| Humour Me | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Jesse Winchester |
| Cover: | Humour Me.jpg |
| Released: | 1988 |
| Label: | Sugar Hill/Attic[1] |
| Producer: | Jesse Winchester |
| Prev Title: | Talk Memphis |
| Prev Year: | 1981 |
| Next Title: | The Best of Jesse Winchester |
| Next Year: | 1989 |
Humour Me is an album by the American-Canadian musician Jesse Winchester, released in 1988.[2] [3] It was his first album in seven years.[4] Humour Me was nominated for a Juno Award, in the "Best Roots or Traditional Album" category.[5] "Well-a-Wiggy" had been a minor hit for the Weather Girls.[6]
Winchester preferred to play live or to work as a songwriter; his manager and Sugar Hill Records head encouraged him to record again.[7] Produced by Winchester, the album was recorded in Nashville.[8] [9] Jerry Douglas played dobro on the album; Dave Pomeroy, Jim Horn, and Béla Fleck also contributed.[10] [11] [12]
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."[13] The Windsor Star considered "Too Weak to Say Goodbye" to be the album's best song.
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."[14] The Ottawa Citizen stated that the music ranges from "earthy front porch blues and cafe folk to the odd lounge lizard croon."[15]
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."