Interviews

Candle To You new album press sheet

Album Releases, Interviews, Press Releases, Uncategorized

Ad Vanderveen – Candle To You

(Introductory notes by Jon C. Ireson / Music-News)

In the realm of modern folk rock, two men stand as pillars influencing the generations who follow. Bob Dylan took the influence of Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams and through the magical transformation of the Greenwich Village stages, made it speak to millions of young adults grasping for sense in senseless times. 

Neil Young rose to fame riding a wave of psychedelia with Buffalo Springfield operating out of L.A.’s famous Laurel Canyon. Yet, in his formative years on the Canadian Great Plains, Young drew a lot from Dylan’s early folk masterpieces. Once the great wave of the ’60s broke, Young would turn hard to folk in the ’70s writing some of his most enduring classics. 

Today, there is a great deal of that DNA in any given performer that takes up the acoustic guitar to bare their soul. 

Amsterdam-based Ad Vanderveen may have been born thousands of miles from Ohio or Ontario, Minnesota or Manhattan but the man has the lineage of these folk troubadours in his blood. This must have something to do with his Canadian family. On his latest record Release, Vanderveen powerfully and effectively channels the two greats, blending their sonic traits with his own worldly personality to create an album that hits all the right notes of nostalgia, reflection, love, and sense of home that a great folk record should.

This is an artist who studied under the best in his field and with that same energy, produced a welcoming, wistful, and wise entry in the tradition of great folk music. 

Candle To You comes on the heels of the internationally acclaimed 2021 album Release. It offers ten new songs with a distinct sonic signature and atmosphere that is slightly different from Vanderveen’s other work.

AV on Candle To You: “The title-track can be considered a humble dedication to both men mentioned above, as well as some other heroes who came before. A tribute while still alive, if you will. As a child of the sixties, growing up in the second line of that revolutionary generation, I see myself as a carrier of the same flame. I’m grateful to see those greats in the frontline still ahead out there today.”

“While some songs are typically acoustic guitar based, a lot of this album was written on the mandola – the mandolin’s older sister,” the singer further explains. ”Exploring this instrument led to new horizons and different harmonic settings that seem to emphasize the spaciousness and fluidity in my music.” 

Add to that some joyful reunions with old friends on pedal steel, violin/viola, electric guitar, bass and drums/percussion, and harmony vocals and the result is a natural, open and spontaneous sounding production that marks a sense of renewal within the singer-songwriter’s oeuvre.

As said above, music never comes out of nowhere and is always influenced and inspired by those who came before, but lyrics are something else and Ad Vanderveen very much has his own story to tell. It’s a story of a lifelong search that has a sense of home running through it. One can suspect that over the years he has been closing in on something, although it’s not spelled out literally what that is. It’s a quest of the spirit that holds a promise of finding and coming home, a feeling that many – consciously or subconsciously – may relate to.

The poetry always central to Vanderveen’s work often hints at a bigger picture, expressed through every day events and language, with subjects relevant in any grown-up’s life like; love on individual and universal levels, longing, loss, transience, and acceptance.

With: Ad Vanderveen: vocal, guitars, mandola, harmonica, footstomp / Kersten de Ligny: harmony vocal / Jan Erik Hoeve: pedal steel / Neil James Morrison: violin, viola / Pete Fisher: bass, percussion / Michael Kay: drums, percussion / Simon Moore: keyboards / Philip Kroonenberg: guest vocal on 3 

Track list:

1 Do What You Love 2 Following The Wind 3 Over Time 4 Candle To You 5 Last Venture 6 All The Way Thing 7 Window In The Rain 8 Miss That World 9 Exit Inside 10 Air Guitar 

Interview For Folk’s Sake

Album Releases, Interviews, Reviews, Uncategorized

Though born in Holland, Ad Vanderveen has Canadian parentage. It shows through in his musical influences—one can trace touches of Neil Young or Jackson Browne in the strum of Vanderveen’s guitar, or in his earnest croon. He’s got a rich career to show for his chops, too, having been working at it as a solo artist since the early 90s. He’s shared the stage with a swath of noteworthy performers, to boot, from Eliza Gilkyson, to the late, great David Olney, and Van Morrison.

Vanderveen’s latest, Release, sees the Dutch singer-songwriter navigating pristine, organic production, finding beauty in sparse acoustic settings. As his musical stylings have changed, so has he—with his goals, his outlook, and who he is as a person. For Folk’s Sake is privileged to have him join us as the latest in our ongoing ‘FFS 5’ series.

Please tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and how did you get started in music? Any defining moments along the path to present day?

I’m from the Amsterdam area in The Netherlands and was drawn into music in the 60s. As for so many, the sounds and impact of rock’n’roll were life-changing to me. British bands at first, later crossing over to American music, discovering singer-songwriter stuff, and then digging back into the roots where I feel my music belongs. I’ve often wondered about geography and musical roots, the music that comes out of me has more of a connection to the Canadian side of my family. Also a lot of my favorites are from there.

I’ve been playing in many bands before finding my own voice as a singer-songwriter in the early 90s. Songs are what’s always driven me. Writing and playing the guitar are a necessity and seem to go on throughout my life. It made me have to become a singer too, although reluctant at first. I wouldn’t play a center stage role if the songs weren’t commanding it.

As an artist, how do you define success?

That has been a changing process…success in any case is a very fleeting and relative thing that you can’t really measure. Unless you want to judge by just numbers – but even then, I’ve witnessed people feel like losers because they sold ‘only’ 7 million cd copies.

I have an old friend I hadn’t seen for 40 years who was in the record business, stoking the star making machinery, in Joni Mitchell’s words. He asked me: how has it been, a life in music? I answered: well, not a success story exactly but…what do you mean, he interrupted, you did it, you still do it, that’s what I call success! That really stuck with me.

A lot of what people call success is actually a heavy burden. I’ve had a peek into Van Morrison’s life once when he had invited me to open a show for him. I can’t say I envied him, it felt like his own machinery just weighed him down, having so much to live up to and to control. Compared to that I travel light, no one to answer to, free to do just what I want. Of course that can be a lonely path too, there’s always a tradeoff.

What do you find your greatest struggle to be when it comes to the music business?

Business? I don’t see it as a business, I just concentrate on the music side of things. I know there’s people hovering around it that can make it go places but it’s such a fickle world that I can’t keep my attention in it. The hardest thing is when you have expectations of people actually living up to their words and promises, that can be very disappointing and this scene is a good therapy to let go of that. And I mean that as a good thing actually, from a human point of view. It’s a good lesson to learn to create, work and give, without expectations or calculation of getting something in return. That’s where you find the true motive and purity.

What do you think is the most realistic goal you can achieve as an artist and as a band? What do you hope to achieve?

That ties in with the success question a bit – I hope to be able to continue doing what I do and sharing it with people, regardless of their numbers. As long as I can make a modest living , I’m happy.

Outside of music, what do you like to do that you feel contributes to the creativity that you tap into for your music?

Meditation, walking, reading, sauna, keeping myself and my instruments in good condition.

By: Jonathan Frahm