Bad French (European Import - Digipack plus booklet) $1.95

About Bad French (European Import - Digipack plus booklet)

"Bad French"

"Traveling America in the footsteps of Tocqueville... A musical travelogue by one of Europe's most interesting singer/songwriters. Great Americana from the other side of the pond: JP Den Tex is a true friend of the American experiment!"

JP DEN TEX (originally from Amsterdam, Holland) is an 'emotional nomad', wandering in a musical landscape between Americana and traditional European genres such as French chanson. Some even prefer to call his unique blend 'Europicana'... Anyway, JP Den Tex and his band Emotional Nomads have been very successful in bringing this cosmopolitan message across lately. In 1998 they released their first CD - their critically acclaimed and touchingly candid 'Emotional Nomads' album. So that's where the band's name comes from! "Painstakingly honest, that's how I'd like to be..." JP wrote in the CD booklet. In 2000 this album was followed by the moody 'Hotel Yankee Tango' - and later by the capricious, almost lighthearted 'La Jeune Fille Au Chewing Gum', JP DEN TEX' first (solo) album for Corazong Records (2004). On 'Bad French' JP is rejoined by The Emotional Nomads. After the successful cinema release of the Jindra Markus documentary movie 'Emotional Nomads' in 2006 the band did another tour of the Lowlands. JP is taking a break from touring with the band first half of 2007 to do a sold out theatertour with actor Kees Prins and Paul de Munnik (half of Dutch top-charting duo Acda & De Munnik). JP is planning to be in the USA in November '07, coinciding with the Americana Music Convention.

After that tour they went back to the recording studio - together with long time associate and producer Sander Janssen (he is the guy who suffered a stroke in the documentary) and ex-Tröckener Kecks bass player Theo Vogelaars, now also a producer. If 'Emotional Nomads' could be dubbed 'a musical diary' - Bad French should be considered 'a European soundtrack to an American roadmovie'. For in spite of what the album title seems to suggest Bad French is far more Americana & American than French. A European writer - who is temporarily residing in NYC to assemble material for a new book - encounters a surprisingly well-educated Russian escort girl on Coney Island. When she tells him she gets frequently beaten by her lover-boss Lev, the writer kindly offers to lead her out of her predicament, into the relative safety of the vast American heartland. She accepts - and in the weeks that follow they jointly discover the customs, landscapes (and music!) of the various states they're passing through, on their way out west. All the while mixed up in a tender, yet unstable love affair destined to go awry...

JP's first noticeable musical adventure was in the early 70's as a member of Tortilla, a legendary Dutch band whose music now would be described as alt.country. Famous author and music critic Jan Donkers wrote in underground magazine Aloha about their (unfortunately) only album 'Little Heroes' - a magnificent album, that I can recommend to everybody, without the (possibly) restrictive clause that this is a Dutch recording.

Tortilla's planned second album never materialized. JP did write a bunch of songs for this second Tortilla album. The demos JP recorded of these songs for many years have been a 'most wanted' item for collectors of Alt. Country, Dutch pop music and singer/songwriter music. The initial pressing of Bad French includes as a bonus CD featuring the original demos of the songs JP intened to use on that second Tortilla CD that never was.

For more information: www.jp-den-tex.com
For more music that matters: www.corazong.com