JAMES HOUSE
AND THE BLUES COWBOYS
VICTOR HOUSE RECORDS
JAIL HOUSE BLUES–ARKANSAS WOMAN–AIN’T NO WAY–LONG WAY DOWN–GOOD LOVE
MOVING ON OVER–WELL RAN DRY–GONE AGAIN–BOOMERANG–BALLAD OF THE IKINGS
For years, James House has been writing songs for other folks, such as Martina McBride, Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa, and Dwight Yoakam, to name just a few, while his fans have been clamoring for him to cut an album of his own. That time has finally arrived, with the release of the self-titled “James House And The Blues Cowboys.” Recorded in his rural Nashville studio, Cabin In The Woods, James uses a unique “Side A” and “Side B” format to present these ten originals, each batch of five featuring different musicians.
Side A features James on vocals, guitar, and keys, and also has Nashville’s Will Kimbrough on guitars. Highlights included the set-opener, the swampy tale of a young man with “too much time on my hands,” leading to those “Jail House Blues,” where, “I’ll never see the light of day.” “Ain’t No Way” deals with a lover that there’s just no gettin’ over, even after tears, whisky, and moving away! That same feeling of hopelessness after an affair ends is the theme of “Long Way Down,” complete with those “hounds of Hell barking right outside my door!”
Side B again features James on vocals, guitar, and keys, and this side utilizes the guitar talents of Lou Toomey, Todd Sharp, and our long-time acquaintance, Kenny Greenberg, whom we first met when he backed Bobby Bradford’s Blues Band down at Cantrell’s, circa 1980! This lineup is responsible for perhaps the set’s most unique cut, the story of a man’s emotions that are so powerful that, when things go South, there ain’t enough tears to cry, “Well Ran Dry.” “Boomerang” is the set’s most bluesy cut, with a backbeat heavy on the John Lee Hooker influence, as our lovers seem to be “off” as much as they are “on,” and the whole thing “keeps coming back to you and me!”
James House creates songs from his soul to which we can all relate, and has a voice that was perhaps best described by Beth Hart—“pure emotion, heart-breaking and soul-calming at the same time.” Enjoy the fine original blues that comprise “James House And The Blues Cowboys!” Until next time…Sheryl and Don Crow, The Nashville Blues Society.
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