Netherlands - The North

 Heading north but still in the province of North Holland we arrive in Hoorn where my Facebook friend Martijn lives, who has recommended the next act.  Now I had planned to go to Hoorn once on a bicycle on a tour around the Netherlands, but when we got to the beginning of the 30 km long Houtribdijk connecting Lelystad with Enkhuizen a snow storm ensued.  As we didn't fancy cycling on an exposed dike into a blizzard we were stuck in Lelystad, quite possibly the worst place on earth to be stuck in as it is a city built on reclaimed land by planners who were clearly on acid.  Anyway, so I never got to visit Hoorn, which by all accounts is quite a pretty town.

So Hoorn is where bluegrass band The Oldtime Stringband hail from.  Here's a song from their 2019 album Pretty Little Horses called Cluck Old Hen:

 

Next we are crossing the Afsluitdijk into Friesland, where they have their own language.  Friesland or Frisia (yes, where the Frisian cows come from) is a distinct region along the North Sea coast stretching from the northern part of the Netherlands via the northwestern part of Germany into the southwestern part of Denmark.  There are 3 sub-regions all with their distinct dialects of the Frisian language, West, East and North Friesland. 

From the small town of Oudkerk (Aldsjerk in Frisian) hails Ernst Langhout.  He had a long and chequered musical career, starting in various bands playing Scottish and Irish folk followed by New Wave.  In the 1990's he went solo and from 1996 he began singing in his native Frisian language, although oddly mostly translations of Bob Dylan songs rather than digging into his own traditional roots.  Here's a Frisian version of the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds called Lutske Laket:

It seems to be a bit of a thing to translate popular pop songs into Frisian as Veenwouden-born (Feanwâlden in Frisian) Elske DeWall shows.  She sang a Frisian translation of Leonard Cohen's song Dance Me to the end of Love called Dunsje My de Leafde Ut, which appeared on a 2008 album Cohen in het Fries:

 

Moving on to Groningen folk group Törf is altogether more rooted in traditional music of the region, basing their songs on poets from their city.  They have been going since 1975, but their music is rather tricky to get hold of outside the Netherlands.  Here's a song of theirs called De Monden:

Also based in Groningen are Celtic folk band Rapalje.  Whilst mostly playing Irish and Scottish folk here's a song in Dutch originally written in French by Jacques Brel called Stad Amsterdam, which features on their 2010 album Rakish Paddies:

That's it from the north of the Netherlands.  Next we are going to finish off our tour of the country in the south-east.  As usual you can follow my virtual travels on my tripline map.

Netherlands -Amsterdam

 Almost every time I tell someone I am Dutch they will say something like: "Oh I've been to Amsterdam and found this cute little place, you probably know it" or "I'm going on a stag do to Amsterdam soon.  Do you have any recommendations of places we must see?".  I then have to patiently explain that my family are from Rotterdam, that the people of Rotterdam don't like the people of Amsterdam much, so much so that none of my large and sprawling family live there and I have only briefly visited the place about 3 times in my life, twice in the 70's and once in the 90's.  So don't ask me for any recommendations of places to visit in Amsterdam!

Right, now that I have that out of the way, I have to admit that Amsterdam in the province of North Holland is the capital of the Netherlands and as such a magnet for tourists and artists from all over the world, so I shall acknowledge some of the mostly international music acts from this city.

Whilst I did say I wouldn't do any recommendations, one tourist attraction is the Anne Frank House, where the young Jewish girl wrote her famous diary, while hiding away from the Nazis.  This demonstrates the ongoing Jewish connection of the city, which is also reflected in some of the music, such as The Amsterdam Klezmer Band, who have been playing their modern danceable sound of klezmer combined with Balkan, Jazz, Gypsy and hip-hop since 1996.  Here is the opening track from the 2006 album Remixed called Sadagora Hot Dub:

 

Amsterdam-based Turkish psychedelia band Altin Gün are a band consisting of Turkish and Indonesian immigrants as well as Dutch musicians performing music inspired by Anatolian folk infused with 80's psychedelic pop.  Here's a track from their upcoming album Yol called Ordunun Dereleri:

The Mauskovic Dance Band might sound like another klezmer band, but the varying members of the Mauskovic family produce an electronic dance sound with psychedelic Afrobeat and Cumbia influences. This might not be everybody's cup of tea, but here is a live clip of some of their hypnotic grooves:

In 1995 Jazz drummer Lucas van Merwijk founded the Cubop City Big Band in Amsterdam, who have been in the forefront of the Salsa and Latin dance scene in Europe.  Given that the full ensemble consists of some 20 musicians, it must be tricky to get them all together at one place at any one time, which is perhaps why they have only released 7 albums during their 25 years in existence.  Here's a track from their 2003 album Arsenio with music by Arsenio Rodriguez called Mulence:

Boi Akih are a jazz and world music outfit around Dutch guitarist Niels Brouwer and Indonesian vocalist Monica Akihary that was established in 1997.  Akihary sings both in English and her father's native Haruku, an endangered language of the island in Indonesia of the same name.  Their musical style combines musical traditions of the Molucca Islands, Bali, Dutch jazz, improvised music, Indian classical music and traditional African music.  On their latest 2020 album Storyteller they are joined by Hungarian recorder player Dodó Kis and Ivorian kora player Sékou Dioubaté.  Here is a small session showcasing 3 songs from the album:

I first came across Selma Peelen from Amsterdam several years ago when I heard her singing Turkish folk.  In her latest project she teamed up with Johan Visschers to form folk duo Mankes.  They named themselves after Dutch painter Jan Mankes (1889-1920).

Mankes self portrait

Mankes (the music duo) describe their style as cinematic folk with a hint of the Orient and a healthy dose of noisy and dark texture.  Here's a song from their 2019 album Chant called You're Loved (since it was Valentines Day yesterday...)

That's it from 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.