James Hunter has certainly paid his dues. Over the span of 30 years, he’s worked on the railway, busked in the streets of London, provided backup vocals and guitar for Van Morrison, played clubs and theatres all over the world, written scores of original songs, and recorded some of the most original and honest rhythm & soul albums of the last two decades. By 2006, Hunter was recognized with nominations for a GRAMMY® Award (“Best Traditional Blues Album” for People Gonna Talk (Rounder)) and an American Music Award (“Best New/Emerging Artist”). He and his band then hit the road for a decade of extensive touring and recorded three additional critically-acclaimed studio albums— The Hard Way (Concord), Minute by Minute (Concord) and Hold On! (Daptone). By 2016, MOJO magazine had crowned him “The United Kingdom’s Greatest Soul Singer.”

On February 2, 2018, renowned soul label Daptone Records will release James Hunter’s most ambitious album to date, Whatever It Takes, offering ten new and original songs written by Hunter and recorded live to 8-track tape by Daptone’s two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Gabriel Roth.

At age 16, Hunter left school in Colchester, Essex and began working for the railway, while honing his blues guitar and singing skills. Six years later, he played his first paid gig at the Colchester Labour club (as “Howlin’ Wilf and the Vee-Jays”). In the decades since, James Hunter has gone from singer/songwriter to labourer and back again. After releasing one album in 1986, Hunter and his band became a popular fixture on the UK club circuit and radio waves. His gritty, soulful voice has matured well along with his musicianship and song writing.

In the early 90’s, Van Morrison recruited Hunter to sing backup on the road touring and on two albums, A Night in San Francisco and Day’s Like This. In the years to follow, Hunter opened shows for Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Willie Nelson, and Tom Petty, and headlined clubs and theatres in England, Europe, Australia and the United States.

Throughout his celebrated career, Hunter has remained true not only to his musical roots, but to his loyal bandmates—the newest of which joined him over 20 years ago. As always, he steps into the studio as one of the irreplaceable “The James Hunter Six”: Jonathan Lee, drums; Lee Badau, baritone saxophone; Damian Hand, tenor saxophone; Andrew Kingslow, keyboards/percussion; and Jason Wilson, bass.

Hunter’s latest album, Whatever It Takes, was inspired in part by his new wife, Jessie. Originally from New Jersey, Jessie met James when – after hearing him on the radio – she turned up at a show in New York City. A year later, they were married in New Orleans and now live in Brighton on the south coast of England. James dedicates three songs in particular to Jessie: “I Don’t Wanna Be Without You,” “I Got Eyes,” and “Whatever It Takes”—a song written to cheer her up during a rather grueling application process for UK residency.

Whatever It Takes is The James Hunter Six’s third album working with Roth (AKA Bosco Mann,) who has long been a fan of Hunter’s songwriting and appreciates his voice “not only for its natural beauty and grit, but for its honesty.” And Hunter, an equally uncompromising stickler when it comes to his music, notes that, “it’s a rare thing when a producer knows what you’re going for before you’ve told him. It’s good to be associated with a record company that ‘gets’ us.”

It’s been 10 years since the Englishman James Hunter burst onto the scene with his U.S. debut People Gonna Talk (GO/Rounder 2006), topping the Billboard Blues chart, earning a Grammy-nomination, and attracting universal acclaim from critics and his fans—including Van Morrison, Sharon Jones, and Allen Toussaint. Over the last decade, he’s toured extensively around the world on the club, theatre, and festival circuits, steadily growing a dedicated audience comprised of hardened gig-goers, old-school baby boomers, and young hipsters alike.  His follow-ups The Hard Way and Minute By Minute (GO/Fantasy), further cemented Hunter’s reputation as a soul powerhouse, heralded for his talents both as a live performer and perhaps even more so as a songwriter, with The New Yorker describing his “tight, taut compositions” as “rooted in American soul music without being bound to it.”

Now Hunter is back with his fourth album, Hold On! marking his debut on Daptone Records, America’s premier soul imprint and Hunter’s second collaboration with famed producer Gabriel Roth aka Bosco Mann.  It also marks a cumulative and consecutive total of 48 original songs written exclusively by Hunter, without resorting to a single covered recording. At age 53, Hunter feels he has finally found his home for making music.  “The great thing about working with Gabe is that he can get our tunes on tape exactly the way I heard them in my head when I was writing them,” explained Hunter.  “It’s a rare thing when a producer knows what you’re going for before you’ve told him.  It’s good to be associated with a record company that ‘gets’ us.”

Hunter feels he has finally found his home for making music.

And the feeling is mutual.  From Roth’s perspective, “In today’s R&B world, littered with retro-soul cronies, ear-twisting melisma, and hollow affectations, James has a voice that stands out not only for its natural beauty and grit, but for its honesty.  His songwriting shares the masterful architecture and the inspired creativity of Smokey Robinson, each rhyme and rhythm crafted meticulously, somehow twisting familiar themes into unfamiliar new shapes.”

In May 2015, James and his longtime trusted bandmates (Jonathan Lee, drums; Lee Badau, baritone saxophone; Damian Hand, tenor saxophone; Andrew Kingslow, keyboards/percussion; Jason Wilson, bass) returned to the Roth’s Penrose Recorders in Riverside, California (AKA Daptone West) to cut Hold On! live to 8-track tape.

Though tunes like “(Baby) Hold On”, “If That Don’t Tell You”, and “Stranded” carry the buoyant energy, crackerjack arrangements, and tough soulful pulse for which the band has become renown, the true treasures of this LP may lie in the deeper grooves.  Rumbas, boleros, bossanovas, and easy rockers, each one swinging more than the last:  “This Is Where We Came In”, “Something’s Calling”, “A Truer Heart”, “Light of My Life”, “In The Dark” – no clichéd throwback nods to a-time-gone-by here.  These are forever songs crafted with immaculate care and ingenuity and sang with an effortless balance of tenderness and grit.  The word “authentic” will be bandied about this album, but it really has no place here.  Hunter’s words are truly his own and though at moments his voice may “evoke” Ray Charles or Sam Cooke, there lies an inherent naturalness in these songs that bucks any comparison past or present.

James Hunter was born Neil James Huntsman in Colchester, Essex in October 1962.  He left school at 16 to work mending signal boxes on the railways.  Introduced to rock’n’roll and rhythm’n’blues via his grandmother’s collection of old 78s, he quickly fell in love with the genre and began to develop his sound as a teenager.  His first experience of playing live didn’t occur until he was 22, when his group performed at Colchester Labour club (“we were dreadful”), but his career swiftly started swinging as powerfully and jubilantly as his music.  Adopting the moniker Howlin’ Wilf in honour of one of his biggest inspirations, in 1986 he cut an album titled ‘Cry Wilf’ for the independent Big Beat label with backing band The Vee-jays.  Early the following year, he enjoyed his big break when the band made an appearance on Channel 4’s Friday teatime music show The Tube.

Howlin’ Wilf & The Vee-Jays became a popular fixture on the UK club circuit, and in the early ‘90s they caught the eye of Van Morrison, who asked them to back him at the Belfast Telegraph Awards in 1991. Subsequently, Hunter was invited to sing backing vocals with Morrison’s touring band – he appears on 1994’s A Night In San Francisco live CD and on 1995’s studio album ‘Days Like This’.  Returning the compliment, the Belfast soul man sings on Hunter’s 1996 album Believe What I Say.

By the early 2000s, however, Hunter found himself down on his luck and working as a labourer in west London but soon realised it was more lucrative and better fun to earn a living busking.  The low point came when a homeless female squatted down and relieved herself in front of him while he performed in the street (“Everyone’s a critic!”).  Slowly pulling himself out of this slough of despond, with his trusted Six he cut the album that would ignite his career – 2006’s People Gonna Talk, and relaunch his career.

In the decade since, Hunter has worked tirelessly on the road and in the studio, honing is craft. However Hold On! is something deeper than just another notch in his belt.  From the driving stompers, to the bubbling rumbas, the record drips with the rawness and feeling that Daptone fans have become accustomed to, and cuts straight to the soul of the man who James Hunter fans have come to love.  It is truly an artist’s vision come to fruition.