Beansprouts

A Brief Musical History of Martijn de Kleer and Liesbeth Kemerlings.As a kid Martijn was always surrounded by music. His father played several musical instruments, always walked around with a stack of records under his arm and took his son with him to jam sessions and music-festivals. Martijn was 14 years old when he chased the audience away at a school party with his first punk rock band. The rock & roll flag was raised and in the years that followed he played guitar, bass and drums in several bands who all gloriously sank into oblivion. At the end of the eighties he tried his luck in the promised land America for a year, played in several New Jersey venues with guitar rock band The Ilk, and eventually returned to Holland empty handed but rich from experience. In 1991 Martijn was asked to join Electro/Psychedelic cult band The Legendary pink dots for a European tour replacing their guitarist who had fallen ill. He learned the songs along the way and was quite confused when the man died halfway during the tour. There and then he was recruited as their new guitarist. As a Pink Dot he did extensive tours throughout Europe, America, Canada and Mexico, played on a multitude of records, quit twice and has now been taken aboard with these space veterans for the third time. Along the way he also recorded two solo albums for two small American record labels. One time while playing street music Martijn saw a red haired girl passing by his hat and he couldn’t have suspected how she would change the coarse of things to come. As a twelve-year-old Liesbeth used to sit with her ear pressed to the radio, listening to music that was broadcasted from Austin Texas by a Dutch radio guy. She made scrapbooks of Charlie Sexton (then a teeny bopper star from Austin Texas, now a highly regarded session musician for Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams) and took bass guitar lessons. She recorded a great amount of cassette tape compilations of the alternative radio music of that time and always kept dreaming about that far away country where music blooms like a cactus-flower in the desert. She started to sing and play guitar with a friend, at first just for fun and gradually on stage and in the studio. One day Martijn heard Liesbeth sing at a party and was pleasantly surprised by her soulful voice. When they heard their voices sound together for the first time (yep by a campfire) a plan was made. Beansprouts was born and a repertoire of American folk music was put together. For some years they paid their dues in the acoustic music-scene in Holland. Live shows followed at the EWOB (European world of bluegrass) festival and at the Ulster Appalachian folk festival in Ireland. Beansprouts were labeled as promising new contemporary act, and got a good amount of positive feedback. Gradually a repertoire of their own songs came into existence, and next to the acoustic instruments drums and electric guitar were added. They began to describe their style as Electric-Acoustic Roots Music with a Dutch- American flavor. Their music had come full circle…I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)