Hans Theessink Pay Day (LP)

(Blue Groove) 12 tracks
The Blues are a mystery' B.B. King told me in one of our interviews. Willie Dixon, on the other hand, said: 'The Blues are the true facts of life'. A contradiction? Only apparently. Blues is both. Some people think the blues have become museum-like. But exactly the opposite is the case.

When Hans Theessink and Big Daddy Wilson sing Blind Willie Johnson's classic 'Everybody Ought To Treat A Stranger Right', it can hardly be surpassed in terms of topicality. Written in 1930, the song has lost none of its relevance in 2021. And Mississippi John Hurt's 'Pay Day' could also be understood as a pointer to our society, because eventually everyone pays. Catastrophes, on the other hand, have always played an important role in American roots music, especially in folk and blues, such as the great Mississippi flood of 1927.

In this tradition, carried over into the present, Hans Theessink's Covid song 'Virus Blues' is probably also understood, an urgent call for cohesion, especially since 'it makes no difference, if you're rich or poor, if you're yellow, black or white'.