Hard Road Blues

• Track Listing

HANS THEESSINK "HARD ROAD BLUES" 1994 Blue Groove BG-6020, produced by Hans Theessink Even though I like all sorts of roots music, my first love is the acoustic blues as created in the last century. As a boy I remember hearing Big Bill Broonzy for the first time on late night radio. I was totally taken by the emotional richness and the sound of one person singing and playing guitar at the same time. To me that's sort of my musical base. My song 'Big Bill's Guitar' is a keysong for me that I tend perform at all my solo concerts. 'HARD ROAD BLUES' is my first recording of this basic blues form: one man - one guitar. Enjoy, Hans Theessink This sparse guitar-and-voice production is immediately engaging. Theessink plays with a strong groove and excellent tone and sings in a deep, resonant voice. A majority of the songs are originals that show his love of traditional blues forms. This recording deserves a spot in the stores next to the work of the men who inspired it. (James Jensen, Acoustic Guitar, CD hit list, USA, 1997) Theessink is a formidable slide guitarist - check him out! (Kenneth Johnson, The Charlotte Observer, August 97) The arrangements are sparse but very rich in dynamics and highlights his emotional directness and superb phrasing in both his guitar playing and vocal delivery. Theessink has a total grasp on the loping, pulsing rhythm that propels classic Delta blues music. Songwriting craftsmanship is amply displayed in "Big Bill's Guitar", where bittersweet reminiscences of life events linked to distant experiences of Big Bill Broonzy are artfully fit over a traditional blues framework. (Andy Allen, Dirty Linen, USA, July 96) Let one more myth die quickly; you don't have to be American to play the blues. Hans Theessink is in that select group of artists such as John Hammond, Paul Geremia and Rory Block, whom all share the responsibility for preserving and enriching the styles of the old masters. (Reflex Magazine, USA) Theessink helps us realize how wealthy our American musical heritage truly is - via Vienna! (Northwest Arkansas Times, USA) While you would never mistake Theessink for Robert Johnson, on talent alone he can certainly be counted among some of the more notable interpreters of the blues, including Eric Clapton and Robert Cray. If you close your eyes, Theessink's voice sounds like a cross between the late, great Lowell George (Little Feat) and, with his rich bass croon, Johnny Cash. (Ted Donat - The Music Paper, USA, Oct. 96) Close your eyes and the first guitar notes are misleading. Surely the fingers responsible for this long, dragged-out bottleneck wail belong to that part of the world known for lads picking cotton rather than sticking their fingers in dykes. It is undeniably the sound of the itinerant blues player - even if 'born in Holland' doesn't quite have the ring of Mississippi authenticity.