BUSH HALL, a small ballroom with chandeliers, has probably never been rocked by a rhythm and blues group as hot as James Hunter’s band was on Tuesday night.
It’s no surprise that young black musicians no longer play this music, or that the veterans who did are mostly dead now, but that’s a shame because it’s a thoroughly engaging genre, really good fun. An almost extinct American style is being kept alive by a geezer from Colchester.
James Hunter is the singer-guitarist in a six-piece band who wear dark suits and play their brand of regional R&B with fire, flair and deep affection, romping through seventeen songs, mostly originals, in a 75-minute set which includes two encores. The tunes are from his current album, plus the newly-written Don’t Do Me No Favours, and a few covers.
I’ll Walk Away, a swinging upbeat song, is one that really showcases his elastic voice and it’s one of his most typical numbers because the sentiments expressed are so modest. He introduces Baby Don’t Do It by saying, “In the career of The Five Royales this song marks the transition from gospel to…sheer filth.”
It’s the bluesiest tune so far, warm and risque, and then they change the mood completely by cruising into The Very Thought Of You, a romantic ballad that was hit for Bing Crosby. Fans take loads of photos with their phones and digital cameras as Hunter sings, “I see your face in every flower/Your eyes in stars above/ It’s just the thought of you/The very thought of you, my love.”
Although Hunter’s showmanship is old-school it seems, compared to most groups these days, refreshing and inventive. Towards the end of the gig he plays congas with his hands on the strings of his guitar, and even plays a couple of notes with his teeth, but it’s all very relaxed and good-humoured, an affectionate tribute to past masters of the genre, rather than flashy.
A cover of another Five Royales hit, Think, generates a huge groove that just keeps building and rolling and riffing and rocking and swinging – just fantastic! The Royales were a Fifties outfit from North Carolina whose guitarist Lowman Pauling was a key influence on Steve Cropper and Eric Clapton
For the first encore, All Through Cryin’, the band come back and play without Hunter, who then appears without his jacket, as you do. By now the crowd of 600 are smiling and swaying in darkness coloured by the stage lights, with some snogging, others dancing. It seems that James Hunter attracts the kind of women who can dance without spilling their beer.
Like his friend Van Morrison, Hunter is not just a singer-songwriter. He is a musician-singer whose music is an ensemble thing. It’s about the way six guys play with each other, and how well the six guys play with each other, so Hunter’s staccato guitar has a key role in the ensemble, as does his voice.
What makes his group different, and so enjoyable, is that what they play is so authentic, so real, so heartfelt. They have absorbed their American influences technically and also emotionally, like the Average White Band, another sixpiece group. Never have I heard a British group, even Traffic, play as well with each other as the Average Whites did. They really adored Aretha Franklin, James Brown, the Crusaders, Marvin Gaye and Cannonball Adderley.
Jonathan Lee, on drums, and Jason Welsh, on double bass, lay down the grooves, organist Carywn Ellis adds colour and texture, Hunter plays rhythm guitar as well as lead, and the two-sax attack of Damien Hand (tenor) and Lee Badau (baritone) gives the group a unique sound. Unique for 2006, anyway.
Damian Hand’s solos are exemplary, and Badau’s grunts and honks keep it sounding dirty and festive. Hand has been with Hunter for years and wrote the string arrangements on two songs on the album, an analogue recording by producer Liam Watson at his Toe Rag Studios in East London.
Watson realised the quality of Hunter’s voice, and the value of their ensemble playing, so he decided to record them all together, playing and singing in the same room, using a special old microphone to capture the singer, who did not even use headphones.
The warmth and detail of their performances are remarkable, making People Gonna Talk the finest old-sounding new album of this millennium.You think they are in the room with you.
James Hunter is a humble guy and after you listen to his album for a while you realise that it is, among other things, a sincere expression of his modest persona.
The single, People Gonna Talk, was playlisted by Radio 2 on Tuesday October 3.
UPDATE :
December 7 : People Gonna Talk has been nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The Grammy Awards take place in Los Angeles on February 11, 2007.