Saturday, November 26 10th Blues pub crawl in Wijk’s pubs.
After a forced Corona stop of 2 years, blues lovers can attend the renowned blues pub crawl in downtown Wijk bij Duurstede again for the 10th time. Blues in 11 venues, 15 blues acts and 45 musicians. The start is at two thirty in the E&E Gasthuis, at four o’clock theater Calypso takes over with a solid band, from six o’clock blues in 4 restaurants and a Stones-duo in cafe Ome Ko, after dinner a second band in theater Calypso and in the meantime the pubs get on steam with blues bands until just after midnight. So plenty to do. More info at www.bluesinwijk.nl. Admission is free.
Hopping from pub to pub. After a forced Corona halt of 2 years, November 26, 2022 the pubs in downtown Wijk are once again filled with the blues. For the 10th time, the Blues in Wijk Foundation and the hospitality industry together organize the now traditional Wijk Blues pub crawl. Since the first edition in 2010, this blues event has been a great success with around 1200 visitors from Wijk and the far surroundings. Blues fans experience the variety of blues types, relaxed atmosphere and short walking distances as particularly attractive. Blues in the E&E Guesthouse, theater Calypso, restaurants, cafes and on the carillon. Plenty to do. More info at www.bluesinwijk.nl. Flyers with playing times and map are available in all participating restaurants. Entrance is free.
Blues on the carillon. The city carillon at the old city hall on the Markt also participates in the pub crawl. In 2015, Utrecht city carilloneur Dick van Dijk arranged some blues songs. An upbeat blues song can be heard every 15 minutes.
Blues DJs. DJs Bas & Toon can be found all afternoon and evening in theater Calypso. They spin tasty blues between the performances of the three bands (Veldman, Electric Hollers and Sugar Queen) performing there. Visitors can also request songs from them.
Blues in the Afternoon. The blues pub crawl kicks off at 2:30 p.m. with a performance by Stef Woestenenk in the grand café of the E&E Guest House. For years it has been a cheerful, successful and fun afternoon, where the elderly of Wijk bij Duurstede sing along, clap and even dance. Following from 16.00 hours blues band Veldman.
Blues while eating. After At four places you can combine food and blues. In Café Ome Ko the Stones-duo Spider & the Fly will play, Duketown Slim & Fred are at the Greek restaurant Mazi Mas, Mr. Moan is at restaurant de Engel and the Bluetails can be found at the Veldpoort food & drinks.
Blues in the evening. At 7 p.m. the Electric Hollers will be at theater Calypso and from 7:30 p.m. Ralph de Jongh will set the scene at café de Malle Molen. Ticket West plays from 21.00 in café ‘t Hoff and from 22.00 blues band Mo & the Stage Animals play in café Ome Ko, Fat Harry & the Fuzzy Licks in restaurant Dorestad, K.C. Credit and the Cashiers with a Cash-tribute in café Altijd Gezellig and Sugar Queen(USA) with band in theater Calypso.
Blues in the night. After midnight the blues continues until about one o’clock at Ome Ko, Altijd Gezellig and Dorestad.
Ralph de Jongh.
We have seen Ralph with his band several times in Wijk. In the Mole Mill, he is solo. He is very likely one of the hardest working songwriters in the Netherlands. A hard-working songwriter who doesn’t sacrifice anything in terms of quality, let that be clear. From 2019 he released no less than then ten CDs with lots of new, own songs. The rave reviews with five stars flew ‘m around the ears. Original and authentic music straight from the heart. You feel that, you experience that and you never forget that. “One of the best songwriters in the Netherlands” – Music Maker Magazine “It is truly a sensation to see this charismatic blond god at work” – Het Parool.
Sugar Queen.
Michele Denise, known as Sugar Queen, is a versatile American vocalist and songwriter who performs the blues in Europe, the U.S. and Asia and is currently based in Belgium/Netherlands. With her band, she brings the blues spirit to life and interprets the blues with lived emotion. The purified musicians play with boundless energy and passion. Their ambition is to interpret the Chicago blues sound. Lean back and enjoy, then get your feet off the floor.
Electric Hollers. Electric Hollers is a blues/rock sensation from the north of the Netherlands. Get ready to be blown away by a wall of vintage sound and energy! Heavy bass, thundering drums and guitar solos that take you back to days gone by. The band draws inspiration from bands like Led Zeppelin, Santana & Ten Years After. In 2018, the band released their debut album “Rise. After five years, they are calling it quits in early 2023. So unique opportunity to see them live one more time.
Veldman. A band stemming from the nationally known “The Veldman Brothers”. After the breakup of the brothers, singer/guitarist Gerrit Veldman together with the Mathieu van Uden (drums), Tenny Tahamata (bass) and Colly Franssen (Hammond/keyboard) decided to continue the band. With new songs, new website and new management, VELDMAN wants to show that they still belong to the absolute top of blues in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, in 2023 the band is already calling it quits. A unique opportunity to see them live in Wijk.
Fat Harry & the Fuzzy Licks. Contemporary blues is probably the best description of the music of this seasoned band from Rotterdam. Sometimes funk, soul and rhythm & blues can be heard, to eventually return to old school blues. Nor has the band gone unnoticed on the other side of the ocean. The band regularly tours Europe as accompaniment to such renowned American artists as Preston Shannon, Lurrie Bell, Rip Lee Pryor, Giles Robson and Steve Arvey.
Spider & the Fly. The semi-acoustic Stones blues duo Spider & the Fly brings the repertoire of the world’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band back to its essence with two guitars and two voices. Performances feature mega-hits like Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women and Gimme Shelter interspersed with lesser-known gems and blues songs from the past 6 decades.
Stef Woestenenk. Guitarist, singer, songwriter and writer. He has been a guest at the E&E before with many heckling blues and pop songs and catchy stories. Stef can draw from a wide repertoire of Blues, pop and rock classics from the 60s and 70s with songs by artists such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Santana etc.
Mo & the Stage Animals. If you can leave anything to Mo and her men, it’s setting an atmosphere of unparalleled pleasure in no time. From beginning to end the throttle is on. Interrupted with slow blues and ballads, this band blasts an enormously versatile blues rock cover repertoire into the audience. All songs are dipped in a sort of home-brewed magic potion, which makes it very attractive to see and especially to hear this band.
Ticket West. Two brothers who listened to blues records their father played at the family dinner. After being in a blues and rock ‘n roll band together in their teens, they each started their own music careers. Now, after more than 30 years, they are back together to refocus on the blues and doing what they love best. Simply without being hindered by the need to become rich and famous composing, recording and performing with friends and doing so to the best of their ability while keeping their blues alive after all these years.
Duketown & Freddy. For quite a few years Imco Ceelen can be found as “Duketown Slim” in big and small corners of the Dutch live scene. His music is best described as blues, roots and songwriting with a sense of intimacy and honesty. Nowadays he is a duo with Fred vd Wende. This amiable looking musician has proven himself in a wide variety of bands and showbiz theater productions not only in the Netherlands but also in Canada several times.
Mr. Moan. A bluesman with beautiful understated songs and finalist in the Dutch Blues Challenge 2022. So many lyrics in the blues are about food. That’s good because he wants to use them one day when performing at restaurant de Engel in Wijk bij Duurstede. Let’s see if that adds anything to the food. By the way, they do sing about food, but really those are just metaphors for all sorts of things to do with sex. Hence, in my search for lyrics about food, I have never heard so much obscenity without a single foul word. So it stays neat in restaurant de Engel, it’s all about the food…….and the blues
K.C. Credit and the Cashiers. A Johnny Cash tribute band that does not perform their own interpretations, just Johnny Cash songs as they were meant to be. Of course they play Cash’s famous hits like San Quentin, Ring Of Fire, I Walk The Line and Folsom Prison Blues, but also wonderful songs you don’t hear every week. All this with double bass, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, as it was common in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The Bluetails. We’ve seen The Bluetails at the Field Gate before. Alex Jr plays guitar and does the vocals, Henk is on bass and upright bass and his son Dave is the drummer and percussionist. In 2014, they released the album Riverside Tales, which was well received in the Dutch blues scene. Dave, the youngster, is the former drummer of We the Firm and gives The Bluetails’ rhythm an incredibly fresh and detailed foundation for the songs the band plays live on stage.
foto’s en film 9e editie Blueskroegentocht 2019
