James Hunter has just been booked to play the 9th Maryport Blues Festival on Saturday the 28th July supporting Van Morrison. Click here for more details.

James Hunter's latest CD "People Gonna Talk" has now been released and is available to purchase from this site. Click here for more info. "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.

For those visitors trying to purchase the hard to find CD "Kick it Around" please feel free to click here for purchase details.

Mojo Magazine December 2006 - James Hunter's CD "People Gonna Talk" voted as the 8th best album of 2006 in a top ten list that includes Bob Dylan, the Arctic Monkeys, Bruce Springsteen and Amy Winehouse amongst others. Click here to see the article.

Mojo Magazine June 2006 - James Hunter is featured in their "Mojo Rising" section and his CD receives a glowing review. Click here for the "Mojo Rising" feature or click here to read the review in full.

Mojo Magazine May 2006 - James Hunter's CD track "People Gonna Talk" enters their playlist chart at number 7. Here's what they had to say about the track - "Imperious, warm and Sam Cooke-soulful, the title track of London R&B veteran Hunter's new LP for Rounder announces the arrival of one of the voices of 2006. After 20 years paying his dues, at long last people are indeed gonna talk".

Anyone who’s seen or heard James Hunter perform is already hip to his remarkable talents as a singer, guitarist and songwriter. This includes Van Morrison who asserts, “James is one of the best voices, and best kept secrets, in British R’n’B and Soul. Check him out.” Audiences will soon have that opportunity with Hunter’s debut release on GO/Rounder Records, scheduled for release in 2006. More info on the album can be found at the new, official James Hunter website.

Click on the following link for the Promotional Video (large file Quicktime format): click here.

Click on the following link for the New York Times article on James Hunter (08/03/06): click here.

People Gonna Talk features 14 original tracks written and arranged by Hunter, who partnered with Producer Liam Watson to create a wonderfully rich, classic soul sound. The album was recorded at Watson’s Toe Rag Studios in East London, (also home to Elephant by The White Stripes), where vintage analogue equipment has captured the warmth of Hunter’s authentic and heartfelt sensibilities. Without headphones, without separating musicians, without any digital enhancements or computers, the entire band, (including Hunter on vocals and guitar), played together live in the same room. “There’s a lot of ‘fake perfection’ in music that’s being recorded nowadays that comes from the hours and hours spent constructing performances in the studio,” says Watson. “This is a very real performance that reflects the real James Hunter with his band. I think audiences will appreciate that quality in his music when they listen to the record.”

There’s no denying that Hunter’s musical style harkens back to the days of classic 50’s and early 60’s R&B. What’s remarkable is that the same timeless quality inherent to the R&B innovators, including Sam Cooke, Bobby Bland and Ray Charles, can exist in music that is being written, performed and recorded today. Hunter’s voice is smooth, brilliantly controlled and unapologetic. Through his infectious vocal and guitar performances, clever songwriting and tight horn arrangements, Hunter proves to be a man of impeccable taste who has learned from his influences rather than simply imitating them. He even incorporates a smooth ska beat on the title track, People Gonna Talk, which gives the song a classic, warm rhythmic feel.

But don’t tell Hunter that the album’s a throwback to any era gone by. “I feel this music is as relevant for people today as it would’ve been 40 years ago,” he explains. “It has a groove that makes people feel good—it makes girls want to dance. What’s retro or old-sounding about that?” So call it what you want. Retro. Old School. New. Hip. Hunter delivers his impassioned vocals with such authority and freedom that his observations on romance take on an aura of timeless authenticity.

It was this timeless appeal that caught the attention of Kimberly Guise and Jonathan Otto in New York who were introduced to Hunter by Steven Erdman. Over ten years ago, Erdman discovered Hunter who was busking on a street corner in Camden Town, London. Still a good friend and champion of Hunter’s music, in March 2003 Erdman brought the 5-piece band over from London to play at a private party. Shocked that Hunter had not been snatched up by a major record label, GO Records, (that’s Guise-Otto Records), was quickly formed with the sole purpose of recording Hunter’s original material. On his debut with GO Records, Hunter was granted the freedom needed to achieve his artistic vision for his own material. The arrangement appears to have paid off, as even Hunter is rumored to be quite gleeful about how the album turned out.

In assembling his team, Hunter first turned to Liam Watson to produce, engineer and mix the album. Watson, who shares an appreciation for the R&B sounds of the 50’s and 60’s, opened Toe Rag in 1992 in response to the wave of digital recording studios popping up around London. The studio was custom built to capture the lush sounds that many argue can only be captured using vintage analogue equipment. With many releases to his credit, Watson’s notoriety skyrocketed with the smash hit success of The White Stripes 2003 Grammy winning, platinum certified album, Elephant.

In working with Hunter, Watson felt it was important to record the album live. “When I say live, that includes the lead singing,” explains Watson. “Everything is basically recorded at the same time in the same room. It’s a way of recording that isn’t so common nowadays, but a long time ago, that was the norm. So we’ve kind of recorded in an old fashioned way, because for the type of music that James does, it’s the most sympathetic way of making a record.” To capture Hunter’s vocal performances, Watson used what he regards as one of the best four or five microphones ever made, an AKG microphone called the C12. “James has a wonderful tone and the C12 really suits him. I don’t use that mike for just anyone,” says Watson. “He’s also a very good guitar player and can pull off some really weird stuff while he’s singing. I’ve always enjoyed watching him do both at the same time.”

Hunter relied on his top-notch band mates for all of the recording sessions, including longtime cohorts Damian Hand on tenor, Lee Badau on baritone, Jason Wilson on double bass and Jonathan Lee on drums/percussion. He also brought aboard a few musical guests, including Carywn Ellis on Hammond organ, Tom Morgan on piano and Gavin Whitlock on baritone. Hunter charged Hand with writing the string arrangements on two tracks, (People Gonna Talk and ‘Til Your Fool Comes Home) which were performed by Gill Morley on Violin, Ellen Blair on Viola and Vicky Matthews on Cello.

In keeping with the all-British creative lineup, famed Beatles photographer and Glaswegian, Harry Benson was sought out by GO Records to snap Hunter’s mug shot for the album artwork. Only after hearing a few early mix tracks from Toe Rag, did Benson agree to put his irreverent and gritty photographic eye to work on Hunter. The two hit it off immediately, trading stories about life in London and the various personalities Benson had photographed from musicians such as Willie Nelson, B. B. King and Sammy Davis Jr. to every United States President since Eisenhower, including presidential hopeful, John Kerry. Hunter performed a few tunes for Benson and wife, Gigi, at their apartment in New York before heading out to the streets to do the shoot.

Hunter is certainly no stranger to the studio. In 1996 Ace Records released Hunter’s solo debut, Believe What I Say, featuring guest appearances by Van Morrison and the late Doris Troy. In 2001 Boz Boorer, Morrissey’s lead guitarist and Musical Director, stepped in to produce Hunter’s sophomore solo album, Kick it Around, on the German label Ruf Records.

Hunter initially hooked up with Van Morrison back in the early 90’s after Morrison, tipped off by an enthusiastic Hunter fan at a newsstand in London, went to hear Hunter perform at a gig in Wales. Hunter subsequently toured extensively with Morrison, singing alongside such luminaries as John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Jimmy Witherspoon and Georgie Fame. He is featured on Morrison’s live album A Night in San Francisco and the studio recording Days Like This. Hunter continues to appear as a musical guest at Morrison shows, most recently in March 2004 at a concert in York, England where the two performed a duet of Things I Used To Do by Guitar Slim.

Born in Colchester, England, Hunter was drawn to the sounds of R&B at an early age, perhaps for lack of options. “When I was nine, my parents moved into this caravan in Thorrington, outside Colchester. It was this poxy little caravan, old and knackered, with me and my brother stuck in one half of it and Mum and Dad sleeping in the living room. We had a radio and there wasn’t much interesting on that, and my grandmother gave us an old gramophone and a heap of 78s – all 50’s stuff. I just acquired the taste for stuff around that age – we had Jackie Wilson’s Reet Petite and lots of other Rock ’n Roll in its earliest form. It was a great treat for us to be allowed to listen every now and then, because there wasn’t a lot of room in that place. It was in the middle of an onion field.”

James Hunter has toured extensively on the club and festival circuits in London and across Europe. His natural ability as singer and guitarist brings added excitement to his music, evidenced by the frenzy he can stir up among hardened gig-goers and young hipsters alike. About the frenzies, Hunter concludes, “It’s simple really—it’s music you can groove to.”

JAMES HUNTER · People Gonna Talk · GO Records (GO 00011)

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