Feel-good Blues!

HANS THEESSINK WISHING WELL
Feel-good Blues!
Hans Theessink (pronounced Tay-sink) loves American
roots music. It is a love which has lasted a long time and
which grows ever deeper. Hans brings this blues- and roots
sensitivity to his present album WISHING WELL that follows
his internationally-acclaimed 2012 duet album Delta Time
with Terry Evans.
With more than 7,000 concerts, around two dozen albums and
over 40 years „on the road“, Hans Theessink has long been an
institution in American roots music. He refers to himself as a „travelling troubadour“ and on his travels has discovered and refined
many musical diamonds in his own unique way. In WISHING WELL
he digs deep into the treasure chest of American homespun
music, and comes up with a mixture of folk, blues and americana:
some wonderful new interpretations of traditional songs, together
with strong original compositions and personal favorites by Bob
Dylan, Brownie McGhee and Townes van Zandt.
Theessink says it feels right to be associated with these musical traditions and forms that have been
sung and passed on by people for generations: „I love the wealth of this ‚down home‘,
unsophisticated music. It comes from the
heart and transcends passing fads and
fashions“.
The t radi t ional songs w hich Hans
Theessink has polished and performed on
Wishing Well is akin to fi nding musical diamonds. They are songs which address
basic human experiences. An example is
the rootless traveller in the song „Wayfaring
Stranger“, a song which is both topical and
older than the Blues. Hans learned this one from Johnny Cash,
when he and „The Man In Black“ were sharing a dressing-room during a gig in Vienna in 1992.
Another one is „Make Me Down A Pallet On The Floor“, which
goes back to the folklore of the 19th century American South.
Apart from a wonderful version by Mississippi John Hurt there
have been numerous cover versions over the years of this classic
about love and mercy. „Delia“, is well-known from Blind Willie
McTell. A song about treachery and murder which recalls the darkness of an older and more mysterious America. A similar song is
Dylan’s „Ballad Of Hollis Brown“, a grim ballad about a farmer
mired in poverty and desperation who spends his last savings to
buy the bullets to kill his family and himself. „Alberta“ is about
those mythic women immortalised in the songs of Big Bill Broonzy,
Leadbelly and Derroll Adams. Theessink has long felt indebted to
these musical legends, as well as to Brownie McGhee, the fi rst
bluesman that he saw perform live in the Netherlands in the mid
sixties. That concert was an eye-opener and great source of inspiration for an aspiring young guitar player. Brownie‘s song „Living
With The Blues“ gets the one voice-one guitar treatment here. On
WISHING WELL Hans has also included Townes Van Zandt‘s
„Snowin’ On Raton“, a song that Hans and Townes played together
live on stage a few weeks before Townes‘ untimely death on
January 1st 1997.
The delicacy and careful interpretation of the songs is one of
the stunning features of WISHING WELL. Theessink performs the
American classics a bit more relaxed and with more introspection
than many of the original versions. He is a master when it comes
to making songs his own and transforms these familiar classics
into typical Theessink numbers. His sensitive approach may be a
new experience, even for longtime fans but they are likely to marvel at the rare intimacy of this recording.
Hans Theessink has primarily refrained from using other musicians on this album. Now and then David Pearlman contributes on
pedal-steel guitar, however, for the most part Hans accompanies
himself on his own string instruments. He unfurls his musical
gems using 6- and 12-string-guitars, resonator dobros, banjos,
mandolins (including a 1924 mandola and a
1914 mandocello), terz guitar, mando guitar
and harmonica. With his warm, soothing
baritone voice and exquisite fretwork, Hans
creates a laidback hypnotic groove and
draws his audience into a rare and intimate
listening experience. He knows how to
employ the right sonic tools to create a
sense of relaxation, giving the listener a
boost to the soul and allowing a sense of
well-being to take hold. Theessink Blues is
„Feel-good Blues“ and his music is hard
proof of the old saying „Blues Is A Healer“.
The healing power of laid-back Theessink grooves on „Wishing
Well“ does of course not come solely from American musical classics, but also from his own original compositions such as „Didn’t
We Try“ or „Early This Morning Blues“ which deal with the eternal
topic of lost love, or on the title track „Wishing Well“, about a
friendship gone sour. In „Hellbound“ he touches on the metaphorical; an epic train journey to the place of doom indicated in the title.
On the Indian-tinged song „Kathmandu“, written in the capital of
Nepal, Hans sings „Same Old Raga Again“ and hints to the „Same
Old Blues“ of the Mississippi Delta – after all it‘s all the same raga.
Indeed, Hans Theessink has been around the world and back
again. From Enschede in the Netherlands to Vienna, where he has
chosen to live, to the Mississippi Delta, Nashville and Nepal.
Plainly, he has not only been around; he has arrived. Hans is a
master of soft sounds during loud times and his music breathes
an inner peace.
You‘re invited to accompany him on his musical journey.
WISHING WELL comes highly recommended – Sit back and enjoy.
Management: milica, [email protected]
Besuchen Sie
www.theessink.com für mehr Info und Tourdates
JOE REMICK