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"I'm a middle class Brummie from snobby Sutton Coldfield. I've got a house, I've got a job, I've got a girlfriend and my football team's doing all right." Impressive then that James Summerfield often sounds like he could be holed up in some moss hung Appalachian cabin, sitting on the porch, banjo on his lap and bottle of hooch at his side, swapping Southern gothic songs of misery and murder with preacher men and moonshiners, pausing occasionally to gaze wistfully at those faded pin up posters of Gillian Welch and Will Oldham. It could, of course, have gone horribly different. Forced to play piano from the age of eight, music had become a bit of a chore for young James until his mate got a guitar. Naturally he wanted to play one too. Which was when he started listening to Def Leppard and Guns 'n' Roses. Fortunately for devotees of stripped down Americana, James also happened upon both Sparklehorse's Vivadixie album and NeilYoung's Southern Man. The dye was cast. Having taught himself to play dobro, mandolin and banjo as well as guitar, looking to join a band he stuck a card in the window of a local music shop. Within days he got a call from Craig Hamilton, who just happened to work in a record shop with Julian from Grand Drive. And so was born Buick 6 and James's musical horizons expanded to embrace Wilco, The Jayhawks and Gram Parsons. Signed to Birmingham's Bearos Records, in 2002 Buick 6 released the quite wonderful Drunk On My Porch, earning glowing reviews and a Peel Session. Then, hard to believe I know, but another Buick 6 surfaced; an Irish folk band of all things who claimed they'd got there first. And so was born The Toques. A second well received single, Too Tired To Worry, followed as did a second Peel Session, this time an unlikely clutch of covers that included The Human League's Louise done Nashville. In September 2003 James decided to unhitch the wagon and go solo. "We'd kind of lost our way," he says. "So I decided to strip back the music and concentrate on the story behind the song. All I really want is to be a musician." Result? "A song writer of real flair" as www.Americana-uk.com so sagely put it a few months later in reviewing his self-penned, self-produced and almost totally self-played debut mini-album Hailah, Hailah with its yearning lap steel, soulful Hammond and bible black violin. And, since you really never can have too much of grainy folk blues vocals and pine sap oozing from dark twangy guitars, James quickly followed this up with Hailah Hailah the live EP, Sophie Johnson and Jamie Fekete from top rated Birmingham based bluegrass outfit Toy Hearts (and the equally nifty flamenco combo Trio Gitano) joining in proceedings on dobro and mandolin. As you read this, continuing the pulmonary perfection of his collaboration with Toy Hearts, James is putting the finishing touches to his as yet untitled second album. That moss hung Appalachian cabin sounds more lived in, his voice cracked and dusty like the leaves strewn along the porch where the preacher men and moonshiners have been joined by backwoods angels to share songs about drinking dirty water in God's name, almost killing someone, bullied schoolboys and being scared of spiders. Those faded pin up posters of Gillian Welch and Will Oldham are still staring down, and you know, I'd swear they're smiling PS. His team's Aston Villa if you're interested REVIEWS: What a courageous and brilliant start to an album, "There were spiral bloodspots on the ceiling / I was woken by all the screaming", James's voice totally unaccompanied on the opening song 'Drunk In Montreal': an echo of the great folk tradition that weaves a thread throughout. 'Road Killers' is bright, breezy and bouncy, a country-folk tale of a road accident about to happen, charming and macabre in equal amounts. The waltz of 'You Got Me To Blame' is slow and delicious, great chorus with fiddle and mandolin splashing colour across its canvas. The shortest song on offer, 'Now I'm Your Man', just James and guitar, has great lines comparing men and women, concluding that "It's not so hard being a man" based on the observation that childbirth is one mother (sorry, no pun intended) of a thing for women to have to cope with. 'Self Retribution' is the closest to a full blown epic with swirling pedal steel and swooning backing vocals. 'Glory Mark' is a country hop with banjo, fiddle and harmonica dancing their way around the slightly bemused sounding vocals. Nursery rhymes come to mind when listening to 'Spider On The Window' a banjo led waltz that could easily be sung in schools throughout the country. The album closes with the title track and in a flight of fancy I imagine the addition of drums and electric guitar that could see the song nestle comfortably within the confines of an Uncle Tupelo or early Wilco album, but great in its own format anyway. James Summerfield has a strange but pleasing vocal style that suggests authenticity but arrives just one step short, no bad things as it offers a style that is quite unique. His songs are intriguing and sufficiently varied to hold your attention throughout and the playing is infused with great enthusiasm and verve. Great stuff. Author: Christopher Stevens http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=2511 "Summerfield is a decent songwriter.. 'Road Killers' brings to mind Lowell George's 'Willin'', 'You Got Me To Blame' is paced out like Gillian Welch at her Bible-black best" - Uncut *** Its always gives you a warm glow to see someone about whom you know nothing for the first time, someone who rocks you back on your heels a bit, makes you think "Now this guy could amount to something". And so it is with James Summerfield who opens tonights show. In the space of twenty-five minutes he performs half a dozen excellent songs, the highlights of which are "Whistling for Christmas and "You Saved Me". Performing solo and acoustically, he wins over the audience with his casual intensity, nicely interspersed with between-song self-deprecating interludes. Definitely a cut above your average singer-songwriter, and someone to watch. http://www.americana-uk.com/html/live_reviews.html James Summerfield "Hailah Hailah" (Bearos Records 2004). This album is a slow burning delight with its origins very firmly rooted in these fair isles in which we live. For some reason best known to himself, Summerfield has divided the songs into three seemingly random sections (painter's songs anyone?). Most of the tracks adopt a minimalist approach with the notable exception of 'The devil in me', which is the jaunty highlight of the record. By the end of the disc two things are apparent. Firstly this album is a little too slight to get a really high rating. However, Summerfield is a song writer of real flair and has made a very promising record. DW. http://www.americana-uk.com/html/july_2004.html Formerly guitarist with Birmingham alt-country outfits Buick 6 and then The Toques (same band, different name), Summerfield's now gone solo. However, his debut album (on which he plays virtually everything, including lap steel and banjo) remains musically allied to Americana, albeit much of it heading into the sparse, darker moss hung territory of ghostly bluegrass frequented by the likes of Gillian Welch, Gabe Minnikin and the Handsome Family. Divided - apparently at random - into Road Trip, Painters and Sleepy songs, each section announced by a brief scraping of bible black violin, it's a remarkably authentic sounding collection that could easily have been recorded in some backwoods mountain cabin, preacher man and moonshiners gathered round the table to partake of shared misery, decaying hymns and murder ballads. Although the banjo tickling Whistling For Christmas and The Devil In Me with its English folk undercurrents are fairly jaunty numbers, Summerfield's prevalent approach is stripped down Southern gothic moodiness, oozing pine sap from his dark twangy guitar, double tracked folk blues grained voice inching wearily across the dank vegetation of the melodies. With the slow waltzing Mrs Charlton The Second, an achingly sad This House I Pass (which borrows a few musical lines from Leadbelly's Goodnight Irene), the rumblingly earthy six minute Lightening Oak (on which the Neil Young influence is readily apparent) and the tender swaying hurt of Saltwater Running providing the stand-outs, perhaps he'll get to fulfil the alt-country promise his former band never delivered. By Mike Davies http://netrhythms.com/reviewss.html#summerfield Check out the artist's website: http://www.jamessummerfield.co.uk Track List: 1. Drunk in Montreal 2. You Got Me Blame 3. The Barber's Son 4. Son O Gold 5. Now I'm Your Man 6. Self -Retribution 7. Glory Mark 8. Spider on the Window 9. Hard to See 10. Paint the Road Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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