Review: Stefan Hillesheim Band – Live At Rosa’s Lounge
Stefan Hillesheim Band – Live At Rosa’s Lounge
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Stella Blue Music
Release: 2024
Text: Tom Wouters
Stefan Hillesheim is a German-born singer/guitarist who moved to Los Angeles at the age of 27 to attend The Musicians Institute (GIT), where he graduated with great honours.
Not only did he play in gospel churches and blues clubs, but Hillesheim also became a much sought-after session player. In 2022 he moved to Chicago, where he made a splash in the local blues scene with his band (Sumito Ariyoshi, piano, Darryl Wright, bass and Dionte McMusick, drums).
One of the clubs where Hillesheim regularly performed was Rosa’s Lounge and that is also where he recorded this live album.
Hillesheim’s guitar playing is strongly inspired by Elmore James, which can be heard in the autobiographical Seduced By The Blues, in which he tells how Elmore James taught him to play the blues. Incidentally, the song contains a beautiful piano solo by the excellent Sumito Ariyoshi.
In Harlem Avenue Lounge, Elmore James’s (slide) guitar sound is also beautifully expressed. In the slow blues songs (Leaving You Behind, Favorite Hiding Place and Dealing With The Pain), the beautiful interplay between Hillesheim’s guitar and Ariyoshi’s piano is particularly striking.
The last two songs on Live At Rosa’s Lounge, where Hillesheim plays solo acoustic live, are surprising. The reprise of Harlem Avenue Lounge and especially Will You Remember Me show that Stefan Hillesheim is more than capable of playing solo acoustic.
‘Live At Rosa’s Lounge’ is a very entertaining blues album by a talented German blues guitarist and singer in America.
Tracks:
01. Sins Of The Father
02. Leaving You Behind
03. You’re My Family
04. Harlem Avenue Lounge
05. Favorite Hiding Place
06. One Cloudy Day
07. Seduced By The Blues
08. Put Some Respect On My Name
09. What You Walked Out On
10. Dealing With The Pain
11. Will You Remember Me (acoustic)
12. Harlem Avenue Lounge (acoustic)
Website: https://www.shblues.com/