There is more than one way to build a touring career.
When Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and musician Ted Russell Kamp returns to the Netherlands and Belgium this September, he won’t be following the conventional route from one established music club to another. Instead, thirteen consecutive shows will take him through cafés, listening rooms, a festival, a country estate, a ship, and even across the water to the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog.
On paper, it may look like an unusual itinerary. In reality, it tells an interesting story about the way independent roots music still travels through Europe.
Places where music still matters
Ted has toured Europe extensively over the years, both as a solo artist and as a musician whose credits include work with Shooter Jennings, Tanya Tucker and many others. But his own music belongs particularly well in places where the distance between artist and audience is small.
That is exactly what this September run offers.
There is Wild & Vri-j Festival in Zieuwent, bringing roots and rock music into a distinctly local setting. Podium Verwondering in Groningen offers something entirely different: an intimate cultural stage aboard a ship. On Schiermonnikoog, Ted will play Het Oude Boothuis, far removed from the conventional touring circuit. Landgoed Steenbergerveld provides yet another setting, while The Rua Room in Belgium offers the kind of intimate singer-songwriter environment where songs and stories can take centre stage.
And then there are the cafés.
Places such as Muziekcafé Clouso in Meppel, Café De Harmonie in Edam, ’t Stamineeke in Webbekom and Café Otje in Neer are part of an ecosystem that is sometimes overlooked when people talk about the European music industry. These are places where promoters, owners, volunteers and audiences keep live music alive because they genuinely care about it. The tour concludes at Missy Sippy Blues & Roots Club in Ghent, one of those venues where blues, roots music and community naturally meet.
A tour through communities
That may ultimately be the most interesting way to look at this tour. It is not simply thirteen gigs in thirteen places. It is a journey through different communities, each with its own character and audience. For an independent artist, that matters.
A sustainable career in roots music is rarely built by chasing the biggest possible room at every opportunity. It grows through returning, building relationships, finding the right audiences and creating reasons for people to come back the next time. Sometimes fifty people who genuinely connect with an artist are more valuable than several hundred people who barely remember the name afterwards. Ted Russell Kamp’s September tour is a good example of that grassroots approach.
Ted Russell Kamp — Netherlands & Belgium, September 2026
- Wednesday, September 16 — Paddy’s — Leeuwarden, NL
- Thursday, September 17 — Muziekcafé Clouso — Meppel, NL
- Friday, September 18 — Wild & Vri-j Festival — Zieuwent, NL (TICKETS)
- Saturday, September 19 — De Vrijheid — Dordrecht, NL
- Sunday, September 20 — Café De Harmonie — Edam, NL
- Monday, September 21 — ’t Stamineeke — Webbekom, BE
- Tuesday, September 22 — The Rua Room — Waarschoot, BE
- Wednesday, September 23 — Rozenknopje — Eindhoven, NL (TICKETS)
- Thursday, September 24 — Landgoed Steenbergerveld — Steenbergen, NL
- Friday, September 25 — Podium Verwondering — Groningen, NL
- Saturday, September 26 — Het Oude Boothuis — Schiermonnikoog, NL
- Sunday, September 27 — Café Otje — Neer, NL
- Monday, September 28 — Missy Sippy Blues & Roots Club — Ghent, BE
Thirteen shows. Thirteen very different places.
And perhaps that is exactly the point.
Roots music has always travelled this way: from town to town, from room to room, carried by musicians, local promoters and people willing to open their doors and gather an audience.
The geography changes.
The principle doesn’t.