Dutch Tilders (29 August 194123 April 2011), born Mattheus Frederikus Wilhelmus Tilders, anglicised as Matthew Tilders, was a Netherlands-born Australian blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He performed and released material as a solo artist and also issued a blues-rock album with Kevin Borich, The Blues Had a Baby and They Called It Rock'n'Roll (November 1980). He has toured with John Mayall (1974), Brownie McGhee (1976, 1980s), and Taj Mahal (1986, 1990s). Tilders was diagnosed with oesophageal and liver cancer in May 2010 and died on 23 April 2011, aged 69. In May 2012 Australian Guitar magazine listed him in the top 40 on their Definitive Australian Guitarists of All Time.
Biography
Dutch Tilders was born on 29 August 1941 as Mattheus Frederikus Wilhelmus Tilders (anglicised as Matthew Frederick William Tilders) in Nijmegen, Netherlands. His father was Frederikus Theodorus Tilders (born 25 July 1913) and his mother was Cathiarina Maria (née Luermans, born 7 November 1909), his younger siblings are Wilhelmus (born 2 October 1942); Johanna (born 30 May 1944); Frederikus (born 17 December 1945); Johannes (born 30 December 1947); and Bartholomeus (born 27 October 1951). From the age of ten, Tilders was a member of the local church choir. After his voice broke he sang baritone and falsetto and joined his secondary school's choir.
The Tilders family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1955 aboard the SS Fairsea. Frederikus worked as a furniture upholsterer. The family spent about a year at the Brooklyn Migrant Hostel, where Tilders worked at a local timber yard, before they moved to Frankston. As a child Tilders had sung choral music, but later he moved towards blues music, his first paying gig was on harmonica at the Collingwood Town Hall at the age of 15, at a concert also featuring Johnny O'Keefe.
In 1959, Tilders bought his first guitar, to be able to accompany himself when playing in cafes around Melbourne. His early influences were Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi John Hurt and Blind Blake. In 1961 he recorded a 10" album at a friend's home studio. The following year he formed a duo with Shane Duckham on harmonica and they worked in the Sydney folk and blues circuit. During the mid-to-late 1960s Tilders performed less frequently.
In September 1970, Tilders appeared on TV talent show New Faces and was signed by one of the judges, Ron Tudor, to his Bootleg Records label. Tilders released his self-titled debut album in 1972 with Brian Cadd producing and backing provided by members of Chain. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described the album, which "proved the man's mastery of the blues form. One side featured Tilders playing down-home Mississippi delta acoustic blues, the flip Chicago electric blues".
Tilders performed at the Sunbury Pop Festivals in both January 1973 and the following year. Later in 1974 he toured the United Kingdom supporting John Mayall; he also issued a split album with fellow blues-folk artist Margret RoadKnight, Australian Jazz of the 70s Vol. 5 The Blues Singers. The Canberra Timess Michael Foster described Tilders' contributions "[he] takes side one with a selection of eight blues, all but one his own work. Like Miss Roadknight he sings the basic, 12-bar blues and like her he gets well into the feeling and expression which gave birth to the form and feeling of the blues".
In the next year he used a backing band of Phil Colson on guitar (The Foreday Riders); Keith Dubber on trumpet and flugel horn; Rick Lock on drums (The Foreday Riders); John Power on bass guitar (Company Caine) and Don Reid on saxophone. They recorded his following album, Break. Tony Catterall for The Canberra Times noted his style "ranges from the intimate blues-in-a-smoke-filled-café-late-at-night feeling of 'Diddie Wa Diddie' and 'Just a Dream' ... to the sheer "happy picking" of his own '21st Birthday Rag'". "I'm a Mean Mistreater" was issued as a single from the album.
In 1976, Tilders supported tours by US blues duo, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and then by B.B. King. At their first gig King heard Tilders from backstage but had not seen him, King assumed that he was black and expressed surprise when the two were introduced. For Tilders' next album, Working Man, he used a backing band of Jim Conway on harmonica (The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band); Ray Arnott on drums, John Dubois on bass guitar, and Kerryn Tolhurst on mandolin and dobro (all from The Dingoes); and Jeff King on dobro (The Foreday Riders).