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I am sure that those of you who read my reviews, but do not always attend Acoustic Sussex events, think that I am incapable of a bad review, but my reviews genuinely, I believe, reflect the outstanding quality of the artists Martin and his crew put on. I have been attending gigs (not at Acoustic Sussex of course) for the past 40 years and have seen some of the all time greats in popular [non commercial] culture and I can’t believe it myself, really. I look down the list of future gigs and think to myself, I don’t know him, that doesn’t really appeal to me and have never heard of her, and on and on… Then I turn up and get knocked out of my socks, time after time! (As Cyndi Lauper would say.) Hans Theesink’s blues concert was no exception. Now “Blues” gigs can be tedious if they’re not done well, but executed well and …next best thing to Nirvana, well almost. I think about what the blues is all about and think to myself “How can you actually enjoy the music” taking into account what the blues is usually about and where it all came from…the suffering of the slaves in plantations, in the southern states of America and other places, so how can you be happy about that? But we were. Hans has the ability to raise a stone-hearted audience to heights of passion by reason of the exquisite quality of the music, his guitar work (especially the 12 string) and his charisma and well before the end of the evening; he had them literally singing their hearts out with total abandon. By this I don’t me the token sing-along where everybody sings lout enough to look as though they’re interested but, heaven forbid, not too loud to let the person next to you actually hear the terribly drone emanating from your mouth. Even Martin was singing his heart out and he’s normally a little conservative when it comes to singing. Hans had them all hook, line and sinker. What’s more he’s not a black man from below the Mason-Dixon Line but a Dutchman who now hangs out in Vienna. He delighted us with old blues standards along with his own compositions. You would think, to listen to his chocolate-rich voice (which sounds at time like Chris Rea) that he had a perfect pedigree harking back to the unfortunates who tended the cotton fields way back when. I sincerely hope he gets to come back one day. If you didn’t get to see Hans, then I sincerely recommend that you check out some of his amazing music by way of his albums from his website: To start the evening, we were treated to Rosalie Deighton - a young lady with and extremely interesting sense of humour and some interesting music. Her voice was both expressive and pleasant, at times sounding like the lighter side of “Jewel” Kilcher without the heaviness of her band. I liked her ironic, self-effacing humour which seemed to go down pretty well. Rosalie has graced Acoustic Sussex’s stage once before and I am sure will do so again. Just one brilliant night out and well worth the investment.
Review courtesy of 'Maximum' Bob |
