HIGH LONESOME BELOW SEA LEVEL Faces and Stories of Bluegrass Music in the Netherlands Marieke Odekerken & Loes van Schaijk HIGH LONESOME BELOW SEA LEVEL Faces and Stories of Bluegrass Music in the Netherlands FOREWORD
How often is it that we can get an inside view of the musical subculture of an entire nation?
The Netherlands early on embraced folk music, blues, bluegrass, and other musical forms with roots in the southern United States. Drawing on earlier work for her master’s thesis, vocalist and bassist Loes van Schaijk traveled the country, interviewing musicians far and wide, accompanied by photographer Marieke Odekerken. Reading Loes’s articles and seeing Marieke’s images capturing
As a musician, Loes navigates the interviews from a thoughtful perspective, distilling them to a entertained. In quotes from seasoned performers as well as younger ones—soloists, duos, trios, whole bands—I felt they all enjoyed sharing their stories and passions with a young musician deeply interested in this music, its history and its people, in her country.
Along the way we meet instrument builders, promoters, cowboys and wild men, women songwriters, children growing up in musical families, a saw player, and a guy who stretched painting canvas over steeped in world-changing art.