{"id":22443,"date":"2022-02-12T05:30:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T10:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22443"},"modified":"2022-02-03T16:02:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T21:02:30","slug":"album-review-hans-theessink-big-daddy-wilson-pay-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/12\/album-review-hans-theessink-big-daddy-wilson-pay-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Hans Theessink & Big Daddy Wilson \u2013 Pay Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The popularity of Dutch guitarist Hans Theessink is a testament to the global reach of American blues. It\u2019s also a testament to the quality of Theessink\u2019s musical output. Beginning his recording career in the 1970s, Theessink has gone on to release more than two dozen albums. Many of those records have taken the form of collaborative projects, with Theessink \u2013 who sings and plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo and other stringed instruments \u2013 joined by one or more fellow bluesmen. For Pay Day<\/i>, he worked with North Carolina-born Big Daddy Wilson, who provides vocals, percussion and ukulele bass.<\/p>\n

As is often the case on Theessink\u2019s releases, Pay Day<\/i> is a mix of original compositions and blues chestnuts. The warm, intimate feel of the album\u2019s 16 tracks is one of its unifying elements. A reading of Blind Willie Johnson\u2019s nearly century-old \u201cEverybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right\u201d opens the album with some soothing, hypnotic and gentle guitar picking, augmented by Theessink and Wilson singing together in chorus fashion.<\/p>\n

The two musicians trade verses on \u201cWalking,\u201d a good-natured Wilson original. Mississippi John Hurt\u2019s Pay Day <\/i>gives the album its title, and rightly so: it\u2019s a highlight of the collection. Other than the modern-day production values, the tune sounds like it could have been recorded ages ago. Theessink\u2019s banjo picking is placed deep into the mix, and the subtle approach works wonderfully; the instrument is more felt than heard, and the focus stays on the vocals.<\/p>\n

Listeners won\u2019t mistake Theessink\u2019s originals \u2013 like \u201cVintage Red Wine\u201d \u2013 for classic Delta blues numbers \u2013 but his writing demonstrates a clear understanding of (and appreciation for) the form. And his voice has a gentle yet world-weary feel that suits the material.<\/p>\n

A paean for peace, harmony and appreciation for the blessings one has, Wilson\u2019s I Got Plenty<\/i> has a winning message, and Theessink\u2019s trilling on the mandolin suffuses the tune with a cheery pastoral quality. And that quiet, filled-with-wonder vibe is a central component of Pay Day<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The pair gets topical with the Dutch musician\u2019s \u201cVirus Blues.\u201d The approach of trading verses \u2013 and the joining for vocal harmony in key places \u2013 works well in the tune. It\u2019s a fair question as to whether listeners are ready to listen to a song that concerns itself with as deadly pandemic, though. The lyrics is a simple observational one, and doesn\u2019t stake out any sort of political position; this pair seems happy to leave that kind of proselytizing to artists like Eric Clapton.<\/p>\n

Theessink and Wilson\u2019s arrangement of \u201cHard Time Killing Floor\u201d owes a good bit to Skip James\u2019 unadorned original. James memorably performed the 1931 number on German television in 1967 at the American Folk and Blues Festival. That was many years before Wilson settled in Germany, but it\u2019s fair to wonder if he might have viewed the performance. By sequencing the song immediately following \u201cVirus Blues,\u201d Wilson and Theessink create a subtle conceptual link between the two songs.<\/p>\n

But Pay Day<\/i> isn\u2019t all doom and gloom. The peppy country gospel of \u201cDenomination Blues\u201d brightens the mood, and tracks like Theessink\u2019s \u201cBuild Myself a Home\u201d and the album closer \u201cRoll with the Punches\u201d are suffused with optimism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The popularity of Dutch guitarist Hans Theessink is a testament to the global reach of American blues. It\u2019s also a testament to the quality of Theessink\u2019s musical output. Beginning his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[3861,4768],"class_list":["post-22443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-big-daddy-wilson","tag-hans-theessink","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22445,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22443\/revisions\/22445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}