Jim White live review
This Jim White review is of his gig at the Barfly, Brighton on October 15th 2007.
Jim White is an American singer songwriter, often described as ‘Gothic country’, ‘twisted Americana’ and other such wordy categorisations. His albums are calm peaceful affairs, clever storytelling lyrics in the vein of the Handsome family combined with sparse soundscapes evoking dusty roads and open desserts. Hows that for a wordy description!
Jim White comes from Texas or so his songs would make it seem, I think it might actually be Florida. Stories about his past vary, tonight he tells us how he was a one time evangelical christian, cab driver and now of course singer, storyteller and film maker. I’m sure I once read somewhere that he used to be a boxer too, this seems hard to belive now, he’s a very tall slim chap and looks more like a librarian or shoe salesman. His 2 man backing band are quite distinctive too, 2 men, a large black guy with long dreads who looks a lot like Courtney Pine, and a skinny diminutive chap with redneck style beard and trucker cap, who is apparently an English professor. Oh yes0, and their Japanese drummer who doesn’t drink, ‘Casio’. He’s a drum machine by the way.
One of the best elements to Jims performance in my opinon are the stories he tells between songs. Tonights gig was fittingly at the same time as the Brighton Comedy Festival and these interludes could easily pass for stand up comedy. Jim White is a very funny man, and an experienced intelligent one at that. He’s now 50 years old and has a wife and kids, but it hasn’t always been this way and there’s a lot of wisdom to be gained from listening to him talk.
These stories cover a range of topics, tornado’s (that one was breathtaking), helping out the mentally ill, born again rockabilly nutters, and many more, but if I retold them to you here it would be pointless, like giving away the plot of a film. If you ever see him you can see those stories firsthand and thats the best way to hear them. Anyway – I’ll tell you a story of my own which I think Jim would appreciate.
Yesterday me and my girlfriend were watching Twin Peaks, the last episode in fact, and as is often the case we decided to eat some pie as they often do in the show. Cherry pie normally, but tonight it was apple and berries of some kind. We hadn’t touched the pie, and were half way through the episode when I suggested we start eating as soon as a pie appears on screen or someone mentions pie. We agree and seconds later on screen one charahter turns to another and says, out of the blue, ‘would you like some pie’! What a coincidence, so…we ate the pie. Whats this got to do with Jim White? Well, at a point toward the end of the set one of Jims guitarists starts to play a tune and Jim says ‘David Lynch’, then he pauses, ‘Twin Peaks’, pauses again ‘Pie’. Of course, this was only one night after the incident with the earlier pie.
Jim has a great voice, and he and his band are accomplished musicians, the songs range from bluegrass to soul, and sounded great tonight, transporting me from the depths of Brighton to some other place, perhaps a venue in Montana, or, better still, on the porch of an old shack drinking whisky and looking out to the mountains. American cliches, sure, but I’ve never done them so this is the closest I’ll get without flying off there. We were also treated to a rendition of last album highlight ‘If Jesus drove a motorhome’ which Jim admits is the greatest song ever written by a ‘human’. Here it is for you now:
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If i had one criticism of the gig it would be that it was a little long, he played for almost 2 hours. Saying that his audience are primarily older – upper income level athiest college professors apparently – and likely don’t go to a huge amount of gigs in the year. Some had come a long way too, and you want it to be worth your while. It would have been better still though in a seated place like the dome, or better still – St Georges Church, due perhaps to the religious nature of some of his lyrics. Only a born again christian for a couple of years, he does make the good point that rather than Christ die for our sins, god, without our permission, killed his son and blamed us.
At the end of the gig I met Jim White, he’s a lovely chap, and made sure he was by the cd stand to sign and meet the fans. He also drives the band himself on their van and sets out all the gear himself. A nicer more down to earth man you could not hope to meet, and its his personality that made this more than just another gig, but a truly special evening. Cheers Jim.
Footage from the gig
A town called Amen, from this Brighton Barfly gig
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10 miles to go on a 9 mile road
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Searching for the wrong eyed Jesus trailer
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Jim White Albums
Click any of the above images to buy.
Other places to go
First off if you missed this gig and live in Brighton make sure you don’t miss any more by bookmarking our Brighton gig listings page. There’s plenty more gigs like this listed, and its updated weekly.
Jim White’s website is worth investigating which is typically ramshackle and contains somewhere within it news, tour dates, videos and audio, a guestbook and a few notes from Jim.
On his record companies site lukabop there is an interview with David Byrne from Talking Heads which he did and some interesting photos.
Jim White’s myspace is one of the simplest and best designed I have ever seen and is by far the easiest way of checking tour dates, latest tracks and leaving a message.
I saw Jim White at the end of the road festival, that was a great gig too, despite him having laryngitus!
Excellent, and i forgot to mention the support – the feisty Jenny Owen Youngs. She would not have seemed out of place in a coffee shop or bar lounge performer but she really had a mouth on her and a bit of a twist in her lyrics. Check out her myspace.