales.  We'll conclude our short tour of Wales next time in the southeast of the country.  As usual you can follow my virtual exploits on my tripline map.

Counties Derry and Antrim, Northern Ireland

We are coming to the end of our musical journey around Ireland as we re-enter Northern Ireland.  Above a picture of Castlerock Beach in county Derry, that I took last summer.  Now the politically correct name for the city these days is Derry/Londonderry so as not to offend anybody, but it's way too much of a mouthful for me and I shall stick to simply Derry.  

We will feature only one young artist from this troubled city, Soak, or Bridie Monds-Watson to give her full name.  She has a powerful voice for someone so young.  Her genre is described as indie folk or Dream Pop. Here is a performance of her for the npr Tiny Desk Concert series from when she was only 19 years old and includes 3 songs from her debut album Before We Forgot How to Dream:

County Antrim is mostly famous for it's northern coastline and the Giant's Causeway.  It gets pretty busy with tourists these days, even on a miserable New Year's Day such as this one in 2014 

But of course the western half of Belfast is also in County Antrim.  Rooted in the traditional music of County Antrim are the trio Brendan Mulholland on flute (from Glenavy near Belfast International Airport), Conor Lamb on Uilleann pipes and Deirdre Galway on Guitar.  This a tue, The Antrim Barndances, off their 2018 debut album Music in the Glen.

McPeake is a Belfast family band that is now run by the 4th generation of Francis McPeake.  During the peak (excuse the pun) of their popularity they were recorded by Pete Seegar playing their most famous song written by Francis I around 1948, The Wild Mountain Thyme:

Here are a couple of airs I recorded at a concert in Portaferry in 2015 in their present line up:

Gráinne Holland is a Gaelic singer born and bred in Belfast.  Here she is performing a haunting County Antrim song called Airde Cuain from her 2015 album Gaelré:

Joshua Burnside is from Lisburn just south of Belfast and his style of music is described as indie folk or folktronica.  His 2017 debut album Ephrata was actually written in Colombia and incorporates some influences of Cumbia.  This is a song from this album, Blood Drive:

I first met Belfast singer/songwriter Andy White about 14 years ago in a small bar in the village of Arcola near La Spezia, Italy.  He was performing in the Pegaso Bar, which was run by friends of ours at the time and just across the valley from where we lived, as part of his annual tour of Europe.  My wife being from Belfast we had an immediate connection and we chatted away after the gig.  The next few years he kept returning to the same venue until alas the bar changed ownership.  Nowadays we go and see him every year on the Belfast leg of his tour, and in fact we have tickets to see him at the end of the month (29th November 19) at the American Bar in Belfast, fancy coming along?

Andy rose to fame in the mid-80's particularly with his song about the Troubles, Religious Persuasion.

He now lives in Melbourne, Australia with his son Sebastian and has just released what I believe is his 14th studio album.

This concludes our tour of the 32 counties of Ireland, next we will head for brief sojourn to the Isle of Man, before hitting Scotland.  To follow my virtual journey check the tripline map.