Photo via The James Hunter Six - Facebook
The James Hunter Six
The James Hunter Six (2024)
It’s been 40 years since James Hunter released his first album, but in the last two decades, the British soul man has reached new heights by creating original material.
Promoting their latest album and first for Easy Eye Sound, Off the Fence, The James Hunter Six return to Milwaukee on Sunday at the Vivarium.
Focusing on Songwriting
After putting out a handful of albums as leader of Howlin' Wilf & The Vee-Jays, and a couple under his own name, Hunter released the all-original People Gonna Talk on Rounder Records in 2006. Hunter says it was his manager who pushed him into developing more of his own songs.
“She said it was important to have your own material, and I saw that point of view pretty soon, because … it takes us out of that retro sort of, what do you call it, revivalist camp, you know?” he says. “I do need to have some claim to originality, and so after a while, it wasn’t just for that legitimacy, it was like I genuinely had things I wanted to say and put down. It kind of fulfilled an artistic sort of need I had at the risk of sounding more pompous than usual.”
One hard part remains: coming up with song titles. Hunter admits to being afraid to type them into the “search bar” because they’ve likely been used before.
“If you read most of my actual titles, they all sound pretty cliched, but usually the wit only comes within the third verse,” he says, laughing.
And while American soul and blues and pop still heavily inform Hunter’s music, he brings them to life with his own British sensibility.
“American songwriters and writers in general do have, they have an ironic sense, but the difference was a different temperament from the UK,” he says. “We have this sort of dour, miserable way of looking at life. It was nice to get that into what is essentially a joyful musical medium. So, it’s a nice contrast, really. I can write a pretty tune and have some sort of misanthropic sentiments echoing all the way through it.”
Returning to the Studio
Off the Fence, which was released in January, was the Six’s first record since 2020’s Nick of Time, which Hunter says sank amid the Covid pandemic.
“I would love to use that as an excuse as to why it took me so long to write this album, but (the albums) were all pretty much written in the year up leading up to the recording of it,” he says. “In this latest one, it was like I do quite well under pressure, you see. If I’ve got loads of time, I won't do anything, but when suddenly we had to come up with something for an album, I got me skates on and got it done, but I am naturally quite lazy.
“I do need somebody to light a fire under me, too. Not this time, though. I’ve got a few in hand. I’ve got a few ready for the next one, because I get fed up with getting caught out, you know?”
Among the highlights on Off the Fence are “One for Ripley” (from a saying Hunter uses when people say hard-to-believe or unusual things), and “Gun Shy” (a groovy, catchy “co-write” with New Orleans bassist Myles Weeks.)
“(Myles) said he had an idea, like a concept, and he outlined the basic concept and the top and gave me the title, and he just said that’s what he’s working on,” Hunter says, “and I just really liked it. I asked him permission to write it. We both wrote two separate songs called “Gun Shy,” and, of course, me being the boss, mine won. I think he recorded his somewhere else.”
Van Morrison, who has worked with Hunter previously, appears on “Ain’t That a Trip.” Hunter still hopes to perform the song live with Morrison at some point. “We recorded the track, and I double tracked the vocal to give an idea of the harmony, and we just left it,” he says. “We sent Van the file and told him to just pick whichever bits he wanted, so it was him that chose who came in first, and so I do the first, he does the second, and we do the last one. We split the last one, so that was quite clever of him.”
A New Home
Before Off the Wall, all the James Hunter Six albums had been released by Daptone Records. There was no falling out with the label, Hunter says. Daptone founder Gabriel Roth (Bosco Mann) produced the album, as he has done for other Six albums. Nashville-based Easy Eye Sound is operated by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.
“The only reason we left is because we needed the album to come out sooner than they were able to put it out,” Hunter says. “We recorded it there, and I think they were backed up with a lot of projects they had, so that’s the only reason we went and changed over. Easy Eye were very enthusiastic, and that counts for a lot. With partly a sense of reluctance, but sort of a bit of excitement. Somebody was going to put their weight behind us; it was too good to pass up.”
The James Hunter Six play at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 12 at Vivarium, 1818 N. Farwell Ave., Milwaukee. McKinley James opens.
