Biography

Singer/songwriter JP DEN TEX (originally from Amsterdam, Holland) is first and foremost a troubadour and storyteller, bridging the gap between Americana, Pop and traditional European genres such as French chanson.

His first notable musical adventure was in the mid 70’s as a member of Tortilla, a legendary Dutch band whose music would now be described as alt.country. Later, in the 80’s, Den Tex recorded some critically acclaimed solo albums. At the beginning of the 90’s JP interrupted his activities to participate in the rebellious retro ensemble 'Les Gueux' (CD ‘After Hours’ – 1992). A strong belief in the values of continental musical tradition lay at the core of the group's formation. In 1998 he went back to his original starting point. The introspective, rootsy " Emotional Nomads" album would eventually turn out to be a real break-through. "Painstakingly honest, that’s how I'd like to be" JP wrote in the CD booklet. In 2000 it was followed by the moody ‘Hotel Yankee Tango’ - and later by the capricious, almost lighthearted ‘La Jeune Fille Au Chewing Gum’ (2004) .

On 'Bad French' (2007) and "American Tune" (2009) JP's lust for travel brings the listener to the America's. A European writer - who's been temporarily residing in NYC to assemble material for a new book - wants to get to the bottom of the secret behind the American Dream ("The American Dream: Does It Still Exist?"). To reach his objective the guy sets out on a low-budget, adventurous fact-finding journey from the Big Apple to San Francisco, in a rented Toyota.. Love, hate, crime and punishment will unremittingly accompany our traveler on his way out West - and thereby slowly transform his Old World way of thinking. Instead of revealing the secret behind te American Dream his journey - to his great and bitter-sweet surprise! - will end up handing him the the key to the mystery of his own fundamental loneliness....

Both "Bad French" and "American Tune" have been called career highlights in quite a few of the recent press reviews. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.