This is Hans's best album to date
author: GeneralEclectic
On pure songcraft, performance and sound quality, "Call Me" is Hans Theessink's best album to date. Highly recommended.
Still, for newbies to his music, I'd recommend "Crazy Moon" as an introduction, which is almost as good, so you'll be even more positively surprised by this one.
Despite all the guest stars, the core of the band here are Hans and the tuba player from his band Blue Groove, Jon Sass, who even contributes one of his compositions here, the groovy "Soul Of Song".
There are so many great songs on this album that I don't know what would have been my choice for 1st single. The album kicks off with a train song, "Late Last Night" that gets your feet moving right away. "Call Me" then is a soulful slow song that's so beautiful it can make you cry. And it's not the only song on this album that has done this to me (!)
The 3rd song, Maybelline, is a Chuck Berry cover that Hans makes his own, which is a thing that's very hard to do with Chuck Berry songs. "Lonely Days And Lonely Nights" is amongst the best songs Hans has ever written and recorded and features an amazing horn section. And that album does never run out of steam. "Soul Of Song" further enhances the groove. "Ain't Got No Home" with beautiful guitar and saxophone provides a short breather, whilst "Rock the Boat" and "New Orleans" pick up the pace again, the former haunting and soulful whereas the latter has got that second line beat.
"The Planet" and "Cuckoo" are acoustic numbers with Bobby King and Terry Evans joining in on backing vocals.
"Bluesdoctor" with its great mandolin playing has great rhythm going on that used to cure people from their sadness at the medicine shows of old.
And "Sail On", the album's closer is simply amazing. The other song on here that's so good it can make you cry.
I'd give this album more than just 5 stars if I could.
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