Loes & The Celtic Link from Prague to Westport (and Back) #2: A Tourist in My Own Country

Contributing to a song festival hit 

I first met Silvia Fledderus in 2015, when I interviewed her for the book High Lonesome Below Sea Level: Faces and Stories of Bluegrass Music in the Netherlands. She had then just taken over from her father as leader of Boet'n Deure, an organization that arranged outdoor bluegrass concerts. In 2022, Silvia decided to trade the backstage for the stage and form her own band, The String Beans. For her project D'oale folklaidjes, she searches the archives from her native region. She also writes songs in the Veenkolonian dialect. The song I made my modest contribution to, “As ik die weer zai”, will be released as a single on June 7 and compete in the song festival of the province of Drenthe, Pop in 't plat. Douze points!

Hunebed-hunting

If you have 3 days off to be a tourist in your own country, how would you spend your time? For me, it means navigating between "typically Dutch" and "cliché", looking at things I always considered obvious from a different angle and eating lots of delicious, unhealthy food. It suddenly occurred to me that Honza has never seen a hunebed (the Dutch word for megalith) in his life, because they're not really a thing in the Czech Republic. Hunebedden are prehistoric burial chambers made of giant stones and it's what Dutch history books usually start with, so I thought it would be fun to go hunebed-hunting with Honza (there are 52 in Drenthe and 1 in Groningen). However, due to lack of time we could only choose one and so the choice fell on the longest one: D27 in Borger. Actually a very nice short (and free!) activity for musicians passing through. 

Never judge a book by its cover

That same evening, we went birdwatching (rock 'n roll!) with friends at Lauwersoog in the province of Friesland and ate fresh fish. The following day, we drove over the long and narrow Afsluitdijk to Enkhuizen, where we enjoyed the Zuiderzeemuseum and were impressed by the historic city center. Things did get a little tense when a man wearing a bomber jacket started following us and kept yelling "Hey! Psst! Come here!" at us in a way that made Honza very nervous. We fled into a café; the man also came in a moment later and sat down at the other end of the bar. He let us be for a while, until about half an hour later, when he suddenly put a hand on Honza's shoulder and said: “Hey! I just wanted to tell you... I saw you taking pictures in that street... But you totally walked past the oldest building in the city!” And so you see... Never judge a book by its cover.

Bring the craic: Mulligans Irish Music Bar

And then it was time to perform again: on Thursday night, May 22, at Mulligans and on Friday night, May 23, at the Torpedo Theater. Both in the heart of Amsterdam. An aside for musicians who will be playing there for the first time: if you don't necessarily have to go by car, don't do it! Parking is a drama, old diesel cars are not allowed in the centre anyway and the police can be on site very quickly. Tip: park at a P+R and take public transport to the centre, then you will pay €6 per 24 hours instead of €36.

I have known Mulligans for a long time and Honza and I have played there once before. It is an Irish pub known throughout Europe for the high quality of the sessions that take place there. Recently Michael Sweeney (native of Donegal) took over the pub from Miriam Feuth and under the motto “If it ain't broke, don't fix it” the interior, the atmosphere, the music programming have remained unchanged. You'll still run into familiar faces like Miriam and sound engineer Barry. Because in Mulligans you always have the chance of seeing the cream of the Dutch trad crop just coming in for a beer, so I was initially a little hesitant to play “Whiskey in the Jar” and “Drunken Sailor” here. But then again, if the audience asks for it, who am I to act the snob and deny it to them? Our mix of covers and Irish pub songs as we play “at home” at the Irish Times in Prague were received with enthusiasm: a young Irish woman sang “Grace” with me from start to finish at the top of her lungs, and that's always a great feeling.

Bigger isn't always better: Torpedo Theater

It felt like we blinked and found ourselves playing a listening concert with Paul van Vlodrop in the smallest theatre in Amsterdam the next day. The Torpedo Theater fits a maximum of 35 people, assuming they really like each other and no fire breaks out. That's why we didn't mind that only 15 tickets were sold, so everyone could sit more comfortably. This tiny venue, a cross between a living room and a puppet theatre, is incredibly photogenic, has great acoustics, good Spanish beer on tap and an owner with a strong Amsterdam accent and a heart of gold. Performances like this don't make you rich ... though in the metaphorical way they do.

The secret garden of the 7th house (at number 15)

Like Karel at the Torpedo Theater, Helga and Johan of Het Zevende Huis [The Seventh House] in Gorinchem welcomed us with open arms. In 2017, they bought a house dating from 1880 and transformed the municipal barn that was in their garden into a living room stage. I was one of the first artists they booked (at the time as a duo with Joram Peeters) and therefore already knew how lovely they are. Because Helga and Johan are active in the cultural life of Gorinchem and take good care of their guests, the room is almost always filled with people who like being surprised by unknown singer-songwriters. If I had such a venue in my neighborhood, I would go to all their events, too!

Familiar faces in Aalsmeer 

Just testing your memory: does High Lonesome Below Sea Level ring a bell? If not, please scroll back to the beginning of this article. The performance together with Paul van Vlodrop on Sunday afternoon, May 25, at De Oude Veiling in Aalsmeer almost seemed like a convention for people who are in the book... Not only Paul himself and Pieter Groenveld (who does the bookings and sound for De Oude Veiling) are in the book, to my delight I also ran into Elly, Bruno, and Kate! Honza immediately got chatting with Moos Rovers, who had played at the Czech festivals Porta and Banjo Jamboree in 1986 with the band Uptown Grass. And all this time I thought I was the second Dutch act ever to perform at Porta in 2021 (after the Smokey Mountain Rangers in 1969), but now it turns out I am not really that special!

Pieter gave us a present for the road: 2 live CDs from Kieran Halpin & Chris Jones' performance at Trouble Tree Folk in 1997. The perfect soundtrack to our journey to Ireland. And the audience also gave us some gifts in the form of good advice and heartfelt compliments. We didn't really want to leave the Netherlands at all ... but in Hook of Holland the ferry to Harwich would be waiting for us.

Next week this series will continue with a report on our “British experience” and the two gigs we have coming up this week. Do you know anyone in Dorset (29 May: Freezone festival) or Wigan (31 May: Brian Boru, Ashton-in-Makerfield)? Pass them the tip!