Ootello to the roots: Ham 'n' Eggs

With ‘Ootello to the roots’, Ootello gives a stage on the first Saturday of October, November, and December every year to a top Belgian blues band and two local bands that excel in their class, craftsmanship, and big heart for the roots of our rock and pop music.\n\nCome listen to Ham ’n’ Eggs, one of the country's oldest blues bands. The group originated in the late sixties as a folk group but quickly grew with stalwarts like Willy Ketelbuters, Fons Vanhamel, and Danny Zels into a permanent fixture in the Limburg blues scene and was for years the unofficial house band of the Peerse Feesten, the predecessor of the legendary Blues Peer.\n\nBut make no mistake, Ham ‘n’ Eggs is not a nostalgic story of past glory. More than 50 years later, the band is still bursting with enthusiasm and drive. Exactly why Ham ’n’ Eggs fits so nicely into our series ‘Ootello to the roots’: seasoned sixty- and seventy-somethings who keep playing because blues has simply become a part of themselves and they - just like their old blues idols - can never stop doing it.\n\nHam ’n’ Eggs shines on the Ootello stage with elder and founder Willy Ketelbuters on vocals, Danny Zels on guitar, Gilbert Winters on bass guitar, and Jos Jones on piano. With Met Eddy Vermeerbergen (Ed Baker) on drums and Fonny Tempels on guitar, Ham ’n’ Eggs has also had two seasoned, passionate musicians from Mol in its ranks for 15 years. These two fine gentlemen already stood on the Ootello stage more than a quarter of a century ago, but with the ‘Ed Baker Band’ and ‘Los in the blues’ they proved last season that they still tear the house down like no other.\n\nHam ‘n’ Eggs brings a repertoire in which old blues heroes like Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Little Walter, and Willie Dixon are never far away. No frills, no pose. Just six seasoned musicians who understand each other blindly after all these years and go straight to the roots for an evening of honest, authentic blues.