The Watchman

THE WATCHMAN is the artist name of Dutch singer songwriter Ad van Meurs. He started of as piano player in the Dutch folkrock group DEIRDRE. When this band split up he picked up the electric guitar and after some experimenting with pubrock music (Bleistift, The Skillards) he started the New Wave band WORLD ACCORDING TO, together with life and musical partner, singer producer Ankie Keultjes van Meurs on synths and vocals and bass player Frank van de Nieuwenhof. The band sounded a lot like 'Dance avant la lettre' . At the end of the eighties he went back to the roots, picked up the acoustic guitar and started a serious career as singer songwriter under the name THE WATCHMAN. Ad van Meurs and his partner were also part of the successful Arabicana group NO BLUES and they formed a folk trio: THE FOLKSURVIVAL CLUB with 'The nightingale of Antwerp', Marjan Cornille. In total there are 24 albums, most of them produced by Ankie Keultjes van Meurs.
Check out the No Blues Playlist and the playlist The Watchman aka Ad van Meurs, both on Spotify.
Ad van Meurs also played an important role in promoting singer songwriter music in The Netherlands where until then most music was played by whole bands and the man with the guitar was quite an unknown phenomenon. He started booking acoustic concerts from 1991 and was an inspiration for many young and coming singer songwriters. Ad van Meurs passed away in 2017.
All publishing rights are now handled by his legal heirs.