Dutch americana is alive and well with the help of the Song and Dance Band.
The Dutch music scene has always been heavily influenced by the music of the UK and America and has produced artists who have achieved international success as well as local popularity. Eric Devries has been part of the Dutch music community since the ‘80s playing in various bands and styles. Currently, he is five albums into a solo career that finds him playing acoustic-based music that fits perfectly within the americana genre. This is not so surprising when you realise that when Iain Matthews decided to reform Matthews Southern Comfort after 40 years in the Netherlands with Dutch musicians, Eric Devries was asked to join the band on acoustic guitar and vocals. Americana UK’s Martin Johnson caught up with Eric Devries at home with his cats to discuss his fifth album “Traveler’s Heart” and the importance of his band, the Song and Dance band, to his overall sound. Eric Devries explains that the band are all professional musicians in their own right and make their own individual contributions to his sound, which is very evident on “Traveler’s Heart” which was recorded mainly live. He explains the background to the latest Matthews Southern Comfort album, “The Woodstock Album”, and the fun he had when Iain Matthews added his vocals to “Traveler’s Heart”. On a more serious note, he bemoans the fact that Brexit has made it very difficult for European musicians to tour the UK and that he believes musicians should be able to cross borders because music is one of the few things with the power to bring people together.
How are you?
I’m great. The cat wants to join the interview because he is very jealous if I’m on the phone or talking to somebody. He’s a very special cat, he thinks he is a dog.
We last spoke about the release of “Song and Dance Man” in 2022 and you now have a new record “Traveler’s Heart”. What sort of momentum did you get with “Song and Dance Man”?
It’s been great, really. As soon as the pandemic lockdowns were lifted we were playing live as much as we could, and it’s been great playing with a great bunch of musicians. The response of the audiences everywhere was just fantastic, and so I just had to write another album to keep things going because I was enjoying myself so much. That’s why we are here now.
I’ve noticed you’ve renamed your band the Song and Dance Band.
Yes, I thought I would give them some credit because they’ve stuck with me all this time, and it’s a nice pun on the “Song and Dance Man” album.
You recorded “Traveler’s Heart” live with your band. What was that like?
I had this bunch of songs I wanted to do, and we had one rehearsal where we went through it all, and then we just hit the button and started playing. Most of what you hear was done in one take, including the lead vocals, and then we just had to choose the best take from what we did. I think we had two days recording with the band, and then we had a day with Faye Lovsky, a wonderful singer from Amsterdam, who brought all her ideas for little harmonies here and there. We also had a day with Iain Matthews, and then we had to do the mixing. So basically you count to four and hope we can all start and stop at the same time.
How fluid were the arrangements when you were recording?
These guys are just amazing, and they just seem to instinctively know what to play, and technically they are brilliant players. I don’t tell them what to do, though sometimes I may tell them not to do a certain thing. We don’t talk a lot about the arrangements, and in that sense, it is a team effort and a band record.
It’s also largely acoustic, as well.
It’s a follow-up to “Song and Dance Man” which also had an acoustic sound, and playing with Matthews Southern Comfort we also did a similar thing, though in MSC BJ Bartman mostly plays electric guitar. When you have Yanus Koolen, who produced the album, and he is magnificent on banjo and mandolin, and even the accordion, I didn’t even know he could do that, we just kept it as acoustic as possible. When a song needed it, he just picked up an electric guitar.
How did the traveling theme come about?
When I was younger I did some traveling, I spent a year in France and a year in Israel when I was 22 or 23 after I hadn’t become world famous by the time I was 21 I thought I had to go and try and find myself somewhere in the hills of the Pyrenees. So I did some traveling, and I’m done some touring, of course, and I’ve toured the States a couple of times. After those songs were recorded, it suddenly occurred to me that they were mostly about traveling or journeying through life. I had this song ‘Travelers Heart’, which is a remake of a really old song that I’d never recorded, and it was such a great title I thought it would make a great title for the album as well because of the journeying, traveling and stuff.
‘Shadow of a Man’ was the lead single and it is also the lead track on the album, why?
It started when I was in my first band and I suddenly got into a fight with my best mate, the drummer at the time, because he stepped into an argument I was having with the bass player who was my girlfriend 
at the time. We were young, 17 or 18 at the time and a bit more hot-headed, and I remember thinking this is not me, I’m nearly having a fistfight with my best friend, what’s happening? I couldn’t seem to step out of the situation and take a step back, and I remember that moment and I think ‘Shadow of a Man’ is directly related to that incident. I then thought it is also more universal, relating to people in relationships saying the wrong things out of anger or whatever, and doing things where you can’t recognise yourself in the situation anymore. Looking in the mirror and thinking who is that guy? Bob Dylan sang about it on ‘I Threw It All Away’ and it is the same kind of thing.
You mentioned Iain, what was it like having him as a guest vocalist rather than as the boss?
Yeah, he was asking me whether he was doing OK. It was really good fun, and obviously, I’m honoured to have him because he’s such an example, and he’s always been searching for the next best song he’s going to write. He has a new album out “How Much Is Enough”. Iain and I get on really well and I think it’s fun for him as well with me speaking English as I do and I can understand a little bit more than the average Dutchman, so we had some really great fun.
You recorded “The Woodstock Album” with Matthews Southern Comfort. What was that like?
We were thinking about what we should do after the lockdowns and all that stuff, and our “The New Mine” album had just gone into oblivion because we couldn’t promote it on the road. We wondered whether we should make another album of original music, and if we did who was going to come and listen. So, we came up with the Woodstock idea because that song and the festival have been following Iain his whole life and career, and we thought we would do songs that were played at the festival in our own style. That was so much fun, arranging songs like the Creedence song ‘Bad Moon Rising’ with completely different chords and in a minor key. It was like being in a playground recording the album.
What were the discussions in the studio like around the recording of ‘Purple Haze’?
BJ Baartmans didn’t want to do a guitar solo because he didn’t want to compete with Jimi, so we turned it into a song with a keyboard solo. There are some things that you just have to do, obviously, from the songs that were played there and that is certainly one of them.
Are there any future plans for Matthews Southern Comfort?
I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the boss. I’ve got a year’s worth of gigs lined up and after that, we might try and do some shows in the theatres here in The Netherlands with “Traveler’s Heart” and the Song and Dance Band. I will try and keep busy like that, and sure, if Iain has any plans to do something together we’ll see what comes of it.
Any plans to get to the UK as a solo artist, or is that just too difficult at the moment?
It is a lot more difficult than it used to be since Brexit, and I regret that very much because I would love to come, but these guys I play with are professionals and I’m not sure the fees are reasonable enough to make it worth their while. We will have to see what happens, I don’t know, a few years back I would have said yes.
What’s the music business like over there post-pandemic?
There are a lot of smaller venues that have gone. I was hosting a series of singer-songwriter concerts in a very small venue in the city of Nijmegen, and the place almost went bankrupt with some amazing debts but the owner managed to sell it just before that happened. A lot of places have disappeared, and it also appears that some of the bigger names have trickled down to some of the smaller venues, so there are fewer venues for musicians to play. I can’t really complain myself because the ”Song and Dance Man” album did really well, and I was able to play in more places than I had played before. So, for me personally, it’s been good so far.
At AUK, we like to share music with our readers, so can you share which artists, albums, or tracks are currently top three on your personal playlist?
You’ve got me there, I don’t listen to music, you are confusing me with a music lover. My CDs and what have you are still in their packing cases, and I haven’t set my deck up yet. Iain gave me a Blaze Foley album, and that’s in my car. I’ve also been playing “Traveler’s Heart” a lot in the car.
That’s a good sign.
It is a good sign, I do like listening to it myself. As soon as we start touring it I won’t need to listen to it I will just perform it.
Finally, do you want to say anything to our UK readers?
Even though it is more difficult to play the UK I’m still thinking of ways to make it happen, and I’ll approach a few people to see if they can help us get there. Hopefully, the musicians I play with will be able to free their agendas and come too. It is still a thing I’d like to do.
You will have to see if Iain can get a Matthews Southern Comfort tour of the UK together.
That’s the same problem, Iain can get in but we can’t. I’m hoping things will change in the future, music should be able to cross borders and break down borders and bring people closer together rather than keeping them apart.
