Roland Van Campenhout or in short Roland (born 1944 in Boom, Belgium) is a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...

blues musician. Roland grew up in the Rupel area. His father, a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

musician, drowned when he was 5. Roland left home at the age of 14. He did not get involved with music until the age of 20. He played in the

skiffle Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United State ...

group, the William & Roland Skiffle Group, and the folk duo Miek en Roel. In 1969, he changed to another genre: blues, while also still experimenting with other styles during his career such as country, worldmusic, folk and rock. Roland discovered this genre when he saw

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

perform in café De Muze in Antwerp. He broke through during Jazz Bilzen, where he established his reputation as a live artist.

1970s and 1980s

During the 1970s he joined

Rory Gallagher William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. Due to his virtuosic playing, but relative lack of fame compared to some others, he has been referred to as "the greatest ...

's band and toured around the world, including to Singapor

He performed with Tim Hardin,

Leo Kottke Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including par ...

and Ian Anderson. Roland built a reputation as a roaming musician traveling from café to café. This became less after the birth of his daughter. In 1985, he achieved commercial success with the record ''76cm Per Second'',Belgisch pop en Rock archief including hits such as "Fish On The Hook" and "Cruising Down On Main Street".

1990s

He was successful in working together with Arno Hintjens and with the "Charles et les Lulus" project (1990–1991

In 1998, Roland got to interview his idol

. A year later he was awarded the Lifetime achievement-award by the Zamu Music Awards.

Jaren 2000

Roland was very active in both blues and country fields during the 2000s. On 5 February 2015, he was inducted into the Radio 2 Hall of Fame.

Discography

Albums

* A tune for You (1971) * One step at a time (1972) * Rock Live (1974) * Movin' on (1975) * Snowblind (1981) * 76 Centimeters per second (1985) * Good as bad can be (1989) * The last tribe (1990) * Hole in your soul (1990) * Roland & friends – live (1990) * Last letter home (1992) * Mannen maken plannen – soundtrack (1993) * Little sweet taste (1994) * 50 (1994) * Waltz... (1999) * Nomaden van de Muziek (with Wannes Van de Velde, 2000) * Waterbottle (with El Fish, 2001) * Lime & Coconut (2003) * The great atomic power (2005) * Never Enough (2008) * Parcours (2009) * Dah Blues Iz-A Coming (22 January 2013) * New found sacred ground (2013) * Folksongs from a non-existing land (2018)

Singles

* Your trip is not like mine (1968) * Buddy is holly (1971) * Le Brabant sonne (1980) * Chain gang (1983) * Cruising down on mainstreet (1985) * Fish on the hook (1985) * C'est si bon (1988) * I'll give all I've got (1989) * Last letter home (1992) * A man needs a plan (1992) * Don't this road look rough and rocky (1992) * Little sweet taste (1994) * Down along the cove (1998) * Hash Bamboo Shuffle (1998) * Plastic Jezus (1999) * Lime in the coconut (2003) * Bird in my pyjamas (2004) * The Truth (2005)

Best of compilation album

* ''Day by day – Blow by blow'' (1994)

References

External links

Official website

Discografie on Muziekarchief.be

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Campenhout, Roland 20th-century Belgian male singers 20th-century Belgian singers Belgian folk singers Belgian male guitarists Blues singers Blues guitarists 1945 births Living people English-language singers from Belgium 21st-century Belgian male singers 21st-century Belgian singers