| Humour Me | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Label | Sugar Hill/Attic [1] [2] | |||
| Producer | Jesse Winchester | |||
| Jesse Winchester chronology | ||||
| ||||
Humour Me is an album by the American-Canadian musician Jesse Winchester, released in 1988. [3] [4] It was his first album in seven years. [5] Humour Me was nominated for a Juno Award, in the "Best Roots or Traditional Album" category. [6] "Well-a-Wiggy" had been a minor hit for the Weather Girls. [7]
Winchester preferred to play live or to work as a songwriter; his manager and Sugar Hill Records head encouraged him to record again. [8] Produced by Winchester, the album was recorded in Nashville. [2] [9] Jerry Douglas played dobro on the album; Dave Pomeroy, Jim Horn, and Béla Fleck also contributed. [10] [11] [12] [13]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [14] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [15] |
| MusicHound Folk: The Essential Album Guide |  [13] |
| Windsor Star | B+ [16] |
The Globe and Mail panned the "romantic cliche and kitschy arrangements." [10] The Toronto Star wrote: "Warm, lean, smooth, the singer's voice is a marvellous, communicative instrument, never overwhelmed by fancy arrangements or star instrumentalists." [17] The Windsor Star considered "Too Weak to Say Goodbye" to be the album's best song. [16]
The Washington Post called the album "strictly mid-level stuff," but conceded that it was "nevertheless chock-full of songs that combine insinuating melodies and rhythms with tender sentiments so deftly handled that they never sound as trite as they might appear on paper." [18] The Ottawa Citizen stated that the music ranges from "earthy front porch blues and cafe folk to the odd lounge lizard croon." [19]
AllMusic wrote that "Humour Me lacked the depth of Winchester's best work, but it was easily on a par with his substantial body of craftsmanlike music of the mid-'70s... His voice remained warm and supple." [14]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "If I Were Free" | |
| 2. | "Thanks to You" | |
| 3. | "They Just Can't Help Themselves" | |
| 4. | "Too Weak to Say Goodbye" | |
| 5. | "Let's Make a Baby King" | |
| 6. | "Well-a-Wiggy" | |
| 7. | "I Don't Think You Love Me Anymore" | |
| 8. | "Willow" | |
| 9. | "Humour Me" | |
| 10. | "I Want to Mean Something to You" |
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