KRÜGER BROTHERS, SPIRIT OF THE ROCKIES

KRÜGER BROTHERS
SPIRIT OF THE ROCKIES

Double Time Music
DTM-024

   Sit back and allow your ears to take you on a musical excursion of the Canadian Rockies. Casting his eyes on that breathtakingly beautiful landscape for the first time, Jens Krüger began to imagine a creative array of notes that would attempt to capture that world wonder. The result is a 64-minute orchestral work that the Krüger Brothers had been commissioned to produce for the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada.

The trio of banjoist/vocalist Jens and his brother, Uwe, on guitar/vocals and Joel Landsberg on acoustic bass guitar are joined by the Banff Centre Chamber Orchestra and drummer/percussionist Josh Day for this narrative work. Jens wrote and scored the music while he and Uwe penned the lyrics and devised the storyline. “I wanted it to be simple poetry, not too elaborate, keeping the same verse throughout the whole piece,” Uwe says. “We wanted to create a flow of melodies, using a basic, 16-bar folk song format with simple rhymes—no choruses, no hook lines, none of that stuff—it just goes straight through. Jens, who in 2013 won the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music, once again demonstrates the versatility of the banjo. You might catch a hint of the bluegrass that influenced the Krüger Brothers growing up, but this is a classical recording that serves as evidence that the trio can stretch their musical talents in the opposite direction. (Double Time Music, 6137 Statesville Rd., North Wilkesboro, NC 28659, www.krugerbrothers.com.)BC