Musical journey into the past, like nothing I've heard before or since
I heard this group live exactly once, and that was in Germany in 1980.
Except for Eric Bogle's classic, they take songs mostly from the 17th thru 19th centuries from what was then the swampy land of the peasants of the Netherlands and present them in an accessible style while still letting the listener close his or her eyes and imagining a small troupe of traveling minstrels, hoping to garner enough favor from some tiny village to earn themselves a meal and perhaps a bed of straw for the night.
It's not everyone's taste. Although I understand Dutch, most of this is in antiquated language that I can't entirely follow. Still, I'm blown away by it after all these years. The group is called Wolverlei, and the album is called "Wind Tegen (against the wind)."
Side one:
Side two:
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Well, I'm listening to Side !, and so far I like what I'm hearing.
It's charming, and if I weren't so tired, I'd be dancing a little jig.
It's nowhere as famous or as promoted as Celtic music or Slavic music, and it therefore never gained any mass popularity. But it conjures up all sorts of images all the same. They even used some old folk instruments (called a "hurdy-gurdy" in English) that few even know exist these days. And Dutch is not an easy language to sing with its unusual vowel dipthongs and heavy consonants. This guy (Kees--pronounced like the English "case"
was the best.
