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Email Jos
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Jos van der Lelie is from The Netherlands,
Europe. He was born in Leiden, a university city since 1575, housing the
oldest university of The Netherlands. Several members of the Dutch Royal
family graduated from Leiden University, among them the current Queen
Beatrix and her son, the Crown Prince and future King Willem-Alexander.
It is twinned with Oxford, the location of England’s oldest university.
Jos however only lived in Leiden for nearly six years. His family moved
to Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, due to relocation of his father’s work.
In Amsterdam Jos went to school and studied Information and Computer
Science at the University of Amsterdam. After having had several jobs he
eventually ended up being a schoolteacher, teaching computer science and
maths. Since 1993 Jos lives in Almere, a city in the youngest province
of The Netherlands.
As a teenager Jos learned the game of baseball and started playing for
one of the local teams. Soon however his interest in being an umpire
took the overhand and an interesting career started, with the highlights
being umpiring the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA in
1991 (as the first ever umpire from Europe and at the age of 26 maybe
the youngest umpire ever to make it to Williamsport) and umpiring the
Dutch Major League from 2006 until 2009, when he decided to end his
umpiring days.
Also as a teenager his love for country music was developed, when he
heard the records his father was playing. Artists like Johnny Cash,
Charley Pride, Hank Thompson and Jim Reeves were among his favorites. A
strictly country radio show on Saturday evenings, that used to play half
an hour of country and half an hour of bluegrass, directed his attention
to this specific style of music. Jos ended up taping the radio shows and
listening to them over and over again and he started to go to bluegrass
shows and festivals in The Netherlands. From that time on, the mid
1980’s, bluegrass was number one! In December 2009 Jos bought a dobro,
which is his favorite instrument. Learning to play it so far has had no
priority, so don’t expect a live performance yet!
In 2009 Jos first found The Bluegrass Mix on the internet and soon was a
loyal listener and supporter and a regular in the chatroom. In 2010 he
went to the US to visit the MACC festival and meet some of his chatroom
friends and of course the artists that were playing there. The idea of
also becoming a DJ soon was born, but Jos was not that keen on doing
that at first, since he had no experience in doing something like that
at all. The warmth and believe in him that was expressed by others, but
maybe most of all the tragic loss of Bluegrass Mix friend Don McGalliard
in December 2010, made him decide however that this was a step he just
had to take.
Now Jos hosts the All Around Bluegrass show on Sundays from 3pm to 5pm
EST, playing traditional bluegrass as well as more progressive styles,
artists that seem to have always been there, but also new upcoming
talents and music from the US, Europe and Down Under or anywhere in
between. In other words: All Around Bluegrass. That show is followed by
The Master’s Garden, from 5pm to 6pm EST, a show entirely devoted to
bluegrass Gospel.
Jos loves to hear from you and is happy to take your requests. So send
him an email or, better yet, stop by in the chatroom for a
meet-and-greet!
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