One of the best and worst things about Nashville is the overabundance of musical choices. As a result, a gem of a band like the Kruger Brothers. can play a small venue without the fanfare they deserve. The trio composed of brothers Uwe and Jens Kruger, from Wilkes County, North Carolina, by way of Switzerland, and their bass player for thirty years Joel Landsberg played an evening show at Hutton Hotel’s Analog lounge on Tuesday.
For anyone unfamiliar with their music, expecting music emore like The Beverly Hillbillies, the Kruger Brothers. delivered a pleasant surprise. They opened with music from their Appalachian Concerto, composed by Jens, and admitted to feeling warmed by the audience response. The two sets ranged from music composed for the 150th anniversary of the driving of the U.S. railroad’s Golden Spike to a medley of tunes combining music inspired by time spent playing in the forests of the Swiss Alps, Uwe’s sea-inspired song, and a song about the Overmountain Men who fought in the Revolutionary Battle of Kings Mountain from their Roan Mountain Suite.
The Kruger Brothers’ musicianship could have spoken for itself. Nobody plays a banjo like Jens Kruger. Nobody. But his skill is matched by Uwe on the guitar. Their joy playing together is apparent. The two brothers kept up a pleasant dialogue with an occasionally wry comment from Landsberg, poking fun at their hometown while giving tribute to the late Doc Watson, whose presence originally drew them to Western North Carolina.
Suggesting they might play covers in the second set—but not “Freebird” or “Purple Haze”—they performed John Prine’s “Paradise” citing “sentimental reasons.” They also drew from the genres from folk to rock to play “Don’t Think Twice” and “Fields of Gold.” They obliged with an encore of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” followed by one of their instrumental pieces.
Acknowledging the challenge of playing Nashville, they thanked the audience, adding “You’ve got all the music in the world. Why would you come out for Carolina folk musicians?” For the audience, it was a rhetorical question with an obvious answer.