'Achieving as much as possible with as few means as possible', that is the essence of country music, according to Waylon. The Common Linnets, his band with Ilse DeLange, proved in May 2014 that they master that essence perfectly. With the calm, according to some even boring Calm After The Storm, the country duo took second place in the Eurovision Song Contest. An unprecedented achievement that had
… hardly been taken into account in advance. Calm After The Storm turned out to be one of those rare songs with a lot of eloquence, but in which hardly anything happens. As special as the success was, the debut of The Common Linnets proves that it was no fluke. The roots record, which was recorded together with the producing musicians JB Meijers and Daniël Lohues and a handful of session musicians in Nashville, does not contain a single bad song. Most of them are decorated with beautiful harmony vocals, but the duo also alternates lead vocals, which makes the CD nice and diverse. The emotion that Waylon and DeLange manage to put in their voices is always spot on. The rest is just frills and tidbits. (JE)more
