Jim Dead

Last on was Jim Dead. He is a laconic purveyor of downbeat tales of life's miseries. That's not as depressing as it sounds as he infuses those tales with a dark humour and a touch of madness (as "Before I Die" demonstrates). Shining a pound shop torch into the darkness of the soul and getting something uplifting out of it is no easy task but Jim Dead has the songs to prove that it can be done. - Bluebunny

Jim Dead comes from Deadsville. An imagined place, more in the mind than on the map. Occasional visitors to this shadowland include Jim White, Hank Williams, Jason Molina, The Drive By Truckers and even Neil Young. Here the music is slow and thick, churning like the Mississippi, rich and full bodied.

Jim Dead has captured this on his latest release; Ten Fires and tonight unveiled it in a hot cellar to an appreciative Glasgow crowd. This was possibly a unique event as the Doubters consist of the musicians who recorded the album with Dead but in their non deadsville lives they all have other gigs. Reconvened for the album launch it would be a pity if they fade away as they conjured up a blissful, noisy wall of sound. Consisting of Dead on guitar and vocals, Craig Hughes on guitar and the Duffin brothers, James and Tommy on bass and drums they punched their way through several songs from the album. The twin guitars cranked up an almighty mess of sound with Craig Hughes sparking off of Dead’s solid rhythm on a sound that was reminiscent of Crazy Horse or Magnolia Electric Co. Wading through lengthy renditions of Jim Langstrom Must Die, Bone Blue Moon and Mean Eyed River Snake there were several spine tingling moments wrung from Hughes’ Gibson but Dead’s knack for a well written song with strong hooks meant that this never descended into jamdom. The band ended the set with epic renditions of Untitled and The Hallelujah Revolver. Untitled started off with an Iberian Miles Davis feel before a psychedelic tinge crept in with Hughes playing arabesque lines but the closing song trumped all before it with the Duffin bothers in particular adding an almighty edge to a powerful and inspired performance. Dead hollered as if his life depended on it. A great end to the show.
- Paul Kerr, Americana-UK

Reviewers Rating
8

Folk, rock, blues and country drip from the simple and effective musings of this wonderfully creative talent. Jim Dead through his spare production sparks a vast array of memorable and earthy imagery set to stay with you for a very long time.

A new name to me, this Glasgow recording finds his guitar and vocals joined by Craig Hughes (guitar, vocals), James Duffin (bass) and Tommy Duffin (drums, percussion, harmonica) (The Doubters) as he speaks of coffee, cocaine, hotels, desolation, aching bones and mean-eyed river snakes. His songwriting style has some of the same presence of the music of American singer-songwriter, Ramsay Midwood. Such is his rambling style. True Americana and soulful too. As on the wondrous ‘Mean-Eyed River Snake’ where he takes then listener on a journey through the American-south like few others I have ever heard. Such is the powerful lyrics, swirling electric guitar and punchy rhythm from members of the band who do a sterling job supporting Dead as they do throughout.

Although I could have done without the finale that is anything but grand. For ‘The Hallelujah Revolver’ is just too much and repetitive; hence it possesses nowhere near the impact of the yearning ‘Wreck Of A Ship’ where with minimal accompaniment it speaks of how he is a broken man and of just wants to hold her hand.

‘Coffee And Cocaine’ is a gritty, must hear blues folk song of a familiar feel but is non the worse for this, and with Dead at his story-telling best its simplicity is such the listener can’t help but be drawn, like the proverbial moth to the flame. To the degree on completion want nothing but than here it again. While of a more rocking feel ‘Jim Landstrom Must Die’ is set to a pulsating beat sure to effect people in a similar fashion. It could if you allow your imagination a little leverage be thought of as a song Jason Ringenberg of Jason And the Scorchers fame would record! Others of note include ‘Before I Die’, that at over six minutes and there are four others that match it and more in length. But here is the thing with most people it would be the kiss of death placing songs of that duration on a record yet with Jim that isn’t the case. ‘Hotel’ accompanied by acoustic guitar and harmonica contains a fine melancholy ambiance as he speaks of how he is broke and in need of money to be sent him. A story many people will readily relate to, as is the case with ‘My Heavy Heart, My Aching Bones’.

Enhanced by some wonderful slide guitar work it lasts for a meagre eighty-five seconds. If it weren’t for the length of others you would have felt cheated. So good is the short, sharp number.

- Maurice Hope, Americana-UK

What is Americana? The simple answer might be that it’s music (or literature, art) that refers to America, in particular to that continent’s (primarily the US of A) heritage. So a broad church with country, bluegrass, jazz, swing and god knows how many others getting a shout in. But are, for example, Kings of Leon Americana? U2? Jack Johnston? The answer of course is yes and no. Or rather, it depends. It depends on the singer, the song, the listener, the situation and for an awful lot of folk in the end it doesn’t matter. And perhaps therein is the rub. For if it does matter to you then you probably know the answer already.

Americana is a feel, an intuition, a knowledge of and respect for, well, Americana. It has depth, history, tradition. Tradition that harks back to the great immigrations that peopled the USA, that recalls the natives who were displaced by the newcomers, the poverty and violence experienced by the Negro slaves, the violence of the civil war, the culture that grew out of all of these. The tradition continued in modern times, the civil rights struggles, the protest songs, the discovery of their own culture by the late sixties generation which fed into the No Depression generation of the eighties which in itself reached back into the distant past also.

It’s easy for anyone anywhere in the world to be captivated by Hollywood cowboys, Lonnie Donegan records or books by Cormac McCarthy. Dig deeper and chances are you’ll find Americana, a fabulous land with a fabulous story. And best of all you don’t have to be American.

Jim Dead is a man who I reckon has done his fair share of digging. So much so that he inhabits a mythical Americana hometown, Deadsville. Deadsville is a mixture of all of the above however Dead has sculpted it into shape. A dust blown dread place with frontier justice, where gunslingers are replaced by guitar slingers, where the blues are amplified and dragged from the past and shot into Technicolor glory.

Calling up a new version of his band The Doubters consisting of Craig Hughes on guitar, James Duffin on bass and Tommy Duffin on percussion and harmonica, Dead offers up twelve songs that portray Deadsville as a scary place to be. Telling stories of lynchings, drugs and death the band walk throughout the landscape with a powerful swagger. Several of the songs here reach epic proportions both in length and delivery. The combination of Dead’s and Hughes’ guitars conjure up visions of Crazy Horse and the Drive By Truckers. While there are quieter moments such as the opening song Silence has No Place Here, Hotel, (with a touch of Willie Vlautin about it) and My Heavy Heart, My Aching Bones, there remains a sense of doom, of hopelessness in them. However the big hitters here are when the band plug in. The loping Bone Blue Moon has the feel of hank Williams backed by Creedence Clearwater, the song does indeed feel as if Dead is howling at the moon. Untitled has some spooky, almost psychedelic tinges, when Dead repeats the refrain Baby, Baby there is a sense of what could have been if Led Zeppelin were an American band. Hughes’ playing on this epic is spectacular, full of menace, coiled, ready to kill. Mean–Eyed River Snake is a mean tale of the death of a girl as retold by a confused, possibly pilled up youth who may have seen too many drive in horrors. It ends in a confusion of babbling while Hughes’ guitar rumbles in the background. The Hallelujah Revolver perhaps tries too hard here to achieve a proper dynamic, a gospel song from hell it’s the one song where the feel is muddied, Having seen a gobsmackingly good live version done by this line up of the band it’s possible we were spoiled beforehand. Honours must go to the stand out song here however. Jim Landstrom Must Die is a killer track. A deceptively jaunty riff leads into a sorry tale of a jive travelling salesman who gets lynched after selling bottles with “stars that fell from from the sky.” Peckinpaw in parts, “ hang him up by his legs, slit his throat so the streets turn ruby red” the band really gel with some tremendous bass playing and a cracking vocal performance from Dead.

If this album was by a crew from the south west of the USA chances are it would be hailed to the heavens. As it is it’s perhaps the best example I’ve heard so far of a local band setting up residence in that fabled Americana. Definitely one to buy.
- Paul Kerr, Blabber 'N' Smoke