I was at the Oosterpoort on Wednesday, and it’s been wel over a year since I was last there. Two concerts in March 2016 and before that I even have to go back all the way to 2014. So a visit to the Oosterpoort venue was well overdue and it couldn’t have been with a better band: Wovenhand!
Last night Arnold Veeman -hailing from Groningen, but with roots in Suriname too- played at Vanslag in a lovingly intimate setting.
Ralph de Jongh might very well be the hardes working bluesman of the Netherlands. Releasing two double albums last year, there’s a triple-album out now: Trilogy – ‘Dancing On a Vulcano’. And the touring schedule with solo performances, duo-performances and full band gigs is long. He performed at Vanslag with full band last Saturday to a well filled venue.
Toby Beard is on a European tour at the moment and on March 24th she and her band played in Vanslag. As it was the fifth time for her, it was reason for a little celebration.
Heartbreak hurts, but it can also be the inspiration of terrific songwriting. Luke Winslow-King had to go through some heartbreak when his partner and band-member left him last year. And when you have the blues, when you feel the blues, you play the blues. At least that’s what Luke did and it resulted in a terrific album that’s firmly nestled in blues.
On Thursday February 9th the men of Chatham County Line came to Borger for an evening of true Bluegrass music. As it happens I’ve seen them before, a long long time ago. It was on the Take Root festival back in 2005. A time when I was just switching from analog photography to digital and I’m happy to see the guys of Chatham County Line have NOT done the same and are still playing true blue ‘analog’.
With the Mastersons in January I had a careful start of the new concert-season, but February will kick it off for real and to get a good start, the Blues Avenue Revisited started off the month in style: Blues in Vanslag!
It’s been a busy few days, working on fences, setting up & testing my new Bianchi bicycle, testing a new lens, getting my X-Pro2 back from the factory… You’d almost forget the concert-season has started again, but it has and so on Friday september nine I was at Borger with the Roots on the Road concert by Laura Gibson and with Jenny Berkel opening.
At first sight Meschiya Lake might seem a bit rough, she certainly has more tattoos than anyone I’ve ever seen. However she’s a super friendly, charming young lady who -together with her band the Little Big Horns- brings a little bit of New Orleans wherever she goes.
Continue reading Meschiya Lake & The Little Big Horns in Vanslag
From the first time Ralph de Jongh played in the Vanslag venue in Borger, the combination has been a huge success and so it’s no surprise that Ralph and band came to Borger to present the new album here last Saturday.
This week the concerts have a little twist as New Cool Collective was a bit theatrical and last night in Borger I visited the band the LSB Experience that is touring with comedian and presenter Dolf Jansen telling the story of the American venue The Troubadour.
Continue reading Dolf Jansen & The LSB Experience in Vanslag
It’s a good tradition by now: Toby Beard in Vanslag. At least once a year, around this time and so last Friday Toby was in Vanslag again.
Last Thursday evening I was back in Borger again to see Andrew Combs in Vanslag, he came highly recommended by my friends of Roots on the Road and who am I to question them?
Together with Roots on the Road the Vanslag stage in Borger is by now a well known stage for Americana and Roots music, but last Friday I saw that is can more than hold its own in popular music too with the ‘deep house’, loops and full band of Loop Alley.
