Review

 NZ Wanganui Review 04/05/06
On Saturday night at the Commercial Club, a lucky audience of 80 or more were privileged to see and hear Hans Theessink, Europe's pre-eminent bluesman.
Originally scheduled to be part of the cancelled festival, Gill Winter of Flying Piglets saved the day and brought Hans and his partner, Milica, here anyway.

The evening began with a short set from local blues musician Terry Sarten. Getting the crowd ready for a trip into the musical Delta of the American South, he sang and strummed his way through a mixture of his own tunes and covers, impressing, especially with his handling of the slide work on the "fry-pan" resonator guitar.

After a short break Hans hit the stage and proceeded to show us why he is considered by many to be one of the greatest living bluesmen. He strummed, picked, slid, thumped, bent and stroked his guitars, blew his "harp" (harmonica), stamped his foot, and sang his baritone way through a selection of his own material and some classic covers.
His career spans thirty five years, after being inspired as a teenager by hearing the blues on the radio, and that life-long commitment can be heard in his music.

Hans made whatever he did seem as natural to himself as breathing would be to anyone else, and his relaxed joy at doing what he loves rubbed off on the audience who ended up singing all the choruses with a very little cajoling from the performer. (All the guitarists in the audience could tell you there was nothing easy or especially natural about his musical gymnastics. it just looked that way. During the break he was happy to talk to a couple of them about his gear).

In between songs he talked of his records, how and where they were made and with whom, his influences, his funny- sometimes very funny- experiences as a travelling, working musician and letting us know what our next lyric lines were to be.

Whether he was playing a Chuck Berry tune, or "St James Infirmary" (with "Greensleeves" seamlessly inserted into the middle), a Woody Guthrie number, or his own songs: the haunting "Big Bill's Guitar", "Johnny and the Devil", "Blind Willy" and "Love, Sweet Love" to name but a few, Hans Theessink let us into his world of blues and roots. And he also showed us that the blues is a truely international language which can be understood and enjoyed by anyone because ultimately the songs are in some way about ourselves.

At then end of the show, when the crowd reluctantly let him get off the stage, he happily talked to people, signed CDs and said how much he would like to come back to Wanganui. Well, we would love to have him back and if you're lucky, and sensible, then you might be there next time too.
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