James Hunter (guitar & vocals), Damian Hand (tenor
saxophone), Lee Badau (baritone saxophone), Andrew Kingslow (keyboards), Jason
Wilson (double bass) & Jonathan Lee (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Twenty plus years on the road, the ‘six’ have been
there all along. Howlin’ Wilf and the Vee Jays to the James Hunter Six,
Billboard Blues’ chart album success, Hunter does as he has always done –
rock-up and play. The Essex boy with a rockabilly swagger, long-time Jumpin’
Hot Club favourite James Hunter headlined day two at this year’s festival
celebrating everything Americana.
The outdoor amphitheatre adjacent to Sage Gateshead
was crammed. Tables and chairs, folding tables, hampers, Stetsons. Hunter does
soulful rhythm and blues. Catching sight of the headwear Hunter joked he’d
better watch what he said up here in redneck country! The band’s extensive back
catalogue – People Gonna Talk (2006),
The Hard Way (2008), Minute by Minute (2013) – afforded
Hunter a bagful of goodies including Chicken
Switch and the crowd loved it. Dancers – shuffling two-left-feet types
getting in the way of those would could really dance – occupied the ‘look at
me’ area slap bang in front of the stage.
The horns make the ‘six’. Damian Hand (tenor) grabbed
the solos, the rhythm section a non-stop powerhouse. Keys man Andrew Kingslow
went for a Hammond groove, front-man Hunter rockin’ in rhythm. Occasionally
Hunter’s vocal came from Sam Cooke with a grittier edge to it standing back,
then further, from the mic, pleadin’ hollerin’. Stick that in yer Stetson! The
Five Royales’ Baby Don’t Do It was
worth standing with the rednecks. Close your eyes and it was a get-on-down
James Brown soul revue.
Russell.
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