Bobbejaan Schoepen - International Tours and Success

International Tours and Success

Schoepen toured in at least twenty different countries, together with artists such as Josephine Baker, Caterina Valente, Gilbert Bécaud, and Toots Thielemans (who was a guitarist in his band in 1951). He is one of the first Europeans (excluding the British) to have appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, one of the most important centers of country music in the United States. In 1953 he played there three times with Roy Acuff (1903–1992). There was one performance with the country singer Red Foley (1910–1968) in Springfield, Missouri. The American country singer, Tex Williams, a Western swing performer, would later release a cover of Schoepen's “Fire and Blisters” in the US (1974).