Ad Vanderveen – Camino Wayside
Ad Vanderveen – Camino Wayside
Format: CD
Label: Songsense
Release: 2025
Release date: January 31, 2025
Spain and Greece were the scenes for laying the groundwork of a surprise album in summer 2024, when songwriter-singer Ad Vanderveen took a guitar, a field recorder and some microphones to accompany him on his musical adventures
Intending to make some sonic souvenirs and writing demos, the songs flowed one into another and took place and shape just playing for fun in inspiring environments, giving these recordings something that wouldn’t happen in a studio.
As Ad tells it:
“We were asked to play in San Sebastiàn, Spain in spring ’24 and struck up a friendship with the promoters there, who then invited us to stay at their house in the summer. It was a place with one side overlooking the ocean and the other the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrim route. I had always been curious about the Camino and every day I would sit and play watching the pilgrims walk by, backpacks and all, headed for their destination.
I was thinking about when you have a destination the search is over and the work begins, putting in the miles. Not knowing where you’re going is the hardest part of a spiritual journey. And although I don’t have that many miles to walk myself I could relate to them, only it’s a camino within that I’m on.
I would talk to some pilgrims and walk with them a while and it transpired into a song called ‘Old Camino Road’.
I made a recording of it in a room with nice acoustics and a scenic view. Listening back I thought it had a special feeling and sound and I decided that I should record my other new songs in there as well.
When I was finished by the end of our stay I felt that there was something special about the unity and atmosphere of this group of songs. We took it to the studio and did some dubs like harmony vocals, an old Spanish guitar, bass, percussion, electric guitar, cello, piano, and banjo.
Two more songs were added to the selection, the serene ‘Music Of The Spheres’ , written on Samos island in Greece earlier in the summer – and a gritty electric version of the Neil Young song ‘Thrasher’ . This gives the record an arc ranging from intimate acoustic to rocky electric, a contrast that’s always been with me.
The result is that I find myself with an album that happened sooner than I had time to think. The previous one ‘ Rise In Love’ was much more elaborate and is still making the rounds, but this one overtook it by surprise.
Well, the Muse won’t wait and when it comes knocking I have to answer, that’s how I’ve always lived my life and I’m very happy to keep following that.”
Website: https://advanderveen.com/