Jederman Remixed– The Soundtrack reviewed by Steve Jones

Jederman Remixed– The Soundtrack

Hans Theesink

Blue Groove Records

www.theesink.com

18 tracks

Hans Theesinks last CD made it’s way through our reviews to high acclaim. When I saw this album was the soundtrack to a morality play I must admit that I was more than a little concerned about what I might have bitten off to review.  No worry, though.  Theesink remains a great bluesman, acoustic (and electric) guitar player and interpreter of roots music.

His deep bass voice with a bit of a cool vibrato warms the soul as he delightfully plies the strings of his guitar.  He opens with a super Tom Waits cover, “Way Down In the Hole”, singing about keeping our devils way down in the hole.  I was sold.  A cool start to an interesting and impressive CD.

Not having seen the movie, I can’t see the visuals that these songs were chosen to accompany.  The mix is eclectic, somewhat dark, and somewhat witty.  Jederman means “Everyman” and this is an old English morality play from the 15th century.  Everyman tries to convince everyone in the play to accompany him and improve their lot.  One can see the good versus evil line played out in the songs selected; the delivery is very interesting.

Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” follows, again dark, yet hopeful. “No Expectations” and “Sympathy For The Devil” get a down tempo acoustic treatment in Theesinks dark tones, showing a side of these songs the Stones did not.  A dark and mournful “Mother Earth” cover is another striking song, with vocals shared with Terry Evans.

He gets almost upbeat with Joe South’s “Games People Play” which closes the album, but his mournfulness “shines” through with a cool backdrop of accordian accompanying him.  Hank William’s “Angel of Death” gets treated to a dark down tempo and is also quite interesting.

Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman” is the most positive note on the CD, not that the downtrodden sounds are bad.  The other covers are also well done as are original tracks he chose.  If you like the darker side of the blues, done mostly acoustic, you’ll enjoy the heck out of this.  Quite interesting and quite well done!

Reviewed by Steve Jones