The music pendulum always swings. Thankfully, we’ve seen a resurgence in the past couple years of remarkable blue-eyed soul/R&B. Think of Nathaniel Rateliffe or Saint Paul and The Broken Bones, acts that have each recently sold out The Palace. Yet each has a ways to go in order to catch up to Daptones Records’ James Hunter Six. Hunter will do two shows at The Dakota on April 27. A few tickets still remain HERE.
Despite the genre originating in the United States and being most closely related to Stax Records, Irishman Van Morrison is certainly one of the heavyweights of the scene. Hunter cut his teeth working as guitar player and vocalist’s in Van The Man’s band. Along the way, Hunter has garnered both Grammy and AMA nominations. His band has toured with everybody from Aretha Franklin, Etta James to Tom Petty.
“James Hunter is one of the best voices, and best kept secrets, in British R&B and soul.”
– Van Morrison
I can personally attest to how good this band is. I caught them at a large music festival about 5 years ago. They tore the place up. The thought of packing all that juicy goodness into the intimate confines of The Dakota is exciting. Like Lucinda Williams said on her recent stop in town: “Often the best artists are the ones flying just under the radar.” These are the artists who will never fit squarely into the 9 dots that brings fame and fortune. Instead, they do their own thing. And they do it as well as anybody on the planet. She could have been speaking specifically about James Hunter.
