It all began in 1980. Organizer, and bluegrass - fan Bé Holdtman from emmen was already
a couple of years active in the music scene, organising show's and
concerts. And he managed tot get more and more spectators to the north of Holland as well as several national and international artists. One of those artists, a regular on the shows of Bé, was Gerard Fuhler. A singer/guitarist who came from Barger - Oosterveld, and had a preference for the music of Hank Williams Sr. By that time, Gerard performed only solo on stage. And that was also his biggest problem. The show's went perfect, but what only a few people knew, was that Gerard became very nervous on stage. With the preparations for the new show in Bargeroosterveld, in may 1981 Bé faced that problem for the first time. It had to become a show with several international artists, replenished with national talent, Gerard. But he told Bé, that he didn't want to perform on stage anymore. Bé anticipated to Gerards problem, and he understood that he needed to do something to preserve that talent. By that time, Marinus Snippe came in the picture. Marinus was a singer/guitarist from Barger-compacuum, who had performed in several band's, from blues, rock , countrymusic, up to national folkmusic. But at the end, choosed to perform as background musician, instead of lead guitarist. Bé approached Marinus with the question if he was willing to be a part of Gerard's show on stage. From one thing came another, and after three rehearsals, the duo performed for the first time on stage, on the 16 of may 1981 in café de Flinthoek in Bargeroosterveld. It took more than a year that the final decision was made, to proceed as a duo. And the Alabama Country Boy's were born. The name, apart from that, is derived from the fact that Alabama was Hank Williams' home state. Three years later, in 1984, the first album, called "Rocking Alone" was released. A so called "maxi single" witch carried 6 tracks in old time country style. After seven years, the "Boy's" became more and more aware of the fact that something was missing in their sound, so they asked Albert Stam from Barger- Compascuum to become a part of the band. Up until than, albert was playing keybord in another band, and had no experience at all playing bass. But his persistence and inquisitiveness lead to it that in less than no time he played like a pro. And the duo became a trio, and a couple of years later the first "mirror disk" was released, called " Back to Alabama". The titelsong by the way was written by Marinus himself. The album contained 15 tracks, and was sold out in less than no time. Our newest album, "The sweetest gift", was released in 2006. This disk contains also 15 carefully selected tracks recorded by Robert Tappel, who was also responsible for the recording of our first cd. The past 25 years, The Alabama Country Boys were more or less present on every country show or concert in Holland, and entertained the audience with their music. Music that, apart from that, for a great deal is based on "close harmony singing". Nowadays, because of their busy private life's, The Alabama Country Boy's are only available for concert's or acoustic festivals. |
Biography |