Lievense Live: Joep Pelt

Joep Pelt is a true 'guitar globetrotter'. Musically raised on the muddy banks of the Mississippi and the Niger by artists like R.L. Burnside and Ali Farka Touré, Joep regularly ventures out into the wide world in search of new musical ingredients.

Over the years, Joep has engaged in numerous musical collaboration projects with artists from a wide variety of genres. Joep’s eclectic guitar playing consistently serves as a lubricant between different musical worlds. Joep’s musical career is characterised by a pronounced musical versatility. Recently, Joep started the Ethiopian/Eritrean group Entoto Band, whose debut album will be released in 2023, combined with a club and festival tour.

In addition, Joep performs acoustic solo concerts and two different musical solo theatre programmes. "Folk Revolution!" is about the lasting impact of Alan Lomax's field recordings, while "From Mali to Mississippi" tells the definitive story of the blues. For both programmes, Joep's personal stories about his global musical adventures form the common thread.

Joep has released six albums under his own name, performed five times at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and has appeared on numerous renowned stages and festivals both in the Netherlands and abroad. Joep has also had long-term collaborations with several South African artists for his project Soweto Soul, of which a self-produced documentary is regularly shown on NPO2 Extra.

With the Soweto Soul live band, Joep has played various European tours. Earlier, Joep collaborated for many years with the Malian guitar legend Lobi Traoré, with whom he released the album "I Yougoba!" and toured through the Netherlands, Africa, and the USA.

In Limburg, Joep produced and played a documentary for L1 and a series of sold-out concert performances with the legendary dialect group Carboon, in which Limburg's mining past was sung about. Joep regularly combines his music projects with creating documentaries for radio or TV, musical lectures, and workshops.

Joep’s adventurous spirit and insatiable musical hunger make him one of the most versatile artists in the Netherlands. Whether it's intimate acoustic songs during solo concerts or exuberant dance music with his swinging band, no performance by Joep is the same.

Let yourself be taken to the twilight zone between different musical worlds by this 'guitar globetrotter'. There is a world to explore!