James Grant played a pivotal role in cementing Glasgow, Scotland’s status as a breeding ground for intelligent, emotionally rich pop throughout the 1980s via his tenures in Friends Again and Love and Money. Early notice arrived through Friends Again via 1983 singles “State of the Art” and “Honey at the Core,” before he assembled the dusky, sophisti-pop group Love and Money. After a series of well-received albums with that band, he launched his solo path with 1998’s Sawdust in My Veins, pursuing a more intimate style. He has sustained a devoted Scottish audience, periodically rejoining Love and Money and delivering further releases such as 2005’s Holy Love and 2017’s And the Hallelujah Strings.
Born in Glasgow’s Castlemilk district, Grant initially aspired to professional football, yet also absorbed rock influences from David Bowie, Slade, and Led Zeppelin. In 1982 he entered the punchy new wave band Friends Again, whose sound merged Aztec Camera’s jangly guitar lines with Bowie’s funk explorations. Friends Again issued their lone LP, Trapped and Unwrapped, in 1984 before Grant exited to develop his own songwriting voice.
He founded Love and Money in 1985, at first favoring a jazzy, rock-driven approach. The group cut its debut album All You Need Is in 1986, yet the record failed to match the commercial promise signaled by the single “Candybar Express.” Love and Money’s follow-up Strange Kind of Love moved 250,000 copies, though Grant’s artistic aims increasingly diverged from Phonogram’s corporate demands. Disputes surfaced over the direction of 1991’s Dogs in the Traffic, which sold just 25,000 units; after the label declined to support 1994’s Littledeath, the band was dropped and soon disbanded.
Grant’s first solo album Sawdust in My Veins appeared to strong critical response in 1998, spotlighting his evocative, autobiographical material and contributions from instrumentalist Donald Shaw, singer Karen Matheson, drummer James MacKintosh, and others. He continued in 2000 with My Thrawn Glory, again featuring many of those same musicians. Two years later came I Shot the Albatross, setting poems by Edwin Morgan, e.e. cummings, and William Blake to music. Returning to original songs with the introspective Holy Love in 2004, the set included a guest appearance by dobro player Jerry Douglas. His fifth solo effort, the buoyant Strange Flowers, surfaced in 2009. In 2011 Grant rejoined Love and Money for a concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and the following year the group released its fifth studio album The Devil’s Debt. He resumed solo work with And the Hallelujah Strings in 2017.
