How cool is it that my 82-year old Mom will travel across the country to spend a month with me and my wife and my three crazy kids? It’s totally cool. She heads back east tomorrow and the star fish is waving goodbye. (BTW: She digs all this stuff…tapping her toes to Social D. on the way to buy school supplies…you rock, Mom!)

Bob Dylan – Bye and Bye
Bay City Rollers – Bye Bye Baby
Bert Kaempfert – Bye Bye Blues
Mary Wells – Bye Bye Baby
G. Love And Special Sauce – Bye Bye Baby
Social Distortion – Bye Bye Baby
Ray Charles – Bye Bye Love
Thelonius Monk – Bye-Ya

I have to ask you: is there anyone out there who doesn’t dig James Hunter?

Sure, he’s singing straight from the Sam Cooke/Ray Charles Hymnal of Southern Soul (with a touch of Jimmy Scott and Van Morrison) but who cares? The cat does it so well.

Analog recording, horns deep in the mix, background vocs with character to spare, strings plucked when needed, love and heartbreak intertwined, life as we know it.

There are hints of all those soulful influences (and more) but, in the end, it never sounds like anyone but Hunter himself.

My favorite, the one that got played all day today:

James Hunter – Jacqueline