JEFF HULETT & THE HAND ME DOWNS: ‘Little Windows.’ Right now, it’s what the world needs
MEMPHIS-based JEFF HULETT & THE HAND ME DOWNS have just dropped their latest long player, ‘Little Windows,’ via ‘Small Batch Records.’
A blissful collection of eight songs, ‘Little Windows’ is a welcome return to a time when albums were produced devoid of pretence, and instead, released for nothing other than the joy of making good music, with your closest friends.
Skilfully assisted by Jacob Church (electric guitar, vocs), Ben Church (bass, vocs), Lehman Sammons (drums, percussion), and Jonathan Schallert (keys, melodica), Hulett guides the album through gentle traces of The Doors, Bob Dylan, and somewhat fittingly given the recent release of the ‘Living In The Material World’ anniversary edition, George Harrison.
“It’s not lost on me that I’m just a middle-aged dad making music in the dirty south,” said Hulett. “But I would love it if someone said the album sounds like a group of tight knit friends, musicians, happy with finding themselves in a studio at the same time making good, honest music. I hope that comes across, it’s something we strive for.
“And there’s no egos in this band. I write the songs, but they immediately become ours once we start working them up. The guys make me better and push me further into spaces I wouldn’t even consider, and for that I’m grateful, and honoured to have their company and companionship.
“The song ‘Open Road’ [above] is about getting away, clearing your head and going back to nature, to peace and quiet and finding yourself again – losing yourself to find yourself again. There’s nothing like a road trip.
“And ‘Spinning Plates,’ [below] is about the rat race and spinning your wheels to get ahead. Where does it end? When is enough, enough? Spinning plates is something we all do, but boy do I have many irons in the fire, many of which I need to, and should, shed. Many of my songs are notes to myself, usually advice I don’t follow.”
Jim Jones once remarked how he enjoyed recording in Memphis, the way in which he believed his music became coated in ‘the Mississippi grease.’ But does Memphis add anything to the music of Hulett?
“What does Memphis bring to my music? Everything,” he added. “It’s my world. It’s me living in midtown near some of the toughest neighbourhoods. It’s me being a huge Tigers and Grizz fan. It’s me being a northerner who was placed here in 1990 and didn’t know shit about this culture or way of life. Memphis is in my veins, in my heart, in my soul. It’s where I got married – at the Metal Museum – and it’s where my children were born. It’s a taste on my tongue that never dissipates.”
Seek this album out, feel the love for it, and appreciate the passion, the sincerity, that went into crafting it. Now more than ever, this is exactly what the world needs.
‘Little Windows’ was recorded at Jacob Church’s home studio in the historic Central Garden’s neighbourhood in Memphis, Tennessee.
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