Excalibur Rec. 
Anneke Konings : Feelings & Fairytales (NL,1971-1975,comp.2010)****°
I am very happy that afterHans Von Seydlitz insisted upon this release, this compilation of Anneke Konings finally saw the light of day, and it surprises with its high quality. Each songs seem to be a winner.
After a television contest Anneke Konings was able to record her first single, “De heilige auto”, a surreal story on Christianity, human behaviour and hypocrisy, from a charming naïve and beautifully sensitive vision, recalling early flower power hippies, and possibly influenced by Elly & Rikkert. Under the name of Andeane she won the famous songfestival in Knokke, Belgium with a song by Don Rosenbaum, (who had a certain strong follow up on his own), which she was able to record, and which nearly made the top 40. Further she recorded one LP with English lyrics, “Feelings” in 1973 and one Dutch LP, “Tussen zon en maan” in 1975, her final LP, both included (not sure how much of it was taken), before she cooperated with Caboose and later with rock band Dandylion (who were called Ready Kilowatt before they met Anneke in 1980, and who released with her an LP in 1981 and three singles), before stopping for a while only to return in 2002 with a CD dedicated to her daughter lost in a traffic accident.
In this early, creative period Anneke Konings on her English album sings a bit in the British tradition of Mary Hopkins and the likes with conscious lyrics of the young girl facing reality, and with great and convincing interpretations of a few songs like Cohen’s “You know who I am” and a few lesser known songs, but also a Dutch translation of Stehen Stills, “Maan”. It is just her with guitar and with occasional psych/pop/rock arrangements or lush orchestrations, fitting greatly with its psych-pop flavour of the time’s perspective. She shows sensitivity in her voice but is capable when needed to sing with a convincing power as well in the few rockier moments. Her Dutch album is no less convincing. Here she proves to stand firm between the likes of Boudewijn De Groot, despite a certain naivity involved, this is at the same time a charming and strong quality of its own, which can hardly be repeated in our times. A strong memorable moment for me is the beautiful song “Desillusie”, which melodically sounds close to the Cat Stevens songs, “Sad Lisa”. Highly recommended.
