13) Crossing Trains

Crossing Trains (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

Trains were crossing in the Westerbroeksemadepolder. Those Swiss made "GTW-Spurt" trains are passing by a couple of time's every hour. You can't miss those diesel trains when you cross the cyclepath at the right side of it. When I was a child I always wondered why passing trains sounded so strange. The "Dopplereffect" make the pitch of the train sound higher when they're coming towards you while the pitch lowers when they're moving away from you. The idea to make an intrumental tune with that effect resulted in my new bluegrass tune "Crossing Trains". But Bluegrass isn't Bluegrass without a banjo and I was lucky that my friend "Banjohanna" helped me out with the banjopart. As you can hear she is a great banjoplayer and after I mixed the tune together I'm not sure whether it became a mandolin or a banjotune. It's up to you.

12) Circus Luurtieful

Circus Luurtieful (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

Every holiday I experience the same thing. While camping in the Netherlands you have to be limber, you have to show a lot of tricks to get al simple domestic work done and there is always a lot of public. The need of a big tent makes the whole picture complete. It's definitely a circus. But I like this circus and I like my holiday in the dunes close to the Northsea.

11) Chain of Daisies

Chain of Daisies (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

I made those chains when I was a little kid. When I was noodlin' around with this tune I suddenly remembered my aversion towards soccer. Being a goalkeeper was the only thing I could keep up doing. There were always a lot of daisies in the field so I could do something creative while the other kids ran after the ball.

10) A Lost Goose

A Lost Goose (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

Geese go everywhere. They travel a lot between the cold North and the warm South. Mostly they are in a big group but sometimes you see a small group. Sometimes one goose doesn't want to travel any further. Maybe he was born there or he likes the place too much, I don't know. He becomes destituted from the group just the way I did last March. I left my bluegrassband and wrote this tune. In the mp3 I'm playing the tune with my sister on the violin.

9) Windless Sailing

Windless Sailing (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

Why worry when you're in the middle of a lake with your sailing ship. You'll never find a more relaxing place than in the middle of a lake with no wind.

8) Please Take a Seat

Please Take a Seat (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

Last winter I was walking at the surfspot by the Zuidlaardermeer. Walking helps me to get my head empty sometimes, and to get inspiration for a new tune. I had listened to John Reischmann and the Jaybirds and noticed the gentle way that band plays somewhat easy tunes in such a lovely way. I tried to create a tune with the same feeling. I don't know if it worked, but I think the tune has some potential. Finding a name for the tune was not that easy, until I saw the name on the surfboard in front of the lake. Take it easy and sit down and watch the lake. Really a name that is suitable for this relaxing kind of tune. I took a new picture with a flying kitesurfer on a windy day in september 2017.

7) Sinner Demon Breakdown

Sinner Demon Breakdown (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

This is a strange tune. I decided to make a tune especially for my "Sinner Demon" recumbent bike. Every year I spend a lot of time cycling while commuting to my Job. I would say something like 4000 km a year at least. It had to be a sort of roadtune like I remembered from the Sega Outrun videogame in the 80's. Not that I was cycling that fast, but I loved the atmosphere in that game when I was a kid. Someone on the mandolincafe said, I call this genre "Spacegrass" and I think it suits this tune very well.

6) De Biks Reel

De Biks Reel (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

When you have a small ship or a rowingboat you can sail from Zuidlaardermeer to Westerbroek across Het Drentsche Diep and you will pass "De Biks". De Biks is a Dutch watermill built in 1857. The mill keeps the water in the Onnerpolder at the right level.

5) December sun

December sun (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

6 december 2014. What an exceptional warm day for the time of the year. I spotted a couple of Canadese Geese in the fields around my neighbourhood. The tune that came up in my head sounded a bit sad for such a nice day but it turned out to be my favorite tune so far. The short version I added as an mp3 is played by my sister on the violin.

4) A Fresh Start

A Fresh Start (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

A new job, how exciting.  I started working in Veendam in februari 2014. I must have been in a very good mood. My intention was to write some kind of bluegrasstune and I hope to find a banjoplayer who's willing to give it a try to play it with me.

3) Koetze Tibbe

Koetze Tibbe (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

Another tune that has something to do with the Dutch watermanagement. To get the water to the right place or get a lower water level, we use Windmills. The Netherlands is famous about their windmills, but Koetze Tibbe is an American type Windmill built in 1936 in Holland. In 2004 they placed the Mill near the Foxholstermeer (Lake of Foxhol) about 3 km east to the Drents Diep. The name of the Mill was a contest for the people in the neigbourhood. Koetze Tibbe was the winning name.

2) Drents Diep

Drents Diep (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

In the Northern part of the Netherlands is a lot of land that was used for agrigulture for a long time till a couple of decades ago. The Dutch have to deal with living below sealevel while de sealevels are rising because of the global warming. A lot of land is nowadays a buffer for the water. We can steer the water into a direction instead of making the dikes bigger and bigger. We call that watermanagement.

The advantage is that we now have a lot more wild nature with variable waterlevels and a beautiful place for the birds who love a wet environment. I've seen Sterns, Tureluurs, Geese and a lot more.

Drents Diep (officially called Drentsche Diep) is an old part of the early river "The Hunze" in the Westerbroeksemadepolder. My bicycle path goes over that waterway and I stopped to find some inspiration for a tune.

1) Snowbird

Snowbird (mp3) (pdf) (tab)

December 2012 came without frost. The winters where we were skating on ice in december seem long gone and I was surprised by the amount of snow in the beginning of januari 2013. I think it was a sundaymorning when I was sitting on the couch looking outside when a tune came up in my head. It was my first tune. There was a little tomtit watching me from the birdfeeder, and I think it was the bird who inspired me to record something. It is a simple tune, but maybe that is exactly what I like in music. The most beautiful tunes are simple, aren't they?