Blue Water Ramblers 

 

 

 

 

Celebrate the Great Lakes State with the Blue Water Ramblers as they present "This Land is Your Land - Songs of the Michigan Experience."

The Blue Water Ramblers, Banjo- Jim Foerch, Bear Berends and Tom DeVries, have been delighting audiences throughout Michigan and the Midwest for over 40 years. 

Banjo-Jim Foerch picked up his first banjo in 1965 and hasn't put it down since. He says singing the songs of Michigan, America and our lives to all the people he meets on tour is the best thing he's ever done. "Everyone I ever met here in Michigan or around the Midwest is proud of our home state and our country. Our songs express that pride the best way we know how- by getting us all singing together!”

Bear Berends holds down the rhythm with his big, black six and twelve string guitars. "I wanted to sing with Banjo-Jim, so I learned all his songs and taught him mine and here we are," he explains. Whether delivering the lead line or harmonizing with his solid baritone, Bear sculpts the Blue Water Ramblers’ sound.

Tom DeVries sparks up the bright tunes with his sizzling mandolin and creates the rich, full harmonies on the ballads he leads from his guitar. Like Bear and Banjo-Jim, Tom has been entertaining all over the midwest since his early twenties. "There's nothing I'd rather do than find a good song, work it up with the boys and deliver it to an enthusiastic audience," says Tom.

The Blue Water Ramblers' repoertoire comes right out of our Michigan life experiences and the history of the Great Lakes region.  It includes lake shanties, lumbermen ballads, union rallying cries, farmers' paeans, love songs, gospel music and children's ditties.  "I think my hero, Woody Guthrie, would approve," said Banjo Jim.  "We're singing the people's songs about the people's lives and they can join right in and sing along."