About us

Coincidence? Possibly. At the end of 2003 and in early 2004, my cousin Johan and I toured Australia. At one point it became clear that we would not arrive at the place where we had intended to stay the night. So we sent an SMS to Melinda, my cousin’s wife who can always be counted on for good advice. Five minutes later the answer came: "Go to Yackandandah which is nearby, and you can even explore the old goldmine there." A couple of hours later we were deep underground on our knees with a hammer and a chisel, searching for gold, but alas, someone had been there before us.

So the search for refreshments began and soon we arrived at the Former Clarence Hotel. Naturally, people noticed we were not local. We explained that we were Belgian and immediately the name of Kim Clijsters was dropped. She was playing the semi-finals of the Australian Open at that time. Even though Aussie Rules (Australian Football played with a rugby ball) was on TV, it was quickly switched to tennis, and everyone backed us in our support for Kim. Whenever anyone wandered into the pub, they would immediately ask about "the Belgians." According to the barmaid, it had been many years since Belgians had visited Yackandandah, so my cousin and I were a bit of a curiosity in this town. When Kim won her match, the rejoicing was complete and we all celebrated until the early hours.

Several months after our Australia tour, the idea came to mind to do something with all the great country music I had heard over there and with the CD’s I had brought back with me. My good friend Alex, who grew up in Sydney, Australia, and had introduced me to his collection of "Country From Down Under" before, was very enthusiastic when I told him I wanted to make a CD with only Australian country music. Surely that had not been done in Belgium before. Well, one thing led to another and soon we found ourselves sitting together and making a selection of numbers with merit to be included. "If you are going to do an album with only Australian country songs", said Alex, "you’ll have to have a stage name that sounds Aussie". I immediately thought of the Victorian town of Yackandandah where we had been so warmly welcomed in friendship. It’s remarkable that such a strange name will hang around. Coincidence? Well, I’m not so sure about that.

Biography

Yackan Dandah began his musical career in 1978 as a singer with the rock group Frowzy Semaphore. He switched over to the position of bass guitarist when that became vacant. This instrument served him faithfully for many years as he played bass for bands such as Yell, The Mudcats (audio clip1, audio clip 2, audio clip 3, audio clip 4, audio clip 5 ) and de Merretkramers (audio clip). With the symphonic rock group Tao (audio clip), Yackan Dandah played the guitar, which was the first instrument he had learned to play as a 12-year-old. He also played the guitar with Anche (acoustic pop) and The Mops (cover band). In 1999 he switched over to playing the keyboards and since that time, Yackan Dandah has been the keyboard player with the country band Route 66. To read more about this group, visit their website (see Links). On top of this, Yackan Dandah is an accomplished and very talented harmonica player.