The earliest roots of the Four Wheel Drive story can be found in the late 80’s when the Dutch mandolin player Paul Van Vlodrop was asked to gather a group of musicians to play background music for an American theatre play. Since then the group has stayed together in different line-ups featuring some of the finest European bluegrass musicians.

In 2000 their first album No doubt about got things really going for the band. Bluegrass Unlimited published a highlight review and a full length article on this group, something very rare for a European band.

In 2002 4WD won Best European Bluegrass Band Award at the EWOB (European World of Bluegrass) and were sent to the States to represent Europe at the world famous World of Bluegrass Festival, where they received standing ovations at the fanfair . They also performed at The Station Inn in Nashville, the American mecca of bluegrass music but also at The Cobblestone, one of the oldest and prestigious folk venues in Dublin.

On top of that they won the Audience Popularity Award at the annual Ewob festival in Voorthuizen in 2006 as well as in 2007 and last but not least they received the ‚Gram Parsons Award‘ presented by the DCMA (Dutch Country Music Association) for best acoustic band of the year no less than 8 times.

Their repertoire is a keen mixture of hardcore bluegrass, country flavored songs and mostly self written catchy instrumentals. They do not hesitate to throw in an a cappella-song once in a while either !

The versatility of this group of well seasoned traditional musicians with a stunning instrumental and vocal technique allows them to make a cross-over from American oldtime and bluegrass styles to the European folk tradition. In doing so they seem to please folk oriented audiences all over Europe.

In the last couple of years Four Wheel Drive were considered a revelation at prestigious festivals like the Omagh Appalachian & Bluegrass music Festival in Northern Ireland as well as at the Skagen Folkfestival in Denmark and the Bluegrass & Celtic Music Festival in Namur (B) and the famous Folk-im-Schlosshof folkfestival in Bonfeld, Germany.

Four Wheel Drive prefers to play for just one microphone which adds a nice visual effect to their already highly entertaining stage show.