Northern soul

 

By Paul Mick

Philly EDGE Correspondent

 

Once upon a time in Philly, names like rockabilly cat Charlie Gracie, Cameo-Parkway Records and Wibbage DJ Hy Lit held some serious sway. And yes, nearly everyone wanted to cha-cha. And the righteous tastemakers deemed it to be a blistering good time.

   Skip-forward your scroll-wheel to summer '06.

   With the legacies of those aforementioned masters of modern popular music fully intact, there's a new guitar slinger-songwriter in town who, if he had his way, wouldn't erase all that's come down the pike over the past few generations. Instead, he’d cooly freshen up a paradigm of sounds that'd been all but otherwise abandoned.

   Over in the UK, where James Hunter was born, they call it Northern Soul.

   Glowing endorsements by his former employer, Van Morrison, have awoken the media critics and every day, so it seems, Hunter’s fan base has continued to build.

    Drawing from the silky smooth sound of Sam Cooke, the sax-driven staccato rhythm of James Brown and the purpose-filled soul of Ray Charles, the totally analog People Gonna Talk CD, Hunter's third solo effort in 10 years, was produced where The White     Stripes cut their groundbreaking Elephant collection.

   Looking like a Photoshop mash-up of a younger John Hiatt and Bobby Darin,

Hunter has proven through his female-centric compositions to be no slouch

when it comes to the ebb and flow of the human heart.

   The following email exchange was generously facilitated by the ever-so witty and insightful Mr. Hunter and his new label, Rounder Records (more specifically Miss Kimberly at Go Records).

 

JH: I've got a blonde Les Paul made around 1994 that was modeled on the 1952 version. I also have a black one made in 1979, cunningly disguised as a 1979 model.

Fiendishly clever, these Americans!

 

There is a box set of every single issued by Motown. I've been giving 1959 -1962 a bit of a hammering.

 

Do you mean things about Philly that make me miss Kentish Town (his hometown)?

This question is open to misinterpretation, so I'll have to put it this way: when I'm elsewhere in America, I miss Philly; when I'm in Philly, I miss Kentish Town (‘cos I live there); when I'm in Kentish Town, I miss me mum (‘cos she lives in Peterborough and it's a right schlep by bus).

 

Adj: tepid, lukewarm.

 

Anything that the manufacturer gives you one of - (Gibson) Les Paul, Rolls-Royce, maybe? 

Oh, and I'm running short on socks at the moment...

 

The Shop Around The Corner (dir: Ernst Lusbitch)

Waterloo Bridge (dir: Mervyn Leroy)

Revenge of the Zombie Flesh-Eaters (dir: Ian Barnes)

 

I haven't had my life changed by a book, but I read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (a novel, written and set in Edwardian times, about the harsh conditions endured by building workers) by Robert Tressell. I lent it to my mum, who read it and lent it to my step-dad, who read it and never voted Tory (a conservative British political party) again

 

I did once tentatively suggest to Van that his life would be immeasurably richer if he were to lend me 50 quid. He didn't exactly pass on that one; he's still thinking about it.

 

Playing is the most fun, because it's immediate and requires marginally less discipline. On the other hand, writing/recording is ultimately more satisfying because once you've done it, it's there forever. It bugs me when actors say their best work was in theatre, rather than films. What bloody good is that to those of us who missed it?

 

It would be tempting to work with one of my heroes, but I can imagine saying to them: ‘You want to do the kind of stuff you used to, instead of the rubbish you're doing now?’ and them saying to me: ‘I've already done the kind of rubbish you're doing’ - and you know what, we'd both have a point!

 

I intend to renounce the evil ways of the secular world, burn all my possessions and possibly everyone else's. If this doesn't work out, I'll make another album.

 

I've always regarded hip-hop as part of the rock 'n' roll genre, as is everything post-1954 that wasn't jazz, country or Johnny Ray.

 

James Hunter w/ Jackie Greene

Tues., June 20, 8 p.m.

TLA, 334 South St. Philadelphia

215.922.1011