Biography

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Discography available in this account to date:
Lucid Dreamer
Christmas Magic with the Kruger Brothers
Best of the Kruger Brothers
Appalachian Concerto
Forever and a Day
Between the Notes

Follow this link to visit the Kruger Brothers artist profile on Airplay Direct.

Jens Kruger, Banjo
Uwe Kruger, Guitar
Joel Landsberg, Bass

Kevin Lawrence, 1st Violin
Stephanie Ezerman, 2nd Violin
Sheila Browne, Viola
Alex Ezerman, Cello

1st Movement
Morning at Deep Gap 2:52
E Pluribus Unum 6:41
Wild Horses 2:57

2nd Movement
As Far as the Eye Can See 4:32
Gone, but Not Forgotten 7:21

3rd Movement
The New Country 5:03

The Appalachian Concerto is a very different kind of recording for the Kruger Brothers, and is without any true precedents within their catalogue to date. Still, if there are any real surprises in this work, perhaps the greatest is how entirely natural and obvious it was to pair the Kruger Brothers with a string quartet. The Kruger Brothers’ sound, after all, is principally an ensemble sound, with each of the players refining and contributing to a unified presentation. In that sense, it’s as far from a traditional bluegrass arrangement – with instruments alternating between accompaniment and soloing - as you can get. Likewise, a classical string quartet, with its close harmonies, counterpoint, and the lack of a true “soloist” in a jazz or bluegrass sense, is an accurate analogue for the kind of ensemble playing that Jens, Joel, and Uwe have been doing for years. On hearing the concerto, we’re less apt to wonder why they would choose to pair with a chamber orchestra than we are in wonder why they haven’t done it sooner.

The Appalachian Concerto is a commissioned piece, created at the request of the Ashe County Arts Council for a new work based in the musical culture of the Appalachian region. When it premiered at the Ashe Civic Center in West Jefferson, NC, on the night of November 20, 2010, the audience didn’t have the benefit of the section titles that appear on this disc. Still, they could not have missed the strong historical narrative that runs through the work. “It’s my romantic idea of the Appalachians,” says Kruger, and in particular the discovery of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachians by settlers to the region.

“This is just very personal. It may not be based in universal truth … (but) that’s the romantic part about it,” says Kruger. “When I listen to something like, let’s say, ‘Shady Grove’, there is a loneliness and something mystic about it. There’s a (sense of) longing that draws me to the music … I want to reflect some of those ideas that I have about this place.”

It is that loneliness, that sense of uncertainty, that is the first emotion the audience encounters in the work. Banjo, guitar, and bass give a statement of place as if dressing the stage for the scenes to come. The addition of musical themes – German, Irish, Scots, Jewish, Cherokee, among many others heard here and throughout the work – add the cultural dimension to the landscape. By the end of the movement, any sense of uncertainty has been driven away in a climax of confidence and determination.

During the writing process, Kruger referred to the second movement as an “overlook” (“As Far as the Eye Can See”)in reference to the scenic overlooks perched high atop the Blue Ridge as it meanders along the western edge of North Carolina. “If you go up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and you look over the landscape, it is just breathtaking.” Says Kruger. ‘You can see all of the hills moving behind each other. You don’t see houses or streets, because they are all in the valleys. All you can see are mountains.” In that vein, the strings beautifully introduce an extended meditation that forms the emotional core of the work.

Later in the movement (Gone but Not Forgotten”) we first hear the banjo alone, full of emotion, bridging the various cultures that are found in the region. There are hints to its history as an indigenous instrument of the region, but elsewhere in the movement it takes the role of something more akin to a period European instrument. By straddling so many musical worlds, Kruger allows us a contemplation of the various identities that have come together within Appalachia and that are expressed in the music of the region.

From the first bars of the third movement, though, the reverie is broken, and the music bristles with the pride, the confidence, and the celebration of a fireworks display on the fourth of July. If the earlier movements were a looking back, or a looking across, then this is a looking forward to the vast possibility that life in this new country can provide.

Throughout, the “Appalachian Concerto” is ultimately a deeply personal work, made all the more so in the knowledge, as Kruger has noted on occasion, that he too is a settler who has found a home and a future in Appalachia. Originally from Switzerland, where the Kruger Brothers first formed, the band later moved to North Carolina in part to be closer to the music that has inspired them and has informed so much of their work. The concerto was composed on a property within the foothills of the Brushy Mountains, in a place that embodies the beauty and the isolation reflected in the composition. Kruger uses the piece to celebrate the history, the landscape, and the determination that continues to form the infectious character of the Appalachian region, but it is ultimately his own experience that speaks so clearly to us from the work. This piece is as uniquely Jens Kruger as his fingerprint.

It’s perhaps easy to see that the concerto may draw comparisons to the work of Aaron Copland , on one hand simply because of the title, and on the other because so few composers have done as successfully what he did with American vernacular musical forms. Like Copland, Kruger uses the modes and instrumentation of traditional music to convey new ideas; also like Copland, there are lots of familiar sounds that point to various musical traditions, though none of them stands entirely on its own or for its own sake. One of the ways that the “Appalachian Concerto” differs is the explicit comparisons Kruger draws between North American musical traditions and a specific European form: a concerto with three movements and a standard chamber instrumentation. That Kruger uses this form as a setting for a rumination on the music of Appalachia, and does so with such ease, suggests not only his remarkable facility for composition, but affirms the idea that these traditions are, perhaps, not really that far apart after all.

Glen Herbert.

Appalachian Concerto

When I was asked to compose a piece for the Kruger Brothers and string quartet in the beginning of 2010, I was presented with an opportunity to write a piece about Appalachia. The idea that people from all over the world can immigrate to a place where their different cultures can meld into one culture has been a source of inspiration for many composers, and the special musical forms that emerged from this region have always been fascinating to me. I immediately started writing new themes and gathered a collection of them by the end of that spring. “E Pluribus Unum” was the first part that came together as a movement, and by early summer I had decided on all of the remaining themes and the finalized form of the complete piece. In August I presented Uwe and Joel with the various parts and, after the guitar and bass were in place, I was able to devote my full attention to the composition of the string quartet. The next six weeks were filled with intense rehearsals and orchestration in order to be ready for the premier in mid-November.

In January 2011 we began recording the Appalachian Concerto in our new recording studio in North Wilkesboro, NC. I believe I can also speak for Uwe, Joel and Philip when I say that this piece lives in a very special place in our hearts.

A special thanks goes to my wife Christa and my children, Mirjam and Anja, who bravely joined me on the journey to move to this “New Country” where I found the artistic freedom and support that made the creation of this piece possible.

-Jens Kruger, March 2011

Composed by Jens Kruger © 2010
Binary Barn Music (ASCAP)
Produced by Jens & Uwe Kruger, Joel Landsberg
Executive Producer, Philip Zanon
Recorded & mixed by Jens Kruger at Double Time Studio, North Wilkesboro NC
Editing by Philip Zanon
Mastered by Bob Katz
Cover design by Lody van Vlodrop
Photos by Uwe Kruger