Album Notes

Musical stories

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century collectors of folk music travelled extensively into the English and Scottish countryside. Some of these collectors went to the United States, to collect English songs from settlers in the Appalachian and Ozark mountain ranges. The collectors wrote down the lyrics and the tunes of the songs they encountered. These folksongs describe everyday life, as well as things out of the ordinary…: love and hate, life and death, murder and punishment, marriage and divorce, emigration, war, going to sea, the supernatural…, just name it and you will find a folksong that tells the story. The tunes are sometimes unconventional, with musical influences from a long time ago.

For their first album Vooks decided upon fourteen traditional folksongs. With her beautiful voice Caroline sings most of these musical stories and a lot of people find it hard to believe that Caroline is Dutch and hails from the ‘Lowlands of Holland’! Mountain dulcimer, acoustic bass guitar, violin, recorder, guitar and cello all play sometimes very subtle and softly, but in some songs they sound energetically in the special arrangements.

As a bonus track, Vooks chose ‘Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos’ sung by Jean Innemée. For Jean ‘Ain’t No More Corn…’ was his largest hitsingle ever. When recorded with ‘The Walkers’ in 1970 they sold several million singles worldwide. Ever since the first recording, Jean always recorded a version of the song with the other bands he played in. Rinie made a special arrangement. Already very ill in March 2007, he sung with his beautiful aged voice as if it was the first time he recorded it.
He died in August 2007. We miss him.