Blue Grass Boogiemen – ‘High-energy bluegrass at its finest’ (Bluegrass Unlimited, USA)
The Blue Grass Boogiemen have been playing traditional bluegrass professionally since 1990. Their show has proved to be very successful all over Europe. For instance, in Ireland where they won the ‘Waterford Crystal Bowl’ for ‘most popular band’ at the Guinness International Bluegrass Festival. Or in their native Holland, where they won the ‘Silver Fiddle Award’ and the ‘Gram Parsons Award'(eight times) both for best acoustic country/bluegrass band, and beat Alison Krauss to the number one spot in the ‘Strictly Country’ charts with their first album. They also were voted most popular band by the audience at the European World of Bluegrass festival twice. But also in the US, where they’ve been touring several times, people are enthousiastic about their music.
Worldfamous fiddler Byron Berline wrote: ‘Your band was singled out as one of our don’t miss’, ‘please have them back’ and ‘we love them’ groups…’ after the Boogiemen appeared at his international bluegrass festival in Guthrie, Oklahoma for the first time. Since then they’ve played his festival many times. The Washington Post wrote: ‘…the Boogiemen mimicked American music icons with absolute accuracy and joy…’ and ‘Mandolinist Arnold Lasseur did Bill Monroe proud…’ after they played in Arlington, Virginia. And last but not least, Chris Hillman (The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Desert Rose Band) wrote that the Boogiemen are the proof that ‘…you don’t have to be from Kentucky or Nashville to feel and understand this music…’ in his linernotes for their album ‘Delivering the Grass’. He concluded with: ‘The Boogiemen swing and they swing hard and fast’.
About their recorded work Bluegrass Now magazine wrote: ‘…they have the tightest harmony of any band I’ve heard’. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine wrote: ‘This is a highly entertaining band that comfortably handles a range of music with flair, taste and energy. Readers would be well advised to catch this band when they come through town. It should be a great show’ and also ‘Gosh, this is what the music world’s been missing, isn’t it?…When I first played this album, which is an immensely entertaining collection, I thought I was listening to some unusually talented country-bluegrass band from Ohio or Michigan or some such place.’
But no, they’re from Holland allright. Holland, Europe that is! However, they’re always willing to travel to wherever folks want them to play. So now it’s your chance, to come and see for yourself ‘…one of the most hard-hitting, versatile and entertaining bands on any continent…’ as Bluegrass Europe magazine put it.
