Anomalies

Jul 10, 2021 | Welcome Column

Many things attract our attention simply because they are so unusual.  You have in your mind a preexisting concept of what is normal and then you see something that is so outside the box you don’t know how it could have possibly come to be.

In the bluegrass world I can’t think of a greater anomaly than the Kruger Brothers.  How do a couple of brothers from Switzerland happen to fall in love with the music of another country and culture and get so good at it that they get noticed in that country, move there and make history in it?

We have our own anomalies from here in the US who have made history in the other direction.  The Tour de France bicycle race finishes this month and is a really big deal in Europe.  But bicycle racing is not a popular sport in the US.  Football (American football that is, not the sport we call soccer), basketball, baseball and golf we know well but bicycling is foreign.  Yet a California kid named Greg Lemond managed to fight his way at a high level through the foreign sport of cycling and he won the most prestigious race in the world three times.

I doubt the next Michael Jordan will come from Laos but maybe it’s possible.  Anomalies happen.

I am so glad that the Kruger Brothers made it to America.  It was an impossible journey when you think about it.  Two kids have fun busking weird music in the mountains of Switzerland and they get so good at it they eventually end up playing with Doc Watson at Merlefest.

My Kruger Brothers CDs are treasured items in my music collection.  I recommend the Carolina Scrapbook CDs particularly.  The Krugers are joined by some really great talent on those CDs.  I can’t find one of my Carolina Scrapbook CDs because I loaned it to my friend and former bandmate Sam Reed.  (No worries, I still have the digital and it will prove to be a good investment if Sam, who plays with Pacific Dive now, keeps sounding more and more like Jens Kruger).

The Kruger Brothers performed at the last Wintergrass and I was there!  It was the highlight of my first Wintergrass.  Uve sings a nice mellow lead vocal and plays killer guitar.  Joel is one of the best bass players I have heard (five string electric but it’s OK).  And Jens can play anything as fast as you like on the banjo but also excels at slower nuanced tunes.

During the COVID disruption, the Kruger Brothers have put out more than a hundred YouTube videos of their jam sessions (and even cooking shows).  Their banter in the handful of shows I have watched so far reveals some of their history.  Gigs they did all over Europe, how they met their bass player Joel Landsberg, etc.

How did these guys ever make it from Switzerland to North Carolina bypassing lots of home grown talent from all over the country that was at the same time moving to Nashville?  I wish I knew.  There’s a good book there in that unlikely story.  I’d sure like to read it if it ever comes out.

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