At the beginning of the last decade, James Hunter was living on the back end of his dreams. The British soul singer had crowned himself Howlin’ Wilf and worked his way into a gig as the lead vocalist in Van Morrison’s backing band. But those times faded, and he wound up in the blue-collar grind, then reached rock bottom when a homeless woman urinated in front of him while he was busking. Hunter managed to not only dust himself off from that particular incident, but wound up clawing his way back into the music industry; 2006’s People Gonna Talk made him beloved of Allen Toussaint and Sharon Jones, and earlier this year, he became her labelmate, releasing Hold On! on Daptone.
Hunter’s a natural fit for the label. In single “Something’s Calling,” whose video we’re pleased to be premiering today, he wears his backing band’s production loosely. “I’ve got to say goodbye, something’s calling me,” he sings over a gently staccato electric piano line. While he skews soulful, he tends to relate to the song like a scarred-up Sinatra, lightly following the Chairman’s careful enunciation and on-point delivery. The downshifts in the chorus expose the thin patches in his register, and backed by a buttery set of horns and pitch-perfect woo-woo choir, that hint of imperfection gives the song an indelible charm—one that’s matched by the clip’s nostalgic Kodachrome shorts.
The video is actually a compilation of shots from throughout the past few years of Hunter’s life. “The first and last shots of the band were taken in a church hall on Lower Boston Rd. in Hanwell. It was intended as a video for the song ‘Gold Mine,'” he explains.
The James Hunter Six tour dates
May
20 – Phoenix, AZ @ MIM Music Theater
21 – Dana Point, CA @ Doheny Blues Festival
24 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Lobero Theatre
25 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
26 – Grass Valley, CA @ Strawberry Music Festival
27 – Petaluma, CA @ Mystic Theatre
29 – London, England @ The Blues Kitchen Brixton
June
2 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
24 – Santander, Spain @ Escenario Santander
July
1 – Lisle sur Tarn, France @ Festival Les Arts Scenics
2 – Lyon, France @ Fest. Les Nuits de Fourviere
8 – Rotterdam, Netherlands @ North Sea Jazz Festival
9 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia
16 – Nice, France @ Nice Jazz Festival
20 – St. Malo Du Bois, France @ Festival de Poupet
27 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
August
4-5 – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
6 – New York, NY @ River Stage
9 – Piermont, NY @ Turning Point
12 – Fall River, MA @ Narrows Center For The Arts
23 – London, England @ Brooklyn Bowl London
Hold On! is out now on Daptone.
