BEST OF1 Watches the Clouds Roll By 5:42 Between the Notes THE KRUGER 2 Black Mountain Rag 3:25 Choices 3 People Get Ready 7:08 previously unreleased BROTHERS 4 Carolina in the Fall 3:34 Up 18 North 5 The Plan 3:01 Forever and a Day 6 Cork Harbor 3:30 The Bridge 7 The Lights in Our Village 2:33 Christmas Magic 8 Forever and a Day 4:23 Forever and a Day 9 Beautiful Nothing 4:27 Between the Notes 10 Choices 3:47 Choices 11 The New Country 5:04 Appalachian Concerto Blindtext 12 Winterport 5:01 The Suite Informationen 13 Long Black Veil 5:34 Carolina Scrapbook Vol I Design, Instruments? BlindtextBlindtext 14 Alabama Bound 3:48 Travel the Gravel Blindtext Blindtext 15 Honey Babe Blues 4:21 Carolina Scrapbook Vol II Blindtext 16 Sweden / Running Down the Mountain 2:44 Carolina Scrapbook Vol II BEST OF THE KRUGER Includes BROTHERSIncludes previouslypreviously unreleasedunreleased bonusbonus track track “People“People Get Get Ready”Ready” 8 1 “... and you know you won’t turn back, tunities to realize some things that, three musicians who have simply followed the Kruger Brothers, there’s nothing as you move along the track...” at one point, would have seemed like their musical curiosity, one discovery surprising about that at all. “Choices” unattainable dreams, such as playing on leading quite naturally to the next. In –Glen Herbert, March, 2012 stage with childhood heroes, Doc Watson, so doing, they’ve also shown that the Bobby Hicks, and Bill Monroe. distance between some musical ideas Watches the Clouds Roll By 5:42 In the liner notes to the album “Forever Theirs is a career that has traced isn’t nearly as great as it might seem, Between the Notes and a Day” Uwe wrote that, “When we a remarkable arc, from a couple of such as the distance between traditional We’ve all had the began our career in 1975, nothing could rag-tag musicians busking for spare Appalachian folk music and classical experience at one have prepared us for the journey that change in Munich’s Marienplatz, to an music. point or another; lay ahead.” As we approach the 40th international trio playing with sym- As Joel has said about their work time marches anniversary of that beginning, it is difficult phonies and in concert halls throughout as recording artists and performers, they on, but once in a to comprehend the full extent of what North America and Europe. There are often feel that their role is to share their while, for what- is, by any measure, a truly remarkable now 15 albums under the Kruger discoveries with their audiences, as if ever reason, it journey. We see glimpses of it from time Brothers name, presenting everything saying “look at this, look at what we seems to stop. Maybe we’re staring to time. Jens mentions writing music from traditional clawhammer tunes to found.” This collection comes from that out a classroom window or wiping our in a castle tower in Switzerland; the song a collaboration with a classical string same place. Each track is a moment, brow after a day’s work in the hot sun. “Carolina in the Fall” tells about the quartet. some of them from some time ago, such This song captures those moments in move to the United States. Somewhere But of course all of those things are as “Cork Harbor” and “Alabama Bound,” life when, despite it all, we find ourselves in there they hosted a national radio really just moments, stops along the way, while others are more recent, such as noticing the clouds as they pass by. show in Switzerland, Uwe and Joel played not the journey itself. When Uwe talks “The Lights of Our Village” and “People And we watch them. at the launch of Microsoft Windows 95, about the journey, he is speaking of Get Ready.” If they look disparate, this Jens updated the design of the Deering those moments, but he’s also speaking collection shows that, in fact, they really Black Mountain Rag 3:25 Choices banjo line, they were awarded a grant of the musical adventure that connects aren’t. All were guided by the same One of Doc from the National Endowment for the them and provides a context for them; hands, by the same curiosities, and in Watson’s signature Arts, hosted an annual music festival, for Uwe, Jens, and since 1995, Joel so doing they all help to tell the larger songs, this record- established a recording company, col- Landsberg, it has been a consistent path story of the Kruger Brothers. ing is as much a laborated with a ballet troupe, and most of creativity and discovery. And with that This summer, with a premiere at tribute to him as recently have received a commission perspective in mind, all of the various the Banff Centre, the journey continues it is a celebration from the Banff Centre for the Arts in moments recede a bit and begin to into new territory, geographically, mu- of such a great Alberta, Canada. They also found oppor- appear a little less unlikely. These are sically, and collaboratively. And, for piece of music. 2 3 People Get Ready 7:08 previously The Plan 3:01 Forever and a Day same cloth as any Choices 3:47 Choices unreleased Ah, the plans we great Christmas This song has been recorded twice by Written by Curtis Mayfield, this song make when we’re song. Peaceful, the Kruger Brothers, once for the album reached #3 for the Inspirations on the young! When we quiet, reflective. of the same name and once within Billboard charts in March, 1965. Uwe look back, do we And when it’s the “The Suite”. It’s a presentation of a central calls it a “train song” and it is, and a view those plans season, it’s a per- idea for the Kruger Brothers, and one lot more too. And since Mayfield wrote as immature, or fect antidote to the they revisit in a number of their songs. it, it’s been recorded by gospel, rock, do we long for shopping malls, reggae, R&B, a cappella, and jazz artists. those freedoms reminding us of some of the other things The New Country 5:04 Appalachian The song has been a staple of Kruger once again? As much as we might judge that make the season special. Concerto Brothers’ concerts for the last few years, the young person we once were, the The Appalachian and Uwe brings a character to it that chorus captures the energy and verve Forever and a Day Concerto was a is all his own and uses it to deliver of youth, that time in our lives before 4:23 Forever and a Day very different kind a message that is all his own as well. things became, perhaps, a bit more When a parent leaves, can the space of recording for complicated. can ever be filled? the Kruger Broth- Carolina in the Fall 3:34 Up 18 North ers and signalled An early example Cork Harbor 3:30 The Bridge Beautiful Nothing an important of the Kruger “Cork Harbor” was 4:27 Between the Notes departure into some new areas of musical Brothers’ song released in 1999 It’s a cliché to say that music is as much composition and collaboration. Written writing, it has all when the band about sound as it is the absence of sound, in the format of a string quartet, it is the hallmarks of was still based in in turn making it easy to overlook how built around a narrative of immigration. the very resonant Switzerland and true the idea is. This piece began simply Filled with various voices and moods, and mature writing is an early ex- as an exercise in sustain – making the this last movement of the concerto, that they continue ample of the very banjo ring – which Jens presented in fittingly, bristles with all the pride and to this day. It’s deeply personal, relat- broad range of workshops. He then built it out, though confidence of a fireworks display on ing some of the feelings associated with musical styles that they draw from. has said that he was unsure if it was the Fourth of July. their move to Carolina from Switzerland the kind of piece that could really reach in 2003. It hits a common nerve, na- The Lights in Our Village 2:33 an audience. Undoubtedly, it did. Today, Winterport 5:01 The Suite mely that longing to be home, no matter Christmas Magic this is one of the most requested piec- “The Suite”, the collection from which where home might be. It’s an original but seems cut from the es in the Kruger Brothers repertoire. this track was taken, was a milestone in 4 5 the Kruger Broth- all the time of eternity at his disposal. Clarence “Tom” Ashley for the Folkways Currently available CDs ers’ recording So we play it slooow.” label. At the time of that recording, Appalachian Concerto DTM-022, 2011 history. It was the Doc was relatively unknown, though that Christmas Magic DTM-021, 2010 first time they Alabama Bound 3:48 Travel the Gravel wasn’t to last long. Through those ses- Forever and a Day DTM-020, 2010 recorded an entire In “Carolina in the sions for Folkways he met Ralph Rinzler, Between the Notes DTM-019, 2009 album of original Fall” Uwe sings who then brought Watson to the at- The Suite DTM-018, 2007 material, and also “Now for thirty tention of a national audience.