Rowwen Hèze

Rowwen Hèze are a band from the small village of America in the south of the Netherlands. They are one of the biggest bands singing in Limburgisch. The band was founded in 1985.

Music

Rowwen Hèze play many different kinds of music, including folk, fanfare and tex-mex. They also play a lot of ballads.

Formation

The band started with the search for a new lead singer for the band The Legendary Texas Four. Jack Poels, formerly singing in the band Bad Edge, was willing to fulfill this position, on the condition he was allowed to do one song in dialect. The other band members agreed and Rowwen Hèze was born. In early years they mostly played covers in English. A lot of bands from Limburg compose a song every Carnaval, which is a big party in that region. Rowwen Heze became known in all of Holland with the Carnaval song "Niks stront niks" (no crap nothing). After that they gradually sang more and more songs in dialect.

Since 1991 the band consists of Jack Poels (vocals, guitar and harmonica), William "Tren" van Enckevort (accordion, piano, trombone and vocals), Jan Philipsen (bass guitar and Double bass), Theo Joosten (guitar, mandolin, saxophone, thin whistle and percussion), Jack Haegens (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone en percussion) and Martîn Rongen (drums and percussion).

In the last years Rowwen Hèze have proved themselves as the most powerful and renewing link from the Dutch music history. Although their lyrics are difficult for people who do not understand limburgse dialect, the link from the small Dutch south eastern village 'America' firmly established a live-reputation throughout the whole country. Also internationally have them proved to be attractive because of their unique mix of Tex-Mex, Irish folk, American rock and brass-band music.

Discography

The band is most famous for being a true party band, during performances a lot of beer throwing takes place for instance.

Some of their biggest hits are:
* Limburg (about how Limburgisch will take over in the Netherlands)
* 'bestel mar' 'just order [some beer] '
* auto, vliegtuug
* Zondag in 't zuiden (a Sunday in the south), a song about doing absolutely nothing.

In 2006 the band released their album Rodus & Lucius which directly after its release made number 1 in the Album Top 100 of the Netherlands, proving their national fame.

External links

* [http://www.rowwenheze.nl Official site]
* [http://www.1001artiesten.nl/artiest.php?ArtistNameID=94&ArtistID=2 Everything about Rowwen Heze] plus mp3, lyrics & biographies