European blues have always had sizzlers and here is one of the fiercest acoustic players in Europe, and that’s saying a lot because Europe is filled with devoted blues players. During the 1960s blues revival, Euro-blues musicians jumped all over the acoustic blues, just like their counterparts all over the world. Most of the attention focused on the electric blues and the British blues bands, but there have always been phenomenal acoustic players. The Irish bluesrocker Rory Gallagher, a musicologist of the old country blues, always performed glorious and long acoustic sets. Today, there are many brilliant and deeply devoted players all over Europe. Foremost among them is Hans Theessink, one of the top acoustic blues stars worldwide, a man who has played with the best and is one of the best, American or European, black & white, old and young, since the 1960s.
There are always those who nonsensically try to claim that who you are and where you are from will influence how deeply, authentic and filled with feeling you can play or feel the blues. Anyone who believes that should listen to Hans Theessink, a Dutch musician living in Vienna, Austria, as he usually silences all skeptics. This guy is the real deal, simply a blues master who is as good as it gets one every level. This amazing player has more than 20 albums under his belt and he has performed in the major blues festivals worldwide, including frequent collaborations with major American musicians, like Terry Evans, who is often a singer with Ry Cooder and a major blues star in his own right. You can definitely hear the influences in Theessink’s music– Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee come through clearly in his guitar style and rich baritone singing. He has established himself as a major player in the US, always an especially difficult feat for people from non-English speaking countries. After all, there are many great European players on the scene, but how many outside of the British Isles and Ireland have made it over in the USA–a mere handful, like Swedes Robert Lighthouse and Anders Osborne, and Roberto Luti from Italy, all of whom started as street buskers. Theessink swings, offers a vast repertoire and is an enthralling blues performer.
Recommended Starter: Hans Theessink & Terry Evans- Visions
