Slow Train [LP], Hans Theessink, Vinyl

Recorded in a non-studio environment - fantastic ambient sound! Theessink has composed a stirring set of songs that seamlessly fuse his unplugged picking, sonorous voice, and three-piece band into the very definition of laid-back comfort. Three singers from Zimbabwe add wonderful harmonies that fill-out the music to magical effect. Such magnificent combinations of seemingly divergent elements drive this splendid album to spine-tingling heights. Theessink doesn't play traditional blues here; instead, he deftly references the genre as one of many stops on his global trek through the Delta, into backwoods folk, and onward to Africa.