Shotgun Jimmie

Maintaining his gift for writing clever, catchy pop songs with a palpably lazy, effortless charm, Shotgun Jimmie emerges from a beloved, now-defunct band with a great, gritty solo record. Perhaps darker but not as heavy as Jimmie’s recent work in Shotgun and Jaybird, The Onlys is lo-fi gold, mixing smart stream-of-conscious lyricism with flashes of broke down musical skill. Jimmie’s penchant for self-awareness is evident on the playful “Duet” and within the Neil Young squall of “Onomatopoeia.” Referencing an old gig as a morning drive time college DJ, Jimmie’s “Bedhead” is a quirky kind of pop perfection, a slurred, disorienting alarm clock jingle the Folk Implosion might have stumbled upon. Similarly, “Janitor’s Luck” is all heart, masking sly social commentary about the romanticised image of “starving artists” behind a slacker’s cadence. There’s a clean earnestness to something like “Big City Boi,” adding another convincing element to Shotgun Jimmie’s infectious The Onlys. (Delorean) - Exclaim!

At Marshwind Farms near Sackville, New Brunswick, is this guy, Shotgun Jimmie. He made this fine recording, The Onlys, which he’ll play for you November 17 at The Seahorse. Sometimes he sings from loneliness, not in a sad way necessarily---more like when you’re alone with your thoughts. You notice, as he does on “Summersound”, “the smell of the fresh cut summer-summer lawn/all the lupin are in bloom/the perfect mixture of scent and moisture.” The beauty of words, birds, sleep, night, earth’s rotation, late-night calls and souls who join in without wrecking the feeling. It’s all here on this gorgeous record of life at Marshwind Farms. - The Coast

Shotgun Jimmie, otherwise known as Jim Killpatrick, is the former frontman of the appropriately named indie outfit Shotgun & Jaybird (well the Shotgun part is appropriate, but Dick Morello is the other founding member, so I don't know where the Jaybird comes from). Shotgun & Jaybird was formed in the Yukon, Dawson City to be precise, when both Dick & Jimmie were living there. They ended up relocating to Sackville, New Brunswick and became a huge part of the scene there, along with fellow recent Sackvillian Julie Doiron, who also began to play with the band.

Unfortunately, Shotgun & Jaybird broke up earlier this year. However, out of that disappointment comes one very positive development - The Onlys, Shotgun Jimmie's first solo album since 2004's The 6000 True Stories Of Love. The album bio describes The Onlys as the "glowing results of a summer spent in seclusion, writing and recording in the parlour of Marshwinds Farm". You can certainly sense the simplicity of summer days spent on a farm throughout the album, but there's plenty of nuances to be found in the songs to ensure they're far from boring. In a way, Jimmie reminds me of John K. Sampson (and not just because the Weakerthans are everywhere right now, well maybe that has something to do with it). Both of them know how to tell an engaging story in a song without burying it in layer after layer of metaphor or symbolism. Layers can be good, but sometimes a simple, well-written song is just as good.

That simplicity is on display on album opener Duet, which meshes a meandering drum beat with keyboards and guitar stabs to provide a backdrop for Jimmie's playful lyrics that invite the user to join him for a song. I've used the term "sing-along" to describe songs before, but this I think this is the first time I've encountered a sing-along about a sing-along. So kudos are due for that. The garage rock of Sparkelution brings to mind the Halifax indie sounds of the 90's a little bit, and it's either about sparking the revolution or starting some kind of sparkler-based revolution. Either works for me. Summersound mixes heavy guitar chords with catchy strummed guitar to create a summery song that is, oddly enough, about a lovely, warm summer day.

As well as being the only song on the album to share a play on words with a Public Enemy album (1994's Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age), Muse Sick is a ukulele and drums based ode to having your muse remain your muse, not only for the sake of your art, but for your sanity as well. Very pretty little song. Bedhead is irresistible and probably my favorite song on the album. Driven by a peppy bassline and some twinkling keys, it's easily the catchiest song about oversleeping I've ever heard. Jimmie is joined on the vocals by Ilse Kramer, which helps it standout, and certainly the harmonica near the end doesn't hurt. I also like Janitor's Luck which is about the day jobs most artists need to help pay the bills. The album closes with cereal, which is about finding the perfect topping for a bowl of cereal, and it shows Jimmie's sense of humor. Always a good thing, as the indie rock biz tends to be rather serious most of the time.

The Onlys is the first release for Halifax's Delorean Recordings, and they've got a good one on their hands. - Herohill

This past spring brought the sad news that Shotgun & Jaybird would fly no longer. Instead of heading south, Shotgun Jimmie (Jim Killpatrick) stayed put, moved into Marshwinds Farm and recorded an artfully clumsy solo debut dubbed The Onlys for Delorean Records.

"In my bubble, I am Shotgun Jimmie," says Killpatrick. "The name came from back in high school, as it was a competition to sit in the passenger seat of someone else's van. I became very competitive and my friends started calling me Shotgun Jimmie, and it's just stuck."

Killpatrick fled the Ajax, Ont. scene to Dawson City, Yukon, where he formed Shotgun & Jaybird and then moved east to Sackville, N.B. They released four LPs and an EP before calling it a day and Shotgun Jimmie ventured out on his own.

"I recorded the album all by myself," explains Killpatrick. "I moved out to the farmhouse with 60 acres of land.

"I was living alone and thought, 'Whoa, dude, you're in your favourite place, you've got a home studio, you're totally not in Ajax anymore.' I still feel like a kid, but I have all this adult stuff. It's like there was no one around to tell me I couldn't make a record."

Solid tracks on the new album include the rhetorical "Onomatopoeia," a sparkling morning toe-tapper called "Bedhead," an indie rock ode to the 9 to 5 day job titled "Janitor's Luck" and the closest Shotgun Jimmie could ever come to penning a country ballad, "Big City Boi. - Chartattack