
This is our sixth and final article in this series about European americana and we’ve arrived in the Netherlands, probably the most established americana market in continental Europe.
Looking back over the other articles, there are some patterns that have appeared and it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on them. A common theme running through these articles is that all the artists I spoke to felt that the audiences for americana were the best. Without exception, they talked about an audience that knows about music and was there at a concert for the musical experience, not just a night out drinking with friends. Most agreed that the European americana market would be improved by more high profile artists touring more extensively in Europe, while acknowledging that the audience is niche and this makes attracting bigger names difficult. It also emerged that language plays a big part in the growth of an americana music scene and this, of course, is where the Netherlands scores highly. I’m sure there must be Dutch people who don’t speak English well, or possibly at all, but I’ve never met one. Most Dutch speak excellent English with little trace of an accent and also understand the nuances of the language very well, so it’s a strong market for a music that’s as lyric-driven as americana.
In recent years I’ve written a number of articles and reviews on Iain Matthews, an artist I rate very highly. He moved to Amsterdam in 2000 and the latest incarnation of his band, Matthews’ Southern Comfort, is made up entirely of Dutch musicians, so when it came to researching the Dutch americana scene it made sense to start with a couple of members of the band and I contacted B.J Baartmans and Eric Devries.

B.J Baartmans is a musician, songwriter and producer with a 40-year career in the Dutch music industry and 15 albums under his own name, as well as countless appearances on other recordings across a wide range of genres, so I wanted to know how important the issue of language is on the Dutch scene? “There are Dutch artists that sing americana-related music in their own language. Like myself to begin with, I did 5 singer-songwriter albums in Dutch between 2005 and 2018 and my first band in the 80s and 90s were singing in Dutch. At that time there were a lot of bands that did that in musical styles like ska, reggae and punk and later mostly in hip hop. It became sort of a normal thing in roots music, even a scene about 15 years ago. There are a few names, such as JW Roy, Eric van Dijsseldonk, Ricky Koole, Beatrice van der Poel. But there’s a bigger scene of people singing in their dialect. The Dutch language is not an easy one to sing in a mellow way, it can sound rather harsh. You have to look for good sounding words….The range of these artists is limited due to the language but some do really well and have become quite famous on a national level. The fact that a lot of people in The Netherlands do speak English quite well will certainly have something to do with the appreciation of americana. Although at the same time, many people don’t listen to lyrics that much I think and more fall for a ‘sound’, a feeling, the rhythm in songs”.
Eric Devries will be well known to AUK readers and he was recently the subject of one of Martin Johnson’s excellent interviews. He has five solo albums to his name, since his debut in 2004, along with albums with Matthews’ Southern Comfort and Hidden Agenda Deluxe. His most recent album was 2024’s “Shadow of a Man”, recorded with his Song & Dance Band. He thinks that, while the Dutch grasp of the English language helps appreciation for americana in the Netherlands it remains something of a niche genre, “It’s a niche. And that is mainly because the national radio and television doesn’t play this kind of music anymore. So there’s a larger audience out there, potentially, that is just so hard to reach. I used to host a series of singer-songwriter concerts for more than 10 years and people living next door to the venue say they never knew such a thing was going on in their neighborhood. I booked artists such as Iain Matthews, Eric Taylor, Rod Picott, Michael Weston King, Julian Dawson, Betty Soo, Lynne Hanson and many, many others… It does vary but there are several small venues throughout the Netherlands that especially book American or Canadian ‘americana’ acts. Many solo artists as well. There are two bigger Festivals especially for americana too. But still it’s a niche because it has nothing to do with today’s pop music”.

Etan Huijs, who describes his music as a “timeless cocktail of folk, pop and country” agrees, “the musicians that are more in the niche are mainly ignored by the larger musical outlets. A lot of big mainstream music magazines ignore americana music. But there’s a couple of great magazines, radio stations and websites that give a lot of attention to americana. They’re just not in the mainstream”.

This seems to be a common complaint in most americana markets in continental Europe; the audience is out there, but local media is not helping the promoters or the artists to reach that audience. According to Joop van der Kuip of southern Holland band, The Jaydees, another issue in the Netherlands is that not enough attention is paid to local artists, “There are several venues in the Netherlands for this genre, but they tend to be quite small. That can result in very enjoyable, intimate concerts, though. A few larger venues in the country, with multiple halls, organize small one-day festivals with americana music once a year, such as Tivoli’s Ramblin’ Roots and De Oosterpoort’s Take Root. The problem, however, is that these venues, especially the larger ones, pay very little attention to domestic talent, always looking abroad for their artists, mostly from English-speaking regions around the world. As a Dutch band, it’s therefore very difficult for us to get gigs in the Netherlands, despite receiving numerous enthusiastic reviews”. This is a complaint I’ve come across in some of the other countries I researched. It’s bad enough that local media don’t support the music though, in some cases, this is because of cultural quotas and there’s not much that can be done about that, but when the promoters won’t push local acts it makes it very hard to build an americana music scene in a country. It’s a policy that creates a self-fulfilling narrative; if a promoter feels there’s no market for anything but the biggest americana acts they won’t promote lesser names and, more importantly, local americana artists, but as long as they’re not trying to build a local appreciation of the music they’ll never have a strong audience for the artists they do bring in. You can understand why Dutch musicians like Joop and Etan would find this frustrating.

Singer/songwriter Kristel Snellen agrees that the audience for her folk-oriented take on americana is niche, but she sees some advantages in this, viewing it almost like a cottage industry that may be small but is very supportive. “There is definitely a market for it and we have some festivals like Ramblin’ Roots in Utrecht and Take Root in Groningen that focus mainly on americana. Also, there are quite a few venues throughout the country that book mostly folk/americana artists. My dad used to organise folk concerts in my small home town. People would come from quite far to see some of the artists that he booked. The Netherlands are small, so word gets around, also for americana acts, so people figure out quite easily where to go. And once you do that you keep running into the same people who will tell you about different artists so you find new places and gigs. It’s a fun little niche with friendly organisers and bookers”.
Given that americana music is considered niche in the Netherlands, and that outlets for it are limited, it seems surprising that most of the artists I talked to actively market themselves as americana, though not without some caveats. “We, The Jaydees, do indeed see ourselves as an Americana band. Sometimes we’re described as roots rock, sometimes as alt-country—either way is fine with us. What’s great about the Americana audience is that they enjoy listening attentively. Thankfully, they don’t suffer much from the “Dutch disease”: constantly talking through the band’s performance”.

Currently recording a new album the band, Tigre Blanco, see themselves as an alternative take on americana, Quintijn Lohman from the band says that, “part of our music could be described as americana influenced. In the Netherlands the press describes our music as Tarantino music. That is because of the broad range of styles we put into our music, and in our sound everything blends together. We like to describe it as: sweltering rock songs, where americana, film music, gypsy and soul are forming an alliance with a raw and rocking twist”.
Eric Devries embraces the americana title, “Just singer-songwriter doesn’t fit the bill. What people call singer-songwriter today is not what I think it is. It seems to have developed in a musical style. There are bands who claim to play singer-songwriter music. So I’ll say I’m an americana singer-songwriter. Storyteller also”. While B.J Baartmans sees it as a convenient means of identifying the music he makes, “We (the record label CRS and me) will use that label because it helps in finding the right media to review or promote the albums I make. And makes you more findable in record stores or on streaming services, hopefully. It’s a good category to fall under. Especially since the internet made everything from everywhere accessible to anybody anywhere how do you find your own little spot? The market is crazy big. It’s so easy to get lost in it”.
It’s probably fair to say that, of all the artists I spoke to for this series, it was these musicians in the Netherlands who stick the closest to the americana template, as it’s perceived at the source of the genre, i.e. America. None of the Dutch musicians I interviewed felt that their own culture had much influence on the music they made. Etan Huijs felt that his music was more influenced by American culture, “however: through a European lens. It ís inspired by Dutch nature, though. And the problems we see as a nation”. Kristel Snellen sees her cultural influences a little closer to home, but still not Dutch, “I think my music is probably more influenced by the Irish culture than my own. I grew up with a dad who loved folk music and who organised folk concerts in our town, mostly from the UK and Ireland. I lived in Dublin for 5 years myself and I still listen to some of the artists that my dad introduced me to. I was never that interested in music from Dutch artists, though lately, I get to meet more and more Dutch musicians who are active in the americana scene. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I started to listen to a lot more americana music and a lot more American artists and fell in love with the many different genres within this category”. Tigre Blanco put it more simply, “we come from a working class town and are very much influenced by loud rock and punk bands”!
It’s Eric Devries who puts the whole thing into perspective, pointing out the importance of American culture in Europe in the post-war years. “Well, as our whole society has embraced American culture since the war there has always been that connection. Imagery. Coca-Cola, Levis, Skyscrapers, John Wayne, James Dean. So there’s that. Growing up we had American movies with subtitles. So we listened to American and English accents. On the radio, I think it was a mix of Dutch and ‘American’ music. Rock ‘n Roll. In The Netherlands, we do not have a tradition of singing together. So what is my culture? What is Dutch culture? As even The Beatles looked towards America for their musical influences so did we. As Dylan inspired many worldwide, we were inspired too. I write about things I experience or see around me and I have traveled. I toured in the United States. The places I sing about I have visited and experienced first-hand. And isn’t the human condition the same all over? I have gravitated from pop music to a more folk-based style of making music. Storytelling. It’s a craft. And that’s more universal than this week’s model. The press in the Netherlands have often stated you cannot hear he’s Dutch and meaning that’s a positive qualification, which seems a bit funny to me. Why can’t my music be good enough on its own merit? I do believe americana is much more universal too”.
Listening to Dutch americana artists you can hear how they’ve worked to establish an authentic americana sound, but echoing what Eric Devries says above, they are quick to point out that, while they’re trying to be authentic and, while they don’t feel that Dutch culture has any real effect on the music they make, there is no lack of originality in the music they’re producing. Of all the countries I’ve featured in this series, the Netherlands offers the most diverse interpretations of americana and no single approach seems to dominate. Unlike, for example, Germany, where there’s a strong element of country in a lot of their americana, or Italy, where the alt.country approach is prevalent, Dutch musicians seem to be active across all the subgenres of americana. Perhaps this isn’t surprising when you consider that the Netherlands does have active roots/americana radio stations, such as RCR and Crossroads Country Radio, and a collective of DJs and Reporters produce a regular Euro americana chart from the country. This is certainly how Joop van der Kuip of the Jaydees sees it, “I believe it is important to note that we, along with many European americana bands, are not merely copying or imitating something. Once you dive deeply into the americana genre and become passionate about it, of course, you become ‘infected’ by it and inevitably influenced. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still be original. I believe that once you’re truly at home in the genre, you can write highly original songs and create music in an authentic way”. B.J Baartmans, on the other hand, has a slightly different view, though perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, “There’s a lot of copycats. I can see why in a way, we all want to be like our heroes at some point, but I also think it’s a bit short sighted. I just hope that whatever might set me apart as a European-raised musician and writer may come through and help paint the picture. I know it’s in my background always, but I have to admit my work’s so often been described as sounding “American” that there must be some truth in it. If it wasn’t for my Dutch accent, ha! I’ll carry the flag. And slip in the odd German, French or Mediterranean riff wherever I can”.
On this occasion, I feel Kristel Snelling sums things up best, “I think you can often tell when a European artist is trying to sound American by imitating a certain style. Very few people get away with it. I think it is important to have your own sound, rather than trying to imitate something or someone to fit into a certain genre. When it comes to lyrics, I think it is important to write about what you know. You can be authentic and still fit perfectly in the americana genre. There are definitely some great Dutch americana artists”. And that’s the bottom line and something I hope this series of articles has demonstrated; throughout continental Europe, there are good musicians making americana music that reflects the world they know. They may not sound particularly American, they may not sing about Laurel Canyon or the Mississippi Delta and they may never have ridden the rails or been to a rodeo, but they’ve taken American roots music and found a way to make their own music incorporating those influences. To paraphrase Kristel, there are definitely some great continental European americana artists, and I hope we’ve shown that.
Lovely piece, Rick. I have always felt that there was something approaching a synergy between the UK and Netherlands Americana scenes, not least the lack of mainstream recognition. A pity Brexit brought so many barriers to touring for UK artists and artists from the Netherlands alike.
Thanks Martin. As you say, Brexit has seriously damaged the opportunity for so many musicians to tour outside the UK, for UK artists, and into the UK for artists on the continent. One of the many tragedies of a decision that no-one in authority seemed to properly think through. And still don’t, from what I can see.
Nice article! Let me take the opportunity to mention the website http://www.altcountry.nl that could be considered as the Dutch equivalent of AmericanaUK. Our website, I’m one of the writers, has been covering the broad range of alt-country and americana etc. since 1999. Take a look. Google can translate the reviews in English.
Hi John. Thanks for that, I shall definitely check out the website. Glad you liked the article.