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HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

Weekend Edition July 29-31, 2006

Old Soul

James Hunter’s "People Gonna Talk"

by MYLES PALMER

The two things I love most in amplified music are great voices and great ensemble playing and James Hunter’s People Gonna Talk (Rounder Records) offers both. It’s gratifying to see that the Essex-born soul stylist is now doing well in the USA.

Back around 1996 I took football journalist Joe Bernstein to see this singer at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, just after his Believe What I Say album came out on Ace Records. His voice really swings and his sweet, funky little band cruised through two sets of Fifties R&B : Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Bobby "Blue" Bland, a bunch of original songs in a roadhouse vein. He might be the blackest-sounding white singer these islands have produced since Stevie Winwood.

Joe loved the audience, which included teddy boys jiving beautifully with girls whose skirts flared out as they swivelled.

Before that James Hunter had made an album as Howlin’ Wilf and had played guitar and sung with Van Morrison, who duetted with him on two tracks, Turn On Your Love Light and Ain’t Nothing You Can Do.

Early in 2006 I read a comment he had made about going home late one night on a Network South East train where commuters were very tired or asleep, and somebody was playing a cassette of a Sam Cooke album, and nobody in the compartment objected. I knew what he was talking about because I’ve often been on that late train, coming home from gigs at the Town &Country Club/Forum.

Sam Cooke’s music is magically light and mellow, and James Hunter said that one day he wanted to make an album like that.

And now he has. Amazingly, producer Liam Watson recorded all these songs live, with Hunter singing along with the band, using old analogue equipment at Toe Rag studios, where the White Stripes made Elephant.

The warmth of the sound, the artistry of the vocals, the precision of horns that really play in the groove, are all fantastic. The title track even includes a string quartet.

Sure, James Hunter is a niche – and it’s a small niche. But his current success proves that if you persevere, the market can come to you.

I won’t describe each song, as you can hear clips streamed on www.jameshuntermusic.com.

MYLES PALMER lives in England, where he writes about music and soccer. He can be reached at: myles@db10.freeserve.co.uk