Jens Hausmann presents his talents as singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist on his debut CD Back on the Track. The album has an overall light blues feel, but it is a melting pot of styles, with nods to folk, jazz, rock 'n' roll and even tango! His lyrics are original and cover a range of subjects (they are listed on his website), and his voice is in a higher range but does not tire the ears even after the some 70 minutes of track time on this album.

Jens, originally from the U.S. and now living in Germany, has fun with his compositions, and that comes over when listening to the songs. He offers his own explanations and interpretations of the 17 tunes in the liner, and it is clear that he has crammed as much as he could on his debut album.

There is undoubted quality as well as quantity, yet no one song really stood out for me as a favourite or a reason to hit the replay button. Despite the predominance of blues-style tracks, I found myself thinking of the sound more as acoustic guitar/singer-songwriter; I don't know whether it was his voice, or the varied style of musical influences on the other tracks.

If you are partial to some blues but like a bit of diversity in your listening and are a definite guitar fan, then you should enjoy listening to Back on the Track.

- Rambles
written by Jenny Ivor
published 26 June 2004

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