Award-winning and much-acclaimed banjo player Jens Kruger—and his accomplished brother and guitarist, Uwe Kruger—have always been influenced by the serene but epic beauty of the Swiss Alps in their native home. Along with their music partner Joel Landsberg, The Kruger Brothers have made decades of music and brought many albums, stage performances, and richly inspired bluegrass compositions to listeners worldwide.
“Our parents were German and immigrated to Switzerland,” Jens Kruger said of his and his brother’s heritage. They started “playing for money” in the 1970s, and at some point, Jens caught the eye of the leading patriarch of the bluegrass genre.
“In 1982, I got to play several shows with Bill Monroe,” he recalled. Kruger holds the honor of being the first European to ever play at the Grand Ole Opry. He’s also won the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, and in 2021, was inducted into the American Banjo Hall of Fame. These are just a few of his notable accomplishments.
“Bill Monroe really encouraged me to write my music,” Kruger said, adding that Monroe told him, “Americans will appreciate your take on playing the banjo.”
Bluegrass appealed to Kruger and his brother both because it reflects a landscape similar to the one they experienced in their youth and allowed for evolution and individual personality as the genre grew over the decades.
“What I really appreciated about American folk music is…it’s open to influences,” Kruger said, explaining that people such as Monroe – or Tony Rice – took the music and shaped it to their visions while retaining the flavor of its roots.
“Like Tony Rice once said: Do 80 percent tradition, then do 20 percent your own.”
He said they first started playing music in the mid-1960s.
“I learned from albums,” Kruger said. “American folk music felt familiar to us in a way…it’s the way it’s put together, similar to a North German folk song.” He said he and his brother probably had a more varied music exposure in Switzerland than did many in the rural U.S., so the Kruger take on bluegrass might have added something new.
“I grew up in a different music environment than someone who grew up in Kentucky,” he explained. Kruger said he was exposed to “lots of bluegrass, classical, Swiss mountain music, Irish music” and more. He said he had exposure to “lots of sounds and harmonic structures.”
He said even today, his writing is inspired by symphonic compositions. He said a symphonic orchestra composition is “almost an impersonal sound,” meaning that it can be experienced the same in Japan, China or South America. But the banjo… “the banjo reminds you of America.” When that banjo sound is combined with the orchestral composition techniques that Kruger said “can be used to enhance emotions,” something unique emerges.
“That’s why my composition style is very much based on classical ideas,” he said, adding that this still, of course, “does not mean its classical music.” It is…and no doubt always will be…bluegrass.
“My brother writes the lyrics, and I’m responsible for the arrangements of the tunes,” he explained.
It’s not just a two-man show, however. A vital part of the band is bass player Joel Landsburg, who Kruger said joined up with them around 2003. He was from New York City. In the years previous, Kruger and his brother had been touring extensively across the U.S. following an invitation to play at the 1997 MerleFest; that appearance lit the fuse that propelled them into the spotlight. Around the same time that Landsberg came on board in 2003, the brothers decided to move to the States.
“It was too much back-and-forth,” Kruger said, of gigging so much in the U.S. while still living in the Alps. They resettled in Wilkesboro, NC and chose the location because “it is a beautiful place, right in the foothills of the Blue Ridge.” It was also a convenient location because most areas where they performed were within a 12-hour drive.
Kruger said his faraway native country still inspires the music of The Kruger Brothers.
“The forests, waterfalls, trees, valleys, nature, animals, deer…the banjo seems to fit perfectly in that landscape.”
“There’s something mystical about the smell of sap,” he added, “or walking barefoot in pine needles.”
Comentários