The first time I met Mathijs Leeuwis, he was as drunk as David Hasselhoff on an average Tuesday. Hours before, Leeuwis won the public’s prize at ‘De Grote Prijs van Nederland’, the biggest Dutch band competition. The 1.000 euros he won, might well have been spent on booze the same day, we’ll never know. Over the years Leeuwis has continued to write beautiful songs and I’ve continued to listen to them.

Last November I ran into him in Nijmegen where he shared the bill with Doghouse Roses. He played a Dutch version of Townes van Zandt’s ‘Waiting Around To Die’ that blew me away. This year, I’ve asked him to play the Onder Invloed night at 013 in April and last week we recorded this session at Jeroen Kant’s house. Kant also recorded a session which will be published soon.

For now, enjoy these songs with Dutch lyrics. Davie Lawson mentioned last month: ‘It doesn’t matter Leeuwis’ lyrics are in Dutch, you can tell he means it’. (Or something similar.) I can only agree.

Wachten Op ‘t Eind (Townes van Zandt)

Doden Met Verlof (Maarten van Roozendaal)

Saam (JW Roy)

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All photos by Matthijs van der Ven.

Disclaimer: No noses were broken during the recording of this session.