Photo: Jim Herrington

Today, The James Hunter Six has unveiled its love-struck single and official music video for “Gun Shy,” the final preview of their impending LP, Off The Fence, which arrives tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 16, via Easy Eye Sound. The track centers around Hunter’s lyrical expression of nervousness derived from a romantic interest–the knot-like twist in physical recognition of feelings and indulgent longing for the one. 

The jazz-stoked expression arrives in visual form, coaxing a retro throughline, with the video’s Jetsons-like decor providing bouncing shapes and abstract geometrics, stylized with space-age motifs like starbursts, arrows, and other visual cues that complement the lyrics. Along with the music video’s nature, the song carries a sense of timelessness that might well appeal to Hunter’s 40-year tenure as a high mark of British soul and rhythm & blues. 

Joining Hunter on the LP are Myles Weeks (double bass), Rudy Albin Petschauer (drums), Andrew Kingslow (keyboards, percussion), Michael Buckley (baritone saxophone), and Drew Vanderwinckel (tenor saxophone). 

Providing the track’s backstory, Hunter explains: “I had heard the phrase ‘gun-shy’ before but didn’t know what it meant, although I assumed it had more than a literal application. When Myles Weeks, our bass player, mentioned he had a concept for a song with that title, he outlined the theme as being that of someone being nervously reluctant to declare their romantic intentions. I asked him if he minded if I wrote it, and he graciously said yes.”

“As per my usual ‘Thesaurus method’ of song-writing, I threw a pile of ballistics-related terms on the table and set about arranging them into verses. Once I’d stuffed them into a spare tune I had lying around, we committed it to tape.” Hunter continues. 

Reflecting on the making of the visual component of today’s release, Hunter says, “Then it was time to make the video. One dark December evening, my wife Jessie accompanied me to a studio in a Victorian-era warehouse in Tichborne Street, in the North Laines, Brighton. Our director, James Slater, filmed me prancing about and lip-syncing on a big sheet of paper unfurled from a roller suspended from the ceiling. I had a blast.”

Off The Fence will arrive on Friday, Jan. 16, and offers listeners 12 jazz-soaked expressions, lifting the very best of Hunter’s skill set. Tomorrow’s release represents the artist’s 11th studio LP, arriving 40 years after his debut album in 1986. It marks a reunion with old friend Van Morrison (an early supporter and collaborator), who appears on the album track “Ain’t That a Trip.”

For more information on The James Hunter Six and their impending live schedule, visit www.jameshuntermusic.com. 

Watch the official music video for “Gun Shy” below.

Off The Fence Tracklist

1. Two Birds One Stone 

2. Let Me Out Of This Love 

3. Gun Shy 

4. Believe It When I See It 

5. Here And Now 

6. Off The Fence 

7. Ain’t That A Trip (feat. Van Morrison) 

8. One For Ripley 

9. Trouble Comes Calling 

10. Particular 

11. A Sure Thing 

12. Only A Fool