Way
back in 1994, it was, when a chance collision within a small nebula
of free-associating souls occurred in the city of Leiden, The Netherlands.
It was a collision releasing not just light and heat, but creative energy
sufficient to sustain the continual development of a musical repertoire
now numbering close to one hundred original tunes. Tunes that mock,
scream, tease, provoke, and plead. Tunes revealing the quirks, idiosyncracies,
and mild obsessions of grown men who could pass, in other circumstances,
for well adjusted adults. Songs of satire, irony, and biting sarcasm.
But also of love and abandonment. Profit and loss. Death, deception,
and betrayal. That's why, for all its twists and turns, it remains (more
or less) the blues.
News
flash!!
In November,
we ventured back into the studio for the first time since 2004. It's
a work in progress, but we're hoping to have a new CD sometime this
year. The sooner the better, of course, but we'll wait until it's
ready.
Sleepwalker has recorded two
CDs in the studio: Preaching to the Perverted, recorded in
1999, and Not an Ordinary Night, recorded in 2003. We also
have a live rocrding from our early days.
For free downloads from the
CDs, and to order your very own copies CLICK
HERE.
Sleepwalker gigs
click here for currently scheduled performances
Want to see a Sleepwalker clip?
This is pretty funny, but it's the best we've got for now. The good folks
at livebands.nl
came down to the Zwarte Ruiter in Den Haag when we were doing a gig for
Radio West, filmed it, and transferred our performance of "Babe" to RealAudio.
The effect is something between grainy and impressionistic. To download
the clip for viewing with RealPlayer, click
here. You can also open RealPlayer and type in the following
URL: http://home.tiscali.nl/~t755047/Babe-live.rm for streaming
video.
CAUTION / NOTE: Save all your work
before you do this! RealPlayer is notoriously buggy and crash prone.
And, if you haven't invested in broadband yet, it can be pretty slow.
You may have to be patient!
Who are you and why are you
here?Care to tell us how you stumbled into our site? Click here
to tell us just what brought you face to face with Sleepwalker online.
We really do want to know.
When you're old enough to realize
that fame and fortune have eluded you, then it's time to relax and start
having fun. And that's the essence of Jim Wake & Sleepwalker. Four
accomplished Dutch musicians, no longer harboring fantasies of superstardom,
offering refuge to a disaffected Yank for the purpose of making a slightly
deviant, if not quite demonically possessed blend of blues-flavored, good-time
music. Jim Wake, the token American, growls out lead vocals, adding a
few well-placed accents on an antique Gibson electric or a blues harmonica.
Either a cynical idealist or an idealistic cynic, he writes compact tunes
with a keen eye for the absurd. Guitarist Egbert Kemner turns blues and
rock and roll solos inside out and upside down. Arnoud van Buuren coaxes
boogie woogie, swamp rock, and a mean organ, not to mention rhythm and
blues out of the digital entrails of his keyboard, unless he's squeezing
some slightly more exotic riff out of an accordion. From time to time,
Kemner switches to alto sax. Bassist Ruud Fransen and drummer Eelco Flapper
keep it all on track and driving home.
Sleepwalker plays blues with a
twist, rock and roll with a hop and a skip, an occasional country and
western with tongue in cheek, and quasi-tango, pseudo-Caribbean and proto-klezmer
with shameless disregard for their own ethnic origins. Kemner, Fransen
and Van Buuren accompany Wake on background vocals and make their own
contributions to an ever-expanding repertoire of spirited originals.
It's music that takes
the uninitiated by surprise, but more often than not, soon has them tapping
their toes and jumping up to dance. Jim Wake, who stands 1.65 with his
shoes on, is, as one reviewer, observed 'an unremarkable figure until
he opens his mouth'. Sleepwalker is, as another reviewer noted, 'the ideal
band for a blues or jazz cafe'.
Here's what they had
to say about Not an Ordinary Night:
'With some singers, from
the first note you hear, you think: that’s nice, that’s really
fine. Jim Wake is that sort of singer. Throughout the entire cd, the band
clearly shows that it possesses the necessary disipline and skill. The
gentlemen never lose their way; the playing is everywhere solid and very
much in the service of the tunes themselves. In short, an outstanding
disk.." -- Herman Joustra. Leidsch Dagblad
'Five outstanding Dutch
musicians in the best blues and jazz tradition, led by an American vocalist/songwriter
with a Tom Waits-like voice. Fine absurd compositions and top-notch musicianship.'
-- Harmen van Aurich, Heaven
And about Preaching to the Perverted:
' ... high-spirited and
warm-blooded ... remarkable songwriting talent ... original and timeless
... this cd includes a couple of real jewels.'
-- Oor
'Sleepwalker ... effortlessly
steals the stage from ninety percent of the bands on the Dutch (rhythm)
and blues scene.'
-- Carp
VIDEOS
Finally -- Sleepwalker
has been caught on film! We took a long ride up to Groningen in the
north of The Netherlands for a Sunday afternoon gig at Cafe Koster.
The lights were bright, the action fast and furious, and the cameras
were running. A couple samples:
Back in an earlier
era, the good folks at livebands.nl
came down to the Zwarte Ruiter in Den Haag when we were doing a gig
for Radio West, filmed it, and transferred our performance of "Babe"
to RealAudio. The effect is something between grainy and impressionistic.
Now available here in Quicktime format or here
for viewing with RealPlayer. You can also open RealPlayer and type in
the following URL: http://home.tiscali.nl/~t755047/Babe-live.rm
for streaming video.
