European musicians mine Texas 'gold'

AUSTIN (KXAN) - First, let's meet the players:

Earl Poole Ball spent 20 years playing piano in Johnny Cash’s band.

Lloyd Maines , father and mentor of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines , is a legendary musician and record producer.

Accordion maestro Joel Guzman has played with a Who’s Who of Texas music stars.

Drummer Brandon Temple is in constant demand by bands from all over the country.

Bass player Glenn Fukunga is a veteran of gigs with the likes of Bob Dylan, Dr. John and Robert Plant.

Every one of these musicians now have something in common: They formed the backbone of a band recruited to give life to the farewell album of a Belgian musical phenomenon.

For Erik and Sanne Van Neygen (Hint: Google Erik and Sanne and select “Translate this page for an English version), who hail from the northern part of Belgium, known as Flanders, the opportunity to play with these giants of Texas music is a fitting end to a fairy tale journey.

“Can you imagine? I saw Lloyd Maines playing in Joe Ely's band in '78,” said Erik Van Neygen. “And from that moment, we had contact and we created a very good relationship between the two of us.”

The student

Indeed, the guitarist and singer has been a lifelong student of American musicians, everyone from Quicksilver Messenger Service to Country Joe and the Fish to the Byrds to Neil Young.

But there was always a special place in his heart for legends with a Texas connection, people like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and Townes Van Zandt.

With an ocean between the Belgian and his heroes, however, he could only dream of playing at their sides in a Texas recording studio.

The meeting

In their own country, though, the Van Neygens have built a following of their own, a following that many Texas musicians would envy. It started on Nov. 4, 1989, when Erik Van Neygen played a festival in Belgium.

Backstage, he noticed a crowd of people watching a television. It turns out the closed-circuit signal was feeding video and audio of a 16-year-old girl performing onstage. He joined the group and was stunned at what he saw.

“Sanne (pronounced, SAHN-uh) had a beautiful dress with flowers and a flower in her hair,” Erik recalled.

“And long curls,” Sanne added.

“Yes,” said Erik, “and everyone was in love with her.”

The girl’s lilting soprano voice, combined with body movements that were at once easy, graceful and seductive, clamped a death-grip on the 38-year-old man’s heart.

She first noticed him backstage, when she looked at a mirror and saw his eyes.

“He was standing in front of the mirror. He was combing his hair with a green comb and he had a very nice little butt,” Sanne laughed.

“So I looked into the mirror, into his eyes and he looked into mine and he said, ‘Oh, you have a very nice voice,' and I said, ‘Well, thank you very much, sir.’”

The record deal

A few days later, Erik took a demo cassette recording of Sanne’s voice to a record company.

“I told them, 'I know a fantastic singer; she is just looking like the girl next door and that's what you need at this moment,’” he said.

“They asked, ‘Can we see this girl?’

“I said, 'No, you can't see her. Just listen to the tape and sign the contract. You have three or four hours and then you say yes or no.

“That same day, I got the phone call and I signed a contract for three or four CDs. From then on came the gold and platinum records, one after another.”

The hit

Their first hit record was called, ‘Veel te mooi,’ a melodic heartbreaker about two star-crossed lovers.

“It's about two people who were together for a very short time, but they knew their relationship is too beautiful to be true,” said Sanne. “They knew it was not going to work because it was too good to be true.”

It was the unlikely pairing of a young woman and a man twice her age that set Belgians to wondering if the song might not be a premonition of sorts.

“People were sitting there and asking, 'Would they be a couple or not?'” said Erik.

“It was obvious that we were,” added Sanne.

The troubles

In time, the two would marry and have a daughter, Maartje, now an aspiring singer herself. At one point in her young life, the girl fell seriously ill, to the point that her parents actually thought she had died. She recovered, however, and the three of them spent a gloriously happy life together as she grew.

Then, trouble hit again. Two and a half years ago, Erik Van Neygen suffered two major hemorrhages. Doctors tried everything, including surgery, but the attacks left the guitar player with severe and constant pain in his head and his left arm and hand.

“We noticed,” Sanne said, “that if we are playing on stage and doing all the things that go with the music, the stress that is related to the concerts and everything, it's really not good. It's making his pain worse.”

The American

Finally, the couple faced the inevitable: It was time to end their storybook music career. At one of their last gigs, they played a festival in Belgium. There, they saw