Ralph de Jongh & Hans van Lier

The band is with Lourens Leeuw (bass) and Harrie Groenewold (drums).
Ralph de Jongh, (1975) decided to dedicate himself completely to the blues after the completion of his study Antique Chinese Philosophy. Not a bad choice, because after almost two years since this decisive moment he’s in the good company of Dutch blues hero’s as Harry Muskee, Kaz Lux and Michael de Jong. Not alone has he shared the stage with these blues guys, they are very impressed by his stage presentation, blues interpretation and power full voice. So things are going fast for Ralph and his agenda is getting fuller and fuller.

His wanting to answer the question : why all this? Proved to be a good guideline for his quest to his musical roots. As a five year old, Ralph was heavily impressed by the Stones collection of his father. Later on he tried to find out which were the sources that inspired the Rolling Stones. He bumped into Muddy Waters, Elmore James and other blues men. That his classmates weren’t into this music made him even more steadfast, though he was very relieved when the Tour of Duty series gave the Rolling Stones a number one hit with Paint it Black in 1989.
Ralph slowly changed into an inspiring insider instead of an outcast.

Hans van Lier (1961) is a versatile guitarplayer. His solo's are often lyrical, but he can also really storm. This always happens with great melodic sense. He masters various styles, and he is not afraid of rock 'n roll.

Hans is self-taught as a guitarplayer. At the age of fourteen he began playing the electric guitar. He soon learnt a lot of chords. On a given day he discovered a nice 'run', which he soon began to use as a basis for his playing. It turned out that he discovered the blues scale on his own. In this same year he did his first gig in Appelscha. When he was ready on school at the age of 21 he begon serieus with the music.

Hans got a lot of inspiration from his direct environment where a lot of music was made. He studied the records of Blues players like Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Elmore James, Luther 'guitar' Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Hans's inspiration: Vincent van Gogh, Mozart and Robert Johnson. After a few years as a rythm guitar player Hans went solo at the age of eighteen. During the following years he worked with various bluesbands. In 1978 he entered the Dutch Guitar Championship in Paradiso. He finished third!

Hans has done a lot of work with musicians. He toured in Denmark, and Gina de Boer (the Dutch Janis Joplin) has been in his band. He worked with a.o. Hanneke Kappen (recorded a CD with her), Inki de Jonghe (King Lier) and Tineke Schoemaker (well known from 'Barrelhouse', one of the most successful bluesbands in the Netherlands). Together with Tineke, Hans was the best during a jazz- and bluesfestival in Friesland. He has also done some work with other musicians: B.J. Hegen, Hans Dulfer, Marcel Kapteijn and guitarplayer Mick Taylor, old member of The Rolling Stones. Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, better familiar as Double Trouble of Stevie Ray Vaughan, also guitarplayer Jan Akkerman he has played with.

Some facts:

From 1988 untill 1993 Hans had a successful band 'Plat', which only sung in Gronings dialect. 'Plat' has been the main act in Paradiso (Amsterdam) at a bluesfestival. Hans recorded 3 CD's and 5 singles with this band. In 1992 Hans has recorded a CD with various bluesmusicians, this CD was called 'Blues-United'. He also took care of the production.

Hans has crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1985, 1986, 1988 and two times in 1999 to play the blues. He sat in with sessions in Chicago. After such a session in Canada he immediately was offered a contract with a bluesband. He also recorded a CD in Minneapolis with the American band GB Leighton and toured two times with the same band in the USA. Also he made in Austin Texas a cd with Double Trouble (SRV) and Mick Taylor. Hans played for two years in a German bluesband with drummer Henk Torpedo (New Adventures)