McGrath and Curmudgeon, I agree with you that shanties are quite popular in the Netherlands, but, unfortunately, that's not what I'm after. Another kind of music that is deeply rooted in Dutch culture and history, is the 'levenslied' ("life-song"), in English you would call it 'crooner' (I think...). A lot of people know at least part of a levenslied, so maybe you could say that this kind of 'folkmusic' still hasn't died out.

El Greko, unfortunately, I can't look your song up in my songbooks, as, for another two weeks, I'm in Senegal (for work, so don't be jealous). It doesn't ring a bell, but there are quite a lot of these old songs.Thanks anyway, I'll certainly look into it. And of course you can sing it to me sometime, that's always better than MP3. But you say you "lived" in the Netherlands, so maybe that would be a bit difficult? Thanks for the name of Nanne Kalma, I don't know him yet, but when I'm back in the Lowlands I'll certainly look out for him...

All of the people who are interested in Dutch folk: there's a group of three Belgian girls, called Lais. In their repertoire, they have a lot of old Dutch/Flemish songs, and their voices are just marvellous! Check them out at www.lais.be (I think they have two or three Cd's out).

Thank you for all your help,

T.