JAMES HUNTER SIX ‘Off The Fence’ a career highlight for the humble Hunter

JAMES HUNTER unveils his eleventh studio long-player ‘Off The Fence’ (via Easy Eye Sound), an almost unfathomable four decades since the release of his debut album.

‘Off The Fence’ is an earthy, honest journey along America’s blues and soul belt, from the musicians who inhabited illicit New Orleans basement clubs, the smoky Memphis musical dens of iniquity, and Chicago’s infamous juke joints – all with an added touch of Essex humour producing a masterful, laid-back album unsurprisingly receiving glowing reviews across the board.

But has the Grammy-nominated Hunter been surprised by the outpouring of love for his latest body of work?

“No, it sounds big-headed but we always get favourable press but it’s not always reflected in sales, but it’s very gratifying and it’s always nice to see how people respond. But I even enjoy being slagged off too, I’ve read reviews by people who didn’t like stuff I’ve done and I’ve found that quite entertaining. The funny thing is that I’ve sometimes had two opposite effects of criticism, there’s sometimes people will praise what I’ve done for the wrong reasons, like they’ll say “oh it’s a nostalgia fest” or this that, and then somebody else disdainfully said of my album, “oh, he just screams his head off through the whole thing,” and I was pleased with that because that was what I was going for!”

It’s praiseworthy watching Hunter steadfastly refuse to ‘reinterpret’ his songs, or the songs of others, with ‘Off The Fence’ containing a dozen, perfect original songs, some soulful, some bluesy, the majority benefiting from the inclusion of the songwriter’s fabled sense of mischief.

“That’s what happens, some artists will do a cover but in their own style, but what I do is completely steal another artist’s style but write my own songs to it, so I’ve always been very derivative in terms of my influences have all been very obvious, but I’ve got my own touch as a songwriter. I try that deliberately, to write that kind of stuff, to kind of resist the charge of being retro. I sometimes try and write the kind of stuff that nobody would have considered doing back in the day.

“And yes, I did set out to add the humour. Americans do have a sense of irony, they just have a different style of it, and I do tend to write stuff – it’s very North East Essex you know – I do tend to write things that only a British person would say. I mean years ago I wrote one called ‘Chicken Switch’ and most soul anthems are things about ‘oh you’re worth it, don’t give up, keep trying,’ mine was effectively, ‘if at first you don’t succeed, give up!’

Album opener ‘Two Birds’ reminds me of the easy genius of Amy Records-era Lee Dorsey, second track ‘Let Me Out Of This Love’ seamlessly transitioning towards a prime Booker T vibe.

“Oh yes, I like that, that is similar, but you know it reminded me – not so much my own contribution – but what the drummer and producer did that little stop time bit and the drum roll. That was their idea, I’d love to take credit for that but it put me in mind of something Chuck Jackson [see below] might have done.

“But with ‘Let Me Out Of This Love,’ I don’t know what I was going for there, I might have been thinking like Impressions, or Jerry Butler or something, that’s a kind of favourite of mine, I was probably going for that and I did all the backing vocals myself – I can’t go as high as Curtis could, but nobody else was available, that’s why I went and did it!”

Modest despite his immeasurable talents, Hunter’s influences dance throughout the album, and with an at times Deep South sound showing itself to those who hear music as apposed to merely listening, does he feel a connection to some of the greats, Son House, Skip James, and BB King, and did they help shape the direction of the album?

“It’s good that it’s got that feel, but I was thinking more Chicago because I was going for a Jimmy Reed vibe, but I’ll take that comparison though. And I’m aware of those guitarists, and I think they’re brilliant. Skip James was particularly unusual wasn’t he, but I think those solo acoustic fellas weren’t as much as an influence on me as the later fellas with the rhythm sections, although I did very much get into Robert Johnson quite some time ago. I heard him when I was listening to Alexis Korner, it must have been 1980, he was on the radio and he played back to back Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson’s versions of ‘Walkin’ Blues’ and I didn’t know which one I liked better.

“Another guitarist who was like Robert Johnson was on Sun Records with Junior Parker who was doing ‘Mystery Train,’ the guitarist, I think it was Floyd Murphy, was doing this really complex figure that sounds like two guys.”

In certain quarters, ‘Here and Now‘ has drawn loose comparisons to The Shadows, in others, links to Sam & Dave, 1968 STAX, and even a touch of Otis Reading. How does Hunter take these wildly differing impressions of his music?

“Yes, I quite enjoy that because sometimes they’re ones I wasn’t conscious of doing and I think stylistically the one I was going for with that was usually the kind of early ‘60s Atlantic, New York vibe with The Drifters feel, but it depends on how the mix comes out. If the bottom end comes out a bit heavier it’ll sound like Memphis, but I’m quite pleased that somebody name-checked Hank Marvin there or use of the whammy bar, but yeah, I’ll put my hand up to it.

“A lot of people approach music with a historian’s thing and think, ‘what does this remind me of,’ I do it myself, but sometimes music just speaks for itself, you know I’ve heard what I thought were influences on somebody else’s music and it turns out they’d never heard of them. ButI think it’s the monkey typewriter theory isn’t it, I mean everybody is going to come up with something reminiscent of something else if you leave them alone with a guitar for a million years!”

With a career overflowing with ‘pinch me’ moments – working with Aretha Franklin and Etta James for example – how does Hunter remain focused, motivated, so much so that after more than forty years making music, his latest album could be considered a career highlight?

“That was crazy, I don’t know how we got on that tour, we just got booked on it, I don’t think Aretha picked us because I don’t think she was famously not fussed about support bands as demonstrated when I met her! But I did speak to Bernard Purdey, she name-checked him at a gig and made him stand up and take a bow and he came up to us after the gig and said how much he enjoyed it which was a lovely moment, I was standing outside having a smoke and he came up to us then, it was like, Wow!

“But motivation? Well, you got the artistic drive, but the funny thing is I’m kind of lucky, if I was extremely well off I’d probably take my time creating stuff because I could do it at my own leisure, but the fact that I have to because it’s my living and I put it off for ages and then when I get into it I start really enjoying it, so I do look forward to that little point past the pain barrier when I’m going ‘yeah, I’m getting into this,’ but I hope I still retain that if it ever comes about that I don’t have to.”

Currently in the middle of a UK tour [dates below] Hunter has also released new single – and accompanying video – ‘Gun Shy,’ co-written with Myles Weeks.

“I had heard the phrase ‘gun shy’ before but didn’t know what it meant, although I assumed it had more than a literal application. When our bass player Myles Weeks mentioned he had a concept for a song with that title, he outlined the theme as being that of someone being nervously reluctant to declare their romantic intentions.

“I asked him if he minded if I wrote it, and he graciously said yes. As per my usual ‘Thesaurus method’ of songwriting, I threw a pile of ballistics-related terms on the table and set about arranging them into verses. Once I’d stuffed them into a spare tune I had lying around, we committed it to tape.

“Then it was time to make the video. One dark December evening, my wife Jessie accompanied me to a studio in a Victorian-era warehouse in Tichborne Street, in the North Laines, Brighton. Our director, James Slater, filmed me prancing about and lip-syncing on a big sheet of paper unfurled from a roller suspended from the ceiling. I had a blast!”

“It’s been a while since we’ve been on tour and after it’s finished I’ll probably start writing again, and I’ve got a thing of hoping to write for other people as well myself. I hear people covering my stuff on YouTube and some people do it better than I do and I’d like to encourage more people to do my stuff, that would be great.

“I wouldn’t mind writing something that Bonnie Raitt would do, or Van Morrison or Lee Fields, they’re the three I know personally so they’re the ones I can chuck stuff at and see if they’re interested, even a really unlikely artist doing something of mine would be interesting, even more so.”

And having previously been informed he was ‘too old for a record deal,’ ‘Off The Fence’ will forever be a glorious, haunting reminder of those ill-informed words.

“Yes, certainly! And I’ve been told that twice because I think they said it to me when I was twenty-four as well, every twenty years somebody says that. And Karma is great, and I wish I could remember who said it because I could laugh at them, but I can’t because I can’t remember!”

Hunter and Weeks are joined on the album by Rudy Albin Petschauer (drums), Andrew Kingslow (keyboards, percussion), Michael Buckley (baritone saxophone), and Drew Vanderwinckel (tenor saxophone).

The James Hunter Six UK/EU tour dates:
Jan 20: Colchester, Colchester Arts Centre
Jan 28: Newcastle, The Cluny
Jan 29: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Jan 30: Cambridge, Storey’s Field Centre
Jan 31: Birmingham, Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul All Dayer at The Crossing 

Feb 07: Paris, New Morning  
Feb 09: Amsterdam, Paradiso Tolhuistuin  
Feb 10: Hamburg, Knust
Feb 11: Berlin, Hole44

Connect with James Hunter HERE

(James Hunter photo (c) Jim Herrington)