Blog

In the Shadows of “Biggest Parakeet in Town” by Kroes den Bock The fog clung to the streets of Helmond the way memory clings to the heart—quietly, insistently, wisping in through the cracks. I was 21 in 1975, a time when the world seemed to tilt with possibility, and the distance between Tennessee and Brabant […]

You know, people sometimes ask me if there’s a song that truly changed me. Not just as a country singer, but as a man, a friend, a son. The answer is yes—and funny enough, it wasn’t one of those chart-busters, one of those way-too-polished Nashville singles that everyone knows and forgets. No, it’s a special […]

In Search of Lost Time: My Encounter with “Colorado Blue” by Rusty Wier (1976) It was the spring of 1977 in Helmond when the misty North Brabant dawns would linger over the canal until noon, and the wooden bridges still creaked with every bicycle tire. By that time, American country music had already put down […]

There’s a memory I carry with me that is as dusty and sun-warmed as the attic where I first found Dad’s old guitar: the summer of 1977, the rare flourish of wild daisies in the fields outside Helmond, and a country song you’d be hard pressed to find spinning anywhere on the radio today. The […]

In the autumn of 1981, when the canals of Helmond took on that sleepy, golden shimmer and a chilly wind signaled the approach of winter, I heard a song on the old radio perched atop the counter of Café ’t Vinkje. I can still picture the place: cigarette smoke swirled beneath brown glass lamps, and […]

### **The Echo in “Cowboy and the Willow Tree” – My Story of a Lost Treasure** I’ve lived many seasons under Helmond’s broad Dutch skies, a singer in boots not of snakeskin but scuffed leather, my heart tuned to the twang and yodel of country music. Most folks ask me for stories about Johnny Cash, […]

**The Railroad to Anywhere: Remembering Billie Jo Spears’ “Silver Wings and Golden Rings” (1975)** There’s some music that knocks on the door of your memory with the electricity of a summer thunderstorm—bold, unafraid. Then there are songs that slip over your mind like old leather—soft, familiar, and overlooked by just about everyone else. The latter […]

Kroes den Bock (pronounced Cruise) was born beneath the endless skies of Alaska, in a town so small even the moose had names. His earliest memories are of glistening snowfields, howling winds, and the warm hum of his mother’s voice singing old folk songs in a cedar cabin built by his grandfather. But life shifted […]