Re-Release of HARD ROAD BLUES

Hans Theessink SOLO – Hard Road Blues on 180 gr.vinyl
AAA remastered – all analog recording

“This recording deserves a spot in the stores next to the work of the men who inspired it”.
(Acoustic Guitar, CD hitlist, USA, 1997)

Release date: April 14th 2023

I recorded HARD ROAD BLUES in 2 nights (October 6th-7th, 1994) in the OPUS Recorder Music Studio in Austria in one go and all analog. It was quite a meditative affair, recorded
very well by sound engineer Andreas Fabianek. We used a vocal mic, a guitar mic, and a few other mics to capture the natural sound of the room. The recording sounds very organic; you can feel every movement and breathing and you can literally hear the fingers dancing on the fretboard.

The record was first released in 1994 on vinyl, CD and cassette. HARD ROAD BLUES has been highly acclaimed by fans and press alike and has sold very well. If a copy of this
pressing ever turns up in good condition, it would cost quite a bit of money. Unfortunately, the fire devil struck at the German pressing plant – many masters and matrices
were destroyed; including those of HARD ROAD BLUES. A subsequent pressing was therefore impossible. But during Corona 2020 I had a lot of time to look through my stock of recordings and I also found the HARD ROAD BLUES master tapes. That’s when the idea came up to re-release this record.

I contacted Christoph Stickl from CSMastering. Christoph had already done an excellent remastering of my 1987 “Baby Wants To Boogie” LP and he was therefore predestined to carry out this rather delicate work for HARD ROAD BLUES as well. He reviewed the tapes, which after all, were already 27 years old, and said he’d have to “bake” them in the oven to play them and start remastering. Luckily the tapes were still in good shape and so Christoph was able to do the remastering without interrupting the AAA chain.

HARD ROAD BLUES – Vinyl Tracklist
A
1.BIG BILL’S GUITAR: Hans Theessink manus (AKM)
2.YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO GOOD: Hans Theessink manus (AKM)
3.PRISON BLUES: trad/arr.and new words Hans Theessink
4.BLIND WILLIE: Hans Theessink manus (AKM)
5.ONE KIND FAVOUR: Blind Lemon Jefferson / arr. Hans Theessink
6.VICKSBURG IS MY HOME: Hans Theessink manus (AKM)
B
1.HARD ROAD BLUES: Hans Theessink manus (AKM)
2.TWO TRAINS: trad/arr. Hans Theessink
3.SUGAR BABE: Mance Lipscomb (Tradition Music Co)
4.MINNIBELLE: Hans Theessink manus (AKM)
5.SHOTGUN BLUES: Sam Hopkins (Rockland Music)
6.CYPRESS GROVE: Skip James (Blind-Basement-Music)