• Lynne Butler - Bluegrass DJ (BE #79 Apr/Jul 2011)
• Where would we be? Paolo Dettwiler - A Profile (#78, Feb/Mar 2011)
• Smoketown Strut (#76 + #77)
• The Sons of Navarone (#72, Feb/Mar 2010)

by Richard F Thompson

Lynne Butler is a British bluegrass DJ on the Internet-based ‘radio station’ UKCountryradio.com with a show every Thursday evening from 8.00pm to 9.00pm. http://www.ukcountryradio.com/

The two shows that she presents - Butler's Boudoir Bluegrass (which focuses on UK and European bluegrass music) and Bluegrass Around the World - can be heard on alternate Thursdays.

Artists can contact her by E-mail at lynnebutler99( at )hotmail.com to enquire about submitting CDs for her to play on either of her shows.

Also, artists and other interested persons can also join her on Facebook, if they wish, and from there they can join Butler's Bluegrass Radio Shows group, which allows them to post news, views, photographs and details of events, so that the other members are kept up-to-date too.

Recently, Butler extended her remit to include working visits to the Didmarton and Cornish bluegrass festivals. Also, she is planning to attend the European World Of Bluegrass Festival (EWoB), in Voorthuizen, the Netherlands, next year to cover that festival in her capacity of DJ. As well as reporting on the festival, she hopes that she may be able to play there and perhaps assist as Emcee.

You have been singing semi professionally for many years now; how long? Since you were how old? Did you grow up in a family involved in music?

I had been singing semi professionally since 1988 and professionally since 2004. I do come from a family involved in music.

My uncle was in a successful operatic society for many years, my great grandmother was in opera and I have cousins who are in bands or acting or in some kind of entertainment. Growing up though, there was always music on in the house.

I didn’t really know I had a voice until late teens when I joined Generation Theatre – an amateur theatre company – the same theatre as Christian Bale. My claim to fame is that I have a video of a performance of Annie featuring myself and Christian Bale and with Anna Winslet (Kate Winslet’s sister) as lead!. During my stay with Generation Theatre I developed my voice and confidence for the stage and had a few singing lessons along the way.

In what type of music were you first interested?

My first love was country music really as that’s what my Dad listened to much of the time, and Elvis Presley, although the typical 1970s music was very much part of the household back then too. I got my first guitar when I was ten but didn’t really play it seriously until about five or six years ago.

You had your own band until recently; playing bluegrass music. When did you first became interested in bluegrass music and what were the circumstances?

I first became interested in bluegrass music when I attended a few picking sessions at a local pub where Richard Holland and Terry Page were playing. It wasn’t necessarily a bluegrass picking evening, but Richard and Terry both had banjos. I had always liked the banjo but never really listened much to bluegrass. My interest increased when I was asked to be and became the lead vocalist for a bluegrass band with members such as Richard Holland, Simon Sprott, Richard Hampton, Emily Smith and Sherryl Payne.

Tell me about The Lynne Butler Band? How long did the group last?

Yes, The Lynne Butler Band. What a fabulous time I had with that band. It consisted of the previously mentioned musicians and then Simon had to leave due to other commitments and was replaced by Gary Payne. Richard Holland asked in 1998, if I would be a vocalist for a band he was setting up. As I mentioned previously I had not really had much to do with bluegrass up until then but was really interested in giving it a go because I love to try new things so I agreed. I didn’t name the band The Lynne Butler Band – I was outvoted on something else. So I had to concede and accept the name! At the time I do believe it was Richard Holland and Emily Smith’s first bluegrass band too, and one of the first bands, if not the first, in which Sherryl played bass.

We had a fabulous run. I left in 2004 by which time my son was four years old (yes I was still singing whilst very heavily pregnant in 1999 – we carried a mop and bucket just in case!!). The only reason I left was because commitment to the band was proving difficult because of my personal situation. I was then, and still am, a single mum and finding babysitters was not easy. When George was much younger I took him around everywhere, but when he started school he needed a proper routine at night. That’s when I set up my Music Makers and got weekly daytime music contracts elsewhere. George is 10 now and life is a lot easier, freeing me up for many other things – like getting back into the bluegrass scene.

In 2008 however, I’ve teamed back up with Richard Holland, Gary and Sherryl Payne, Bob Winquist and Lennie Harvey to play at the Kenton Theatre in Henley. They very kindly provided the backing for me that night – a great success it was too and very much thanks to them. Then in December 2009, Papa Truck provided the backing for me at another successful concert at the Kenton.

What’s Music Makers?

Music Makers is a 'pre-school' music group that I run on a Thursday morning - music, dance and songs.  I have actually, written and recorded a children's Bluegrass CD! Proving very popular with the little ones - poison their minds with bluegrass from an early age.

You joined UKCountryRadio.com recently as a DJ; how did that happen? When was that? What prompted the career change?

Allan Watkiss – the boss man of UKCountryradio.com asked me if, as a bluegrasser, I would be interested in being one of their presenters. I had never done anything like it before but, as always, I am up for a challenge and for trying new things.

It’s not a complete career change as I still work everyday of the week with my music however, but now I’m juggling that with being a DJ and it’s good fun. I love the fact that I’m getting to know loads of people through it and getting to listen to some amazing music. I am now being asked to M/C concerts and festivals or perform there or do both. Bands are asking me to interview them and I get invited to the festivals to cover the event(s) for UKCountryradio.com.

You started by presenting Butler’s Boudoir Bluegrass .. When was that?

August 2009 was the first ‘Boudoir’ Show. Butler’s Boudoir Bluegrass was named because at the time my PC etc. was in my bedroom and it fitted with my cheeky sense of humour and my reputation for being a ‘cheeky’ songwriter and entertainer. My friends suggested it.

 

That focuses on recordings by UK and European bluegrass. Which recordings have proved to be most popular on this show?

So far, I haven’t had any negative feedback and it seems that the listeners are loving what we have to offer here in the UK as across the rest of Europe. All recordings have been received well – I don’t think I can say that there has been any recording more popular than the other. The listeners to UKCountryradio.com were predominantly country fans, but a lot of them now tune in to the shows and have been surprised at just how much British and European bluegrass talent there actually is. I’m please to have played a big part in encouraging country music lovers to listen to bluegrass.

You have had some guests on the show ... Is this a regular feature?

I have had Papa Truck, and Wood, Wire and Words on the show and it was a real hoot. It was fabulous fun and on each occasion the bands came to the studio for the interview and we all played on the ‘Boudoir’ theme. The listeners got treated to loads of cheeky humour and frivolity such as all of us talking about nightie ‘comparison!

I intend it to become a regular feature and I can now do interviews over Skype, which really increases the scope, as not all bands can make it to the studio and I also have a high quality portable recorder now so I can do interviews on site.I like to approach the presenting in a light-hearted fun manner whilst at the same time being informative and I hope that the listeners like that.  I try also to conduct the interviews in a relaxed ‘fly by the seat of the pants’ style whilst know what questions I wish to ask.

More recently you started presenting another programme .. Bluegrass Around The World .. When did that start and how did it come about?

Allan approached the presenters for ideas on other programmes and so I suggested Bluegrass Around the World which give me the opportunity to play music from around the globe. It so much fun sourcing the music for the show and meeting new people. I have made some fabulous contacts.

Both shows have proved so popular that I now have a weekly show alternating both Butler’s Boudoir Bluegrass and Bluegrass Around the World.

I’ve recently done an interview with the Dixie Bee-Liners and have interviews with Liz Meyer and the Urban Monroes lined up. I’m also waiting on a date to interview the Grascals, hopefully, the Claire Lynch Band.

What is it about bluegrass music that you like?

Bluegrass music for me is full of ‘zest’ and ‘life’, if that makes sense. It can be the saddest song but played a break neck speed it makes you happy. Seriously, the instruments, the musicianship, the fact it’s acoustic and of course the bluegrassers are down to earth, real, great fun people – playing music because they love to. That’s what makes it for me.

Interview by Richard F Thompson

Where would we be without the foresight and energy of Paolo Dettwiler?

“Even as a very young man”, according to Eberhard Finke, “he was already organizing concerts and little festivals around his hometown of Basel (in Switzerland). As young as he was back then, I had the impression that he will play an important role as an entrepreneur in the European bluegrass scene”.
A multi-linguist with a penchant for good wine, whisky, expensive cigars and first-rate French food, Paolo Dettwiler has been the driving force in so many initiatives for the benefit of bluegrass music in Europe that his CV is several pages long.
As Angelika Torrie, very often Dettwiler’s right-hand ‘man’, has commented, “he was instrumental, if not to say, ‘without his determination it wouldn't have happened’, in giving the scene an organisational body and build a stable construction for both the Swiss and the European bluegrass music organisations”. He has been the strategic thinker and leader of bluegrass activities for over two decades. His influence hasn’t been limited to Europe either, for he served as an international representative and member of the executive committee of the board of the International Bluegrass Music Association from 2001 through to 2007. The IBMA's International Outreach Program (2007) was introduced because of Dettwiler’s initiative.
His first involvement in bluegrass music came before he was born, since his mother was pregnant with him; in Spring 1966, his mother went to a Stanley Brothers’ show when they made a personal appearance in Switzerland as part of their European tour.
In 1983, while still a student, he became the bass player in the Country Pickers, the band led by his banjo-playing father Ruedi ‘Hank’ Dettwiler. Two years later he switched to playing mandolin for the band.
At the same time as joining the Country Pickers, the young Dettwiler started a regular one-hour evening radio show, Country Music Special, on Radio Rauracher in Sissach and Liestal, in the canton of Basel-Country, south-east of the city of Basel. He remained the presenter of the programme until 1989.
From 1989 to 1995 he was editor of the music magazine Country Music.
Starting in 1992 he had his own weekly radio show on Radio Eviva in Zurich. That continued for nine years.
From 1994 to 1999 Dettwiler was the editor of the quarterly newsletter published by the Swiss Bluegrass Music Association, an organisation that he helped to found in June 1994 and for which he served as President until 1999. Alison Krauss head-lined their first show. That’s a very good way to start!
Also, he helped to form the European Bluegrass Network and under his guidance, that matured, in February 2001, into the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA). Having chaired the first organisation, he worked in that capacity for the EBMA until 2009.
Dettwiler started Bluegrass Europe, at considerable personal expense, even before the EBMA was formed and has remained the chief editor up to this, his last, edition.
He was involved with the setting up of the 1st Bluegrass Europe Festival  that took place on July 26, 2000, at the Landgasthof Riehen in Riehen/Basel, and a co-founder of Bluegrass in Basel (in February 2006).
Last November he re-formed the Country Pickers and now, hopefully, he has an opportunity to play and sing bluegrass music far more so than in the past 15 years.
A historian, Dettwiler has worked in the teaching profession at a high level for many years.
He is betrothed to Dr. Magdalena Adamska and the couple plan to wed in August 2012. In about ten year’s time they expect to retire and move to Poland, his fiancée's home country. If there isn’t any bluegrass there at the moment; there soon will be!
Oh, and there’s one other string to his bow – he was engineer on the Gary Brewer and the Kentucky Ramblers’ LP Live In Europe.
Dettwiler is retiring after over 12 years in the Bluegrass Europe editorial chair. For all his pioneering work and the sacrifices that he has made, it is appropriate to say a very well-deserved, “thank you very much”, and in the time-honoured fashion to offer three hearty cheers, Hip, hip, hurrah ….!

Paolo Dettwiler in conversation ~~
You were raised in a musical family - your father, Ruedi was a noted banjo player in Switzerland - what do you remember of your childhood (musically speaking)?
I remember my grandmother playing the piano (she was a professional classical piano player before getting married), my grandfather not being allowed to even attempt singing but foremost it was my father picking the five all over the house. When I was taken to a presentation of instruments so I could choose one to learn – my parents insisted on a classical music education – I chose the cello.

So, it was natural to join your father’s band?
Yes, it was. The band used to practice at our home and we would go and watch them perform. As soon as I saw the possibility and was proficient enough, I managed to join them, originally playing the electric bass. But I picked up the guitar and mandolin soon, learning it on my own until I was good enough to play in the Country Pickers, my father’s band.

What other bluegrass musicians influenced your style of playing and your tastes in bluegrass music?
My father had a nice collection of Flatt & Scruggs recordings and he also had an old Country Gentlemen LP, so those were my first influences. But I soon started to look for new sounds and I came across the Seldom Scene’s Live At The Cellar Door double LP. It was a revelation and I spent countless hours devouring every aspect of these recordings. I have been a huge John Duffey fan ever since. But over the years I have started to like all kinds of bluegrass – it is such a wide field that I never get tired. And I go through phases – sometimes I listen to the Stanley Brothers for weeks, then I go back to New Grass Revival or Doyle Lawson. Lately, I have been listening to individual songs for dozen of times in a row (must be because my time is getting shorter) such a Tony Rice’s Never Meant To Be or Adam Steffey’s One More From The Road, songs that boil down to the essence of life.

From 1983 you were the co-presenter of an evening radio show - Country Music Special; was this one of the earliest specialist country music shows on air in Europe? For how many years did the show last?
I guess that is correct. It was a weekly one-hour show on a regional station and in the beginning my band members and I shared duties. I stayed with the station until 1989. From 1992 to 2001 I had my own weekly bluegrass radio on a national station broadcasting our of Zürich, Switzerland. It was a lot of fun and I find it incredible that I still get to meet people who mention those shows.

Jan Johansson and I participated in an IBMA international seminar in 1988 and you, along with Erik Hoogstad, Andreas Glandt, Pieter Groenveld and Dick Kimmel, participated in the IBMA seminar Ensuring Growth for Bluegrass: The Pan European Approach, in 1996. What in your experience are the significant events in the development of bluegrass music in Europe?
Well, that’s a question I cannot answer satisfactorily as not enough research has been done, but from my own point of view, I would rank Bill Clifton’s trips and stay in Europe in the 1960s very high. He even recorded a live LP in Basel at that time. Then I would say that the Stanley Brothers’ European tour in late winter 1966 was groundbreaking. Also, Rienk Janssen starting Strictly Country magazine and his related activities around 1970 as well as Eberhard Finke with Bluegrass Bühne in the early 1980s. But by that time the groundwork had already been laid and small festivals and concerts could be detected all over Europe. My own feeling was that by the early 1990s the scene was ready to go one step further and we started the Swiss Bluegrass Music Association in 1994, had the first meeting if IBMA’s European Bluegrass Network (EBN) in 1995 and out of that the EBMA grew in 2001. I think the cooperation on a European level really got off the ground after the first few EBN meetings and by 2000 one knew about bluegrass activities in many European countries.

At that time you were Chair of the European Bluegrass Network (EBN), did that position help in increasing awareness and acceptance of European bluegrass music in the wider bluegrass community? If so, it what ways did it assist?
Hard for me to judge but I think the gatherings at the EBN meetings which turned into the European World of Bluegrass events in the Netherlands made active people aware of the fact that they were not the only human beings on earth interested in bluegrass. And they started to visit each other and travel around Europe, all due to an American art form. As for the acceptance of European bluegrass it took many years – and sometimes I’m not so sure we are there – for these bands to find a responsive audience in Europe. Anyway, through efforts by individual bands and some pressure behind the scenes (I was on the IBMA Board for six years) we made some significant progress.

How did you become involved with the setting up of the 1st Bluegrass Europe Festival (2000)?
It was mainly that the Lonesome River Band at the top of their musical brilliance was available in mid-summer. I didn’t take much thinking do put the show on. But as is the case with many concerts, we lost money.

Bluegrass in the Basel area, where you live, has grown considerably in recent years and you now have a ‘club’ there; how were you involved in developments there?
Angelika Torrie started to promote bluegrass shows in Basel and was asking for people to join in, so that’s what I did. But it has taken us a few years to find the right approach on how to do a bluegrass event in our region. There are so many other cultural events happening …

You were responsible for the introducing the IBMA’s international outreach programme in 2007. Tell me about that please.
My work on the IBMA Board has been one of the most interesting experiences in my life. I met and worked with some top names in the business and I started to understand to what extent this actually is a business, far from the romantic view some European bluegrass people have. I pushed the idea of having more international presence at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass (I think I started the International Suite showcases for that purpose). The board answered that all were welcome but of course it was difficult for people from Europe and elsewhere to come up with the financial means. So I came up with the idea an annual budget to support activities outside the USA and help people travel to WOB. I guess some of this continues to live with the new plans of the Foundation for Bluegrass Music.

You have been publishing Bluegrass Europe magazine for more than 12 years now; what prompted you to start it?
I could see that the European scene started to be what I had in mind – a pan-European feeling of belonging to the same group of music lovers. I introduced the project at the EBN meeting near Brno, Czech Republic in 1997. And I felt that such a project could also be financially successful – in that I was more than totally wrong, it was a financial catastrophe.

From 2002 Bluegrass Europe became the official journal of the EBMA; how did that come about and what were the benefits of this assimilation?
The EBMA was founded in 2001 and Bluegrass Europe was functioning as the main platform of information for this organization anyway, especially since I was leading both entities. So I gave my private enterprise to EBMA at no cost and with no strings attached. The benefit was that the EBMA now had its own magazine which was already established and so could offer something tangible to its members.

I understand that when you have taken on a new job you always set a fixed term - 5 years - and set goals to be achieved within that time. Can you explain why that is?
I don’t know how conscious this decision was but I think this is about the time frame to take major projects off the ground. Not that I’m not interested in seeing them through afterwards but there are so many interesting plans in my head, I’d rather set on the next one. Now that I get older, I take my own time and have slowed down considerably.

You have played bass and mandolin in a band, engineered an album, started a magazine, served at the head of several bluegrass organisations and helped in the others. Is there anything that haven’t done that you wish you had?
I’m happy with my own judgment that I have not made major mistakes in taking decisions regarding the activities you mention. At one point – it must have been around 2001 - I knew so many bluegrass people around the world that I could have taken a world tour from one bluegrass friend to the next one. I should have done it. But my main regret is that I have never found the time and the energy to start the research work on a dissertation project I had about the dissemination of early bluegrass based on a method used in Medieval Studies through which the presence and influence of travelling kings can be determined. Maybe one could transfer this idea to bluegrass in Europe?

What plans do you have for the future?
I will continue to book the bands for the annual Willisau Spring Bluegrass Festival, a very successful event in central Switzerland. And I intend to continue serving as board member for ‘Bluegrass in Basel’. But foremost I am playing music again with my father – the Country Pickers are back on the road.

by Jan Michielsen

(1971-1995): A Photographical Retrospective on Facebook

Jan Michielsen, guitarplayer with Four Wheel Drive since 2000, has also in an earlier life as – and some of our older readers may remember – a member and band leader of the Belgian bluegrass group called Smoketown Strut. This more or less legendary band started out in 1971 when bluegrass music travelled to Europe on the waves of the American folkboom and artists like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Country Gazette were quite popular over here and the question was raised from what musi-cal heritage this music came.
However Smoketown Strut was by no means the first Belgian or Dutch bluegrass band : in Holland the ‘Dutch Bluegrass Boys’ started a couple of years earlier and even made an LP that got a highlight review in Bluegrass Unlimited, but they were certainly – along with the Country Ramblers from Holland (Berry Selles, Jan Roelofs, Lody Van Vlodrop, Jan Nuyen) – one of the first European bluegrass bands that had the ambition of spreading out their wings and make it as a recording and tour-ing band with a semi-professional status.
In this article we try to re-construct the history of this band a little bit. It was written as a re-sult of a huge and stunning photo collection of no less than 276 pictures that Jan put out on his Facebook page. It is indeed an interesting collection as it not only documents the history of the band itself but also the wider circumstances like other bands that played with them on stage, people they knew, trips they made to the US as early as 1977, legen-dary bluegrass bands they saw over there in concert and so on.
It seems like Jan has been a little bit of a Bill Wyman, the Rolling Stones’ bass player who was notorious for collecting with amazing discipline every picture, poster or collectable that seemed to be too trivial to pay much attention to at the time but is able to to bring back a lot of memo-ries when you take a look at it some 35 years later.
Smoketown Strut was the title of an instrumental finger picking piece that was written by Sylvester Weaver, a black American blues guitar player (1897-1960) who was also a pio-neer of country blues. It came to the attention of Jef Van Gool, THE founding father of Smoketown Strut as it was recorded by the New Lost City Ramblers on one of their folkways LP‟s. Jef decided this title might also be a catchy bandname and it was !
Smoketown Strut started out in 1971 as a trio consisting of Jef Van Gool playing every instrument from fiddle to guitar, mandolin, banjo, autoharp etc. Other members were Jef's brother Dis Van Gool on bass and a Dutch musician called Rob Labots who made his home in Turnhout not far from where Jef lived.
They did one gig as a trio and after meeting Jan Michiel-sen at a local folkclub „The Skal‟den‟ in Hoogstraten they became a foursome.
This early edition of Smoketown was heavily „old-timey‟ oriented and inspired by the New Lost City Ramblers (Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tom Paley), a band that distinguished itself by focusing on the tradi-tional playing styles they heard on 78 rpm records of musicians recorded during the 1920s and 1930s, many of whom had earlier appeared on the legendary „Anthology of American Folk Music‟ LP‟s. They refused to “sanitize” these southern sounds as did other folk groups of the time such as the Weavers or the Kingston Trio. Instead, the Ram-blers always strived for an au-thentic sound which was very in-spirational for the Smoketown musicians. Smoketown Strut.
Smoketown (as the name of the band was abbreviated quite often) only became a full bluegrass band a couple of years later when Peter Van Eyck came on board. Peter who has been one of the steadiest members in the history of the band played the banjo and had a ‘good roll’ on the Scruggs style, which was exactly wat was needed to get that ‘authentic grassy sound’.
The band’s first LP (which was certainly the first Belgian bluegrass LP ) was released in 1977 and was entitled Roustabout. It featured Jef Van Gool (bass), Jan Michielsen (guitar - lead vocal) , Peter Van Eyck (banjo - bariton) , Pieter Groenveld (now with Strictly Country Records on mandolin and tenor vocals) and Walter Pelckmans on mandolin.
Wayne Erbsen, an American old-time and bluegrass fiddler who was staying in Europe then for a couple of months played some authentic fiddle as did Lody Van Vlodrop (Country Ramblers, Freewheeling, Hard Times, Helmut and the Hillbillies, One-Four-Five). In fact Lody, who became a real good friend of the band and was a steady member for quite some time – as his brother Paul was – is heard on fiddle on three of the four Smoketown albums. Roustabout was quite popular at the time and was played quite often on national Belgian radio stations. As a result the band was invited to play several well known folk festivals and venues in Belgium and Holland.
Their second LP called Mountain Sweetheart (1979) was soon to follow. It was recorded with the American bluegrass legend Charlie Moore who came over to Europe quite often in those days to perform with European musicians. Charlie, who suffered from serious health problems died at 44 years of age on Christmas evening of the same year the LP was recorded. Mountain Sweetheart was released a couple of years later in the US on the ‘Old Homestead’ label.
The next LP was also recorded with another American icon of bluegrass and country music who came over quite often to Europe: Jim Eanes (ex Flatt & Scruggs, ex Blue Grass Boy, wonderful singer and songwriter). This LP was called Riding the Roads may well be the best of all 4 LPs that the band recorded. It features a lot of original Jim Eanes songs some of them never recorded elsewhere. It also features the tenor voice and mandolin of Jimmy Gaudreau (ex Country Gentlemen, ex Spectrum ), who was touring with his band Spectrum that got stuck in the middle of their European tour due to bad managing. The whole band stayed at Jan’s place for a week and on this occasion Jimmy was asked to help with the recording of Riding the Roads that may well be called a highlight in the history of recorded European bluegrass music.
The last LP the band made was recorded in 1982. It was called A Bluegrass Hangover. On this LP the band used drums, steelguitar and even piano on a couple of songs.
At that particular time Smoketown Strut was inspired by the way JD Crowe and the New South worked: playing bluegrass on stage but record the songs with a more ‘country-feel’ and instrumentation.
And it worked. The band played a lot of gigs in the country music scene in Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and England.
Smoketown Strut went on for 25 years which is a certainly a remarkable achievement.
The list of musicians that were ‘Smoks’ as they were abbreviated even later on is long and interesting and reads as a who-was-who in the Belgian/Dutch bluegrass scene of the seventies an eighties of the 20th century: Jan Michielsen (B), Jef Van Gool (B), Peter Van Eyck (B), Walter Pelckmans (B), Pieter Groenveld (NL), Johan Geudens (B), William and Magda, Lody Van Vlodrop (NL, D), Paul Van Vlodrop (NL), Hendrik Ahrend (D), Michel Jansen (NL), Niek Dekker (NL), Bern Wortelboer (NL), Nout Grupstra (The Crooks, Sideshow) were all Smoketown members at one time or another.
Then there’s the list of musicians who ‘helped the band out’ on gigs where some of the members were not available: Jerry Gout (NL) , Heiko Ahrend (D) , Jan Vermeulen (NL) (Chickenfeed), Leen Mulder (Hobo Stringband), Ullie Sieker and Erwin Herkert (both from Groundspeed), Wayne Erbsen (USA) , Joost Van Es, Theo Lissenberg both from Four Wheel Drive etc. etc. with sincere apologies to those not mentioned due to memory problems.

For those who want to check out the stunning photo albums that Jan has put together on Facebook we advice to Google ‘Smoketown Strut Facebook’ . The second site that pops up is a post on the European Bluegrass Blog where the two albums (Smoketown Strut in the seventies, and Smoketown Strut in the eighties and nineties) were reviewed along with the links how to get to them. It’s a time machine back to moustache land! In the extended captions that go with the pictures Jan has stacked a lot of detailed information and some humour too which makes these photo collection even more enjoyable to watch.
The only public video footage of the band can be watched on ‘You Tube’. Just type in ‘Smoketown Strut playbacking’. It’s the first video that pops up. The band is playbacking the Tom Paxton song ‘Where I’m Bound’ on Belgian national television in the mid eighties.

The Sons of Navarone talk to Rick Townend about the band, the bluegrass scene in Belgium and their next UK tour

(PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION BY AND COURTESY OF BRITISH BLUEGRASS NEWS):

Eugene O’Brien was for a long time an integral part of the south of England bluegrass scene, playing banjo and mandolin with Gary Payne in various line-ups (now there’s another future article for BBN). His light and sure touch on the instrument, combined with his debonair appearance - usually with an elegant lady on his arm - were unmistakable. Then suddenly he disappeared, on a day-job posting to Brussels. Such is our insularity that we thought he was gone forever, but then here he was again with a great new band ‘The Sons of Navarone’, who have entertained and impressed audiences wherever they have played. Eugene plays banjo in the band, Thierry Schoysman is on mandolin, Benjamin Steegen guitar and Guido Bos is the bassist. I thought I’d like to find out more about them…

RT: Thierry, can I ask about the band first; I know from reading your web-site that you and Guido were in the band ‘Blue Label’. Is that band still playing? – and do any of you play with other bands? (it’s quite a common feature of the UK scene for musicians to play in more than one line-up – I do myself)

Thierry Schoysman: Well Blue Label was some time ago and we have both played in other bands since then…some country and some folk. Right now it’s only me who plays in another regular bluegrass band – they’re called Rawhide, in which I play banjo, as opposed to mandolin in the “Sons”

RT: And has the ‘Sons of Navarone’ band evolved, with players leaving and joining…or has it been just the four of you since the beginning?

Thierry: It has just been the four of us from the start and we are all good friends, so it has been easy in getting things done… a smaller number cuts down the discussion, makes it easier to manage and stops the ego-trips and conflicts that can occur. At one time we did consider having a fiddle player but then we wouldn’t all fit into the band bus on tour so we gave the idea up

RT: Eugene, when you first went to Brussels, how difficult was it to find the bluegrass scene there?

Eugene O’Brien: I found nothing at first. At that time I was commuting to London at weekends but saw an advertisement for a bluegrass session at a local club in Brussels on a Friday evening. So I stayed that weekend and that was when I first met Thierry. And the rest as they say is history!

RT: And how long did it take the four of you to meet up and decide that this was a good combination?

Eugene: Thierry and I lived only five minutes from each other and started trying out some things but it was a bit restricted with only one voice, a mandolin and a banjo. So Thierry enlisted Guido but he was playing in a couple of folk bands at the time and needed a bit of persuasion. Then Benjamin came on the scene when he was looking for a banjo teacher and called Thierry…. Before long his singing talents were recognised and he could play good guitar so we persuaded him to forget banjo and the four of us set off on a journey of music and friendship.

RT: Guido, you play bass with the band, but you also play mandolin and a lot of other instruments, some more old-timey than bluegrass; do you also enjoy those roots of the music, or is it more a liking for the instruments?

Guido Bos: Both really, I attended a music conservatoire when younger so I enjoy lots of different music and have a good musical grounding, but definitely lean towards traditional acoustic sounds. I enjoy playing lots of different types of instruments; the hammered dulcimer and that old timey sound is a favourite but I also love to play one of my old English concertinas, which we used on one of the tracks on “The Sons” CD.

RT: Benjamin, I read that you also play mandolin – in fact all of the band play mandolin! Do you have any arrangements where you change or double up on instruments?

Benjamin Steegen: We have thought about a multi mandolin number but never really got around to it. At one time we experimented a bit with Eugene playing Dobro on a few numbers, but he was rubbish so we gave it up.

RT: When you were learning about bluegrass, and getting into playing the instruments, who were the people in Belgium you looked towards?

Benjamin: In Belgium the best known person was Derrol Adams, an American banjo player who lived in Antwerp (look him up on Wikipedia). He had played with Rambling Jack Elliot and although not a bluegrass musician he influenced a lot of people here to turn their ears in that sort of direction and encouraged a lot of home grown Belgian musicians.

RT: And were there any particular American bands or musicians that you were all influenced by?

Eugene: We are all influenced by different bands and musicians from the Seldom Scene to Richard Thompson, and from Bill Keith to Abba.

RT: When you tour in the UK, do you find it very different from working at home? – that is, in the state of the music scene and also generally – travelling, culture etc.?

Guido: Not really… the beer in the UK takes a little getting used to but the people we have played for have been very warm and friendly. In particular the great audiences at the Heart of England Club and especially our biggest fan in the UK the wonderful Mary Parrot. We have met some great musicians in the UK and want to extend out thanks to Gary and Sherryl Payne who have not only offered hospitality but with whom we have spent many a late night and early morning, jamming until our memories failed.

RT: Have you had a favourite gig in the UK?

Benjamin: Yes… the next one

RT: For us Brits (apart from pilots) it is quite a big event to cross over to Calais or Oostende – even since the Channel Tunnel – and we are quite envious of the ability simply (and inexpensively) to drive over a border; if you decided to enlarge the band, would it be easy to enlist, say, a fiddler who lived in France or Luxembourg, or the Netherlands?

Eugene: We do know of other bands over here where that actually happens and it can be very difficult. There was even a band where some were in the Netherlands and some on the Czech Republic!! But we all live reasonably close which makes travelling easier of course and so we can dedicate every Wednesday evening to rehearsal without much problem.

RT: Whenever I go to mainland Europe I’m always amazed – and humbled – by the number of people who speak English well; you – the three of you – all sing English extremely well – does that come of special study, or did you all assimilate the language from listening to a lot of recordings, or what?

Thierry: Learning English is part of the education system and in today’s world it is essential for business and mass communication. We also learn from music and the cinema and global culture really. Eugene also speaks good English sometimes.

RT: Benjamin, your lead vocals certainly put over the songs very well in English; but do you also sing in your own language?

Benjamin: Oh Yes, I can sing some songs in Flemish, but the majority of what I listen to and what I like to sing is in English

RT: Your harmonies are really great. Which of you has the biggest hand in arranging that?

Guido: Eugene of course…. He sits and listens, then offers constructive ‘advice’. No, seriously, the main man is Thierry, he has a great understanding of harmony structure and once was part of a barber shop quartet. He also teaches the harmony workshop each year at the EWOB Festival

RT: And do you each always take the same part – or do you chop and change?

Thierry: We move around, it depends on who is taking lead, which key and the range required.

RT: I like the ‘Press-kit’ part of your web-site; that’s a very practical way of making it easy for venues to publicise the band properly. I note that you also have a ‘Myspace’ site; has that been useful in publicising the band and getting you gigs?

Eugene: Yes, MySpace has produced some gigs and it and YouTube has helped increase awareness of “The Sons”. One thing we work at is band promotion and presentation. Many gigs are not to a bluegrass educated audience, so you have to offer a bit more than just the music on its own.

RT: And PA – do you usually carry your own, when you are not touring in the UK, or do you find venues generally have good enough sound systems?

Guido: We have our own when we need it; it’s simple because we just use one mic and a DI for the bass, a small mixer, a graphic EQ and a couple of powered speakers. We do a lot of gigs in Cultural Centres which generally have a good PA system and good engineers.

RT: Our government is wanting more places to have sound-limiters (to stop young people damaging their ears). I didn’t think this was an issue with bluegrass bands, until I came up against one a few years ago, and we found that the banjo was setting it off – no joke! Have you had any problems with limiters, or do you have any views?

Guido: No problem at all, …………we disconnect them.

RT: Have you had any interesting experiences when touring in other countries?

Eugene: Nothing specially. Our most interesting experiences are when we stop to have a meal. It takes forever to find a restaurant or pub that we all like, followed by endless discussion about the quality of the beer (Belgians you know are beer experts), then the locals stare a bit because Flemish is not a language they have heard often. In the UK we love to go to an Indian restaurant but afterwards Thierry has to travel outside the band bus for the sake of the environment inside it.

RT: And coming back to your next UK tour, will you be able to extend it a bit, and get to some more venues?

Benjamin: We are trying, and with the good help of our friends in the UK we hope to play in a few more venues. We have had some great times and great gigs in the UK and always look forward to being there.

RT: Thanks, guys – look forward to seeing you.