James Hunter

Renowned for his distinctive reedy tenor and signature phrasing, James Hunter ranks among the leading British blue-eyed soul vocalists to surface in the closing decades of the twentieth century. His output draws on 1950s rhythm & blues, positioned at the intersection of R&B, early rock & roll, and initial soul. Guest contributions from Doris Troy and Van Morrison appear on his first solo album, the 1994 release ...Believe What I Say. Hunter also contributed to several of Morrison’s mid-’90s recordings. As a guitarist and songwriter, he demonstrated those abilities on 2001’s Kick It Around and 2008’s The Hard Way. Gabriel Roth produced 2013’s Minute by Minute for Concord, after which Hunter joined the producer’s Daptone label for 2016’s Hold On!. His recent marriage provided the impetus for 2018’s Whatever It Takes. In 2022 Daptone issued the twelve-song JH6 compilation With Love.

Born into a working-class English household in Colchester, Essex, Hunter received his earliest exposure to rock & roll and rhythm & blues through 78s passed down by his grandmother. His older brother Perry Huntsman, Hunter’s birth surname, showed him his first guitar chord (“G”). By age ten, vintage roots music, vocal performance, and guitar playing had become his central pursuits. After leaving school at sixteen, he took a railroad job while refining his instrumental and vocal skills. Six years later he played his debut paid engagement at the Colchester Labour club under the name Howlin’ Wilf & the Vee-Jays. In 1986, at twenty-four, the group released Cry Wilf, the first of four independently issued albums. The 1987 mini-album Blue Men Sing the Whites came next, followed in 1988 by Unamerican Activities, which earned Hunter European recognition. Their last recording together was 1990’s 6 by Six.

Van Morrison attended a Howlin’ Wilf & the Vee-Jays performance at the 100 Club on Oxford Street and was impressed by Hunter’s voice. Once the Vee-Jays disbanded, Morrison engaged Hunter as backing vocalist and guitarist alongside Candy Dulfer and Kate St. John. Hunter appears on Morrison’s live 1994 set A Night in San Francisco and the 1995 album The Healing Game. Morrison reciprocated by performing on Hunter’s 1998 solo debut for Ace Records, ...Believe What I Say.

Hunter composed the majority of songs for his 2001 album Kick It Around. Go Records/Rounder signed him several years afterward, resulting in the widely acclaimed 2006 release People Gonna Talk, which earned a 2006 Grammy nomination. After departing Rounder he moved to Hear Music and issued The Hard Way in 2008. While touring, his wife Jacqueline received a cancer diagnosis; he paused his schedule to care for her until her death in October 2011.

Wishing to recognize the musicians who had accompanied him since the early 1990s, Hunter resumed recording as the James Hunter Six. In 2012 the group collaborated with producer Bosco Mann (Gabriel Roth), co-founder of Daptone Records. Go Records released Minute by Minute in February 2013. The James Hunter Six maintained an intensive touring schedule, headlining prominent clubs and festivals while sharing bills with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, and additional acts. Impressed by both the music and the rapport shared with Daptone artists, Roth added Hunter to the label.

In 2015 the James Hunter Six returned to Roth at Penrose Recorders (also known as Daptone West) in Riverside, California, recording live to eight-track tape. From roughly thirty-five new originals spanning varied rhythms, they selected ten tracks. The single “Something’s Calling” appeared on 22 January 2016, followed a month later by the full-length Hold On! on Concord. That year Mojo magazine named Hunter “The United Kingdom’s Greatest Soul Singer.” While touring England, Europe, and the United States, he met his second wife, Jesse.

2018’s Whatever It Takes comprises ten original compositions exploring numerous rhythms and was captured live to eight-track analog tape in the studio. Issued in February 2018 and produced by Mann, the album preceded a nine-month world tour. Its title track together with the singles “I Don’t Wanna Be Without You” and “I Got Eyes” were shaped by Hunter’s affection for Jesse; the title song served as support during her demanding effort to obtain United Kingdom residency.

The James Hunter Six reunited with Mann for 2020’s Nick of Time. Its opening single, the midtempo rhumba “I Can Change Your Mind,” continued the band’s exploration of vintage dance rhythms. The record surfaced in early March amid a U.S. tour that was soon canceled because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Two years afterward Daptone released With Love, a collection of twelve romantic ballads and songs drawn from the label’s catalog.