Singer, guitarist, harmonica player and songwriter Matthew
"Dutch" Tilders (b.1939) has been one of Australia's
foremost blues and roots performers since the 1960s. He is
one of the many prominent Australian musicians who came to
this country during the era of post-WWII migration; as his
nickname implies, Dutch was born in the Netherlands in 1941,
and came to Australia with his parents, four brothers and a
sister in 1955.
At the age of ten, he joined a church choir, but by the time
he was twelve, his alto voice had broken and become a
baritone. When he was thirteen, he joined a boys choir at a
secondary school by tricking the choir master into believing
he was an alto when in fact he was singing falsetto.
Dutch's first year in Australia was spent in the Brooklyn
Migrant Hostel in Victoria, and it was here that he gained
his first experience as a performer in an amateur Black and
White Minstrel Show. His first paid gig, aged only fifteen,
was at the Collingwood Town Hall, where he played the
harmonica.
On the same bill were IMT veteran Joff Ellen and Johnny
O'Keefe. Dutch was paid £2/7s/6d, which at the time was
equivalent to half his weeks wages at Broons timberyard in
Brooklyn. It only cost two pounds and sixpence for the taxi
home. He bought his first guitar in 1959 and by 1960 he was
playing on Melbourne's coffee lounge folk scene. According
to Noel McGrath, Dutch's first recording was made in 1961
when he cut a 10" album of songs at a friend's home studio.
Making up most of his songs as he went along, he quickly
settled on blues as the style that best suited his
expression and, with no one to teach him, he developed his
own distinctive style. In 1962 he teamed up with Shane
Duckham and they became a popular fixture on the Sydney folk
circuit, but in the late Sixties he performed only
occasionally. However in September 1970 Dutch decided to try
his luck on the popular TV talent quest New Faces, and this
light-hearted decision was to change the course of his life:
"I never decided to become a professional musician. It all
just developed from playing parties and the occasional
coffee lounges. I went on a TV talent quest (Channel 9's New
Faces) just for a laugh. Won the heat and got a record
contract with Ron Tudor. Things got out of hand and I had to
give up my day job."
Tudor (owner of Fable Records) was so impressed with Dutch
that he subsequently signed him to his new Bootleg
subsidiary. With producer Brian Cadd at the controls, Dutch
recorded his self-titled debut album in late 1972 and it was
released in early 1973. His musical collaborators included
Cadd, Phil Manning, Barry Sullivan and Barry Harvey (Chain),
Laurie Pryor (The Twilights) and Broderick Smith (The
Dingoes). On Side 1 he performed Delta-style acoustic blues,
while Side 2 featured Dutch (backed by members of Chain)
performing Chicago-style electric blues.
Over the next few years Dutch became a fixture on Australian
live scene and performed at the Sunbury Festival in both
1973 and 1974. In 1974 Dutch toured as the support for John
Mayall and he shared an LP release with Margret RoadKnight,
Australian Jazz of the 70s, Vol. 5: The Blues Singers,
released on the Jazznote label; (and re-released in 1980 on
Larrikin under the title Bluesmakers).
Dutch's second LP, Break, was recorded live to 2-track and
released on the Eureka label in 1975. His backing group
featured Foreday Riders which included Phil Colson (guitar)
and Rick Lock (drums) plus Don Reid (sax), Keith Dubber
(trumpet, flugelhorn) and John Power (bass, ex-Co. Caine and
later of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons).
The album mixed blues standards with several originals by
Dutch, and a single, "I'm a Mean Mistreater / "21st Birthday
Rag", was also issued. In 1976. Hhaving only heard Dutch's
recordings, B.B. King assumed that he was black. Dutch and
Brownie McGee became good friends simply because Browney
believed that the Dutchman was a genuine bluesman,
regardless of his racial origins.
Dutch's third LP, Working Man (Eureka, 1977) featured
another all-star backing group -- blues harp maestro Jim
Conway (Captain Matchbox), Kerryn Tolhurst and John Bois
(Country Radio, Dingoes), Ray Arnott (Spectrum), and Jeff
King (Foreday Riders).
During the late seventies, Dutch fronted renowned blues and
boogie bands including The Elks, the Cyril B. Bunter Band
and Mickey Finn. In 1979 Dutch made Australian recording
history with his next LP, which was recorded using the
direct-to-disc process. It featured Jim Conway, saxophonist
Bob Bertles (The Meteors) and bassist Peter Howell.
In 1980 he formed the 'R&B Six', a band that included
Charley Elul (drums), Peter Frazer (sax), Suzanne Petersen
(flute and vocals), Mick Eliot (guitar) and Dave Murray
(bass and vocals). This band toured Australia extensively.
Dutch also worked solo and toured as support for visiting
greats like John Mayall, Taj Mahal, Brownie McGhee and Sonny
Terry. Also in 1980 Dutch cut his second direct-to-disc LP,
The Blues Had A Baby, recorded with The Kevin Borich
Express, plus Bob Bertles; the single "Bad books / "The
Blues Had a Baby" was released in April 1981.
Dutch continued to perform regularly throughout the late
1980s, but regrettably he did not release any new recordings
in this period. In 1980 he formed The Blues Club with Geoff
Achison (guitar), Martin Corcoran and Terry Noone (sax),
Barry Hills (bass), and Winston Galea (drums). They recorded
two albums, The Blues Is My Life (Apr. 1990) and Live
(1993).
Dutch's next band was The Holey Soles; the original line-up
was Anthony Harkin (harmonica), Barry Hills (bass) and Ian
Clarke (drums); the second line-up featured Clarke, Luke
Keogh (harp), and Peter Howell (bass). This was followed by
The Dutch Tilders Band (ca. 1996) with Greg Dodd (guitar),
Barry Hills and Winston Galea.
Dutch has been honoured with many awards, most notably for
his performances with The Blues Club. Dutch was the official
patron of the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society and had
received the Allan Stafford Award for Services to the Blues
He won the Victorian/Tasmanian Blues Music Awards 'Best Song
of the Year' with "Imagination Blues" and its 'Artist of the
Year', he has been inducted into the Australian Blues Music
Awards Hall of Fame, and he has received the CFA (Country
Fire Authority) Recognition Award for Outstanding
Achievement, the Australian Blues Music Heritage Award, the
Australian Blues Music Awards Male Artist of the Year, the
Australian Blues Artist Critics’ Award, the Blues On Air
Australian Blues Performer Award, the Australian Blues
Artist Critics Award, the Blues On Air 'Australian Blues
Performer' Award and the Blues On Air Australian Blues
Recording Award with "The Blues is My Life".
1. That's Alright Mama
2. I'm Gonna Move
3. Crying Won't Make Me Stay
4. Chimney Sweep Blues
5. We We Baby
6. Down And Out
7. Whispering
8. It Hurts Me Too
9. Southbound Train Blues
10. Kansas City Blues
11. The Sun Goes Down
12. Hard To Love A Woman
13. Keys To The Highway
14. Walk Right In