Dutch singer/songwriter and guitarist Ad Vanderveen first rose to prominence in 1990 with his band Personnel. This country/rock band released two albums on Polydor and enjoyed great success throughout the continent of Europe. Personnel Only was recorded in Switzerland and included the hit single Everybody Knows. Its follow-up Continuing Stories was recorded in Nashville with an all star cast including Al Kooper, Flaco immense, Al Perkins and Leland Sklar. This CD, produced by Bill Halverson (CSN&Y, Eric Clapton), was hailed by the press as one of the most significant records ever to come out of Holland.

In spite of all this appreciation, Vanderveen put Personnel on hold in order to concentrate on the more intimate singer/songwriter material he had been working on for some time already. The first result was Travel Light (1993), a mini CD that contained songs Vanderveen had written and performed for "Rock City", a Dutch national radio program. Then followed Sooner or Later (1994), his critically acclaimed first fully fledged studio album, recorded at the renowned Wisseloord Studios and thought by many to be the finest album to come out of Holland in 1994. 

1995 saw the release of Brand New Everything, a collection of very personal songs in an intimate folk setting, including a duet with Nashville singer/songwriter David Olney, who says of Vanderveen: "Ad sings simple songs about love, longing, wandering and coming home. We tend to associate depth with complexity, when, in fact, it is only the simple things that have real depth. You only have to hear Ad sing a song one time to tap into its meaning. And the feeling will grow stronger and deeper the more you listen."

Wonders of the World, released in the fall of 1997, bans among Vanderveen's best work ever according to fans and critics. It covers just about the full range of his music: building from minimal acoustic folk songs to full-blown electric improvisation (ending in a 14-minute live version of Neil Young's Cortez the Killer). In 1998 Vanderveen formed The O'Neils, a bunch of old friends who have shared a passion for Neil Young's music since schooldays. As a counterweight to all the acoustic material, this CD rocks, howls and roars and screaming guitars are the setting for intense songs. Reviewers claimed "The O'Neils" could have been "the best Neil Young record since "Ragged Glory"".

Here Now, released by Hunter/Universal Records in the spring of 2000, was, as the subtitle Songs From The Basement suggests, recorded at Ad's home. "When the new songs were ripe and ready to be picked, I decided that instead of working in the studio, I wanted to record in the same intimate atmosphere they were written in", says the singer/songwriter. The result is a very warm and colorful album on which Vanderveen seems to delve deeper into his muse than ever before, both as a singer and instrumentalist. Here Now offers a wide variety of styles.

A special guest appearance by Iain Matthews's on Lasting Kind of Peace and Darkness Under The Sun has grown into a friendship between the two singer/songwriters and lately they've been playing shows together more and more. Vanderveen tours extensively in small clubs and theaters, with or without accompanying musicians, to create his 'basement' vibe. Songs with guitar and harp are mixed with piano, 12-string and dobro as the evening draws the listener to the very heart of the songs the way they were born: pure and honest. Speaking of pure and honest, One On One is the title of AV's live album, a solo performance captured in Amen, the Netherlands on February 6, 2000. It features a selection of 15 songs spanning from 'Personnel days' to his most recent work, as well as 2 previously unreleased songs. Accompanying himself on guitar, dobro, piano and harmonica, Vanderveen goes right to the core, the very reason the songs are there....

Alongside his steady output as a solo artist, AV has worked on the production of a singer/songwriter collective called More Than A Song since January 2000. This project, featuring Eliza Gilkyson, Iain Matthews and Vanderveen is a musical adventure that started with living room recordings of the three at Iain's house near Austin, Texas and was completed in a rented cabin in the woods near Norg, the Netherlands. With AV in the engineer/producer seat and without the help of any other musicians, 15 songs were captured in a live, intimate and very creative atmosphere. All three writers were challenged to shape and embellish each other's songs into a result beyond their expectations. The resulting record was released in February 2003 in the United States on UTR Records. Ad's new solo record, The Moment That Matters, was released at the same time to coincide with his featured performance at the Folk Alliance conference in Nashville. A future U.S. tour is planned as well.

For more info see www.advanderveen.com.