(NL versie) (Deutsch Version) Ad Vanderveen’s music has been growing and building, both artistically and in terms of popularity. His new album ‘Driven By A Dream’ is being met with unprecedented anticipation by music lovers all over Europe and beyond. Just rewards for this singer-songwriter extraordinaire, who has honed his craft since he first climbed a stage forty years ago and has won over audiences all over the world ever since.

Ad Vanderveen is a gifted singer and an ace guitar player, who has written and composed hundreds of timeless songs, released over twenty albums and toured incessantly throughout his native Holland, as well as Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, the US and Canada. He has worked with big name American artists like Al Kooper, Flaco Jimenez, John Gorka and David Olney and cut albums with Texan songstress Eliza Gilkyson and English folk legend Iain Matthews. He recorded with great producers like Bill Halverson (CSN&Y) and Matt Butler (Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd) in famous recording facilities like Wisseloord in Hilversum and Sound Emporium in Nashville. But he also let the tape machines roll in live venues like De Kleine Komedie in Amsterdam and Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta, in his own basement, or even in a shack in the woods. All this with the undying love for making honest, emotional, personal music in songs that will stand the test of time.

‘Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom’, according to Thomas Jefferson. And in these difficult times, we’re all in need of a little wisdom. Perhaps that’s why singer-songwriters like Ad Vanderveen are so popular now. Their specific brand of honest, pure, straight from the heart music and poetry shines like a beacon of truth in an otherwise chaotic world of confusion, deceit and turmoil. And no brighter beacon than Ad Vanderveen, who, at 56 years of age, only seems to get better. Just listen to ‘Driven By A Dream’, his brand new collection of eleven songs – musically very diverse, but always spot on in bringing his message across to your ears… and heart. Ad recorded the album at Rockfield Studios in Wales, where just about every famous artist in rock history has worked at one time or another. Together with producer Matt Butler, his Dutch band, long-time companion Kersten de Ligny and a couple of hand-picked English session cracks, Vanderveen recorded a selection of songs that belong to the very best of his vast body of work.

‘As long as the songs keep coming, I’ll keep going’, says Vanderveen. ‘I’m inspired by new things all the time. I don’t have any Top 40-hits or formats to live up to when I go out and play, so I have the freedom and necessity to make it new every time. In other words: I don’t have an external drive, I’ve got a drive that comes from inside, from the heart and soul.’

That drive has led Ad Vanderveen to record ‘Driven By A Dream’. It’s no wonder therefore, that this album is – excuse the pun – like a dream come true. Ad will support this release with a lengthy tour throughout Europe. That’s what life is like for a singer and a songwriter who touches so many with his songs: He packs his suitcase, picks up his guitar and travels to places near and far. That’s how it has been in the case of Ad Vanderveen for the last forty years, and so it will be for many, many years to come. Because a lie has speed, but truth has endurance, honest music like Ad’s will last forever…

TjL. August 2012.