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| Personnel James Hunter vocals guitar Lisa Liu Daphne Chen Leah Katz violin Adrienne Woods cello Damian Hand flute tenor saxophone Lee Badau baritone saxophone Andrew Kingslow piano vibraphone percussion Kyle Koehler organ Jason Wilson double bass Jon Lee drums background vocals Kip Wirtzfeld background vocals Photographer Geoff Woods Five years between records can be a long time for most artists James Hunter s not one of them He s always recorded sporadically preferring to be a road warrior He went through some rough stuff between 2008 s The Hard Way and 2012 namely the diagnosis illness and eventual death of his wife Jacqueline in 2011 from cancer Minute by Minute is billed to the James Hunter Six it s an acknowledgment and thank you to his band - Lee Badau baritone saxophone Damian Hand tenor saxophone Kyle Koehler organ Jonathan Lee drums and Jason Wilson double bass who ve been playing with him for over 20 years The set also marks the first time the Essex songwriter has recorded in America Beautifully and organically produced and engineered by Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth and completely self-written Minute by Minute is Hunter s most consistent collection of songs They are drenched in his familiar meld of Sam Cooke Jackie Wilson Bobby Blue Bland and the Five Royales but one can also hear the great British soul-blues of early Graham Bond in the mix - every producer but Roth has missed this about Hunter the Britishness in his take on American soul and R amp B Hunter knows it s impossible to emulate his idols but he can - and does - reveal how much their influence means to him as a modern musician His voice here is more weathered but also far more expressive he takes chances with it he hasn t before Whether it s the rolling pop of horns and B-3 on opener Chicken Switch the put-up-or-shut-up James Brown-tinged phrasing in Drop on Me or the rhythmic nod to Evil Ways in t |
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