BEN & CARMEN STENEKER – Never Ending Love

BEN & CARMEN STENEKERNever Ending Love

 
Never Ending Song Of Love – Beautiful Meath –
Mariachi – Flowers from the Moon – Ain’t No Cow In Texas – Memories of
You – Dreaming My Dreams – Power In Your Love – Only The Heart May Know –
Better Off Without You – Jealous Heart – Old Fashioned Summer – The
Gift
 
     Ben Steneker is known in his home country of Holland,
as the ‘Godfather of Country Music.’   Rightfully so!  Steneker started
singing America’s ‘real’ country music when he was a boy of 18 in the
Netherlands.  Now he is 78, and he is still using his incredible voice
to produce some of the very best country music in Europe.  Over the
years he has produced a stunning collection of classic country music
albums, many of them for Van Eigen Bodem in Holland.  Consistently
teaming with successful Dutch country songwriter, Dick Van Aletena, he
has also consistently turned out some of the best classic country music
Europe has ever heard, or has to offer.
     In this particular project, he is joined by his
equally talented and very gifted vocalist daughter, Carmen.  This
combination of father-daughter harmony harkens back to the Kendalls
“Just A Sin Away,” however in this case, it’s solid country stylings and
harmonies through the entire album.  It should also be noted that
Steneker has stayed true to country backing musicians and musical
stylings.  In this project he uses some of the best country musicians in
Holland.  Joost van Es on fiddle, and he’s a winner; Johan Jansen on
steel, and he’s a winner; Patrick van Gerven on Dobro, lead guitar, and
Spanish guitar, and he’s a winner too. 
 
     Unlike many of his contemporaries, Steneker has made
the trek to America to find out what ‘real’ country music was all
about.  Many times.  His heroes like Jim Reeves, Merle Haggard, Johnny
Cash, Willie Nelson, and a ton more is revealed in Steneker’s
magnificent voice.  But….he had to find out for himself, was he doing
American country music the way Americans liked it.  Indeed, it was a
successful trek.  He started in Nashville, traveled wherever his road
took him, but he consistently started returning more and more often to
the state of Iowa, where traditional and classic country music is still
held in startling high favor.  And, it was in Iowa, that Steneker found a
huge audience for his particular style.  There are a lot of Dutch
settlers in Iowa, and they took him to heart the very first time they
heard him.
 
     Back home in Holland, Steneker performed for Queen
Beatrix, and Dolly Parton, and just about every American country music
artist that has ever crossed the Dutch border.  Steneker has that
‘sailing-lofty’ voice that casts the listener into a spellbound aura of
music weaving a pattern incapable of leaving.  And, he never leaves his
first ‘country’ love in America behind.  He still returns to the land of
tall corn and prairie grass whenever he can.  The grand state of Iowa,
and now he takes his beautiful daughter Carmen with him to not only
honor the music of his life, the music he loves, the music he does more
than anyone in Holland to perpetuate.  True country music.  The
‘Godfather’ of that genre in Holland, his honor and respect is endless,
as his many many fans have attested.
 
     And, he knows how to make sure the studio mix, the
ultimate sound, the finished product comes up to the standards of what
his American fans love too.  This album, with such beautiful and
meaningful lyrics, after all this time, is still one of the best musical
adventures Ben Steneker has ever taken.
 
Bob Everhart

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