Just Who Is James Hunter?

This is what I asked Tommy when he told me that Jason and Holly were coming to Atlanta, and wanted us to meet them and others at this guy's concert. (This was a birthday surprise for Holly.) Now I know that the shagettes and shaggers are just bent over laughing, but remember I live with Tommy and he doesn't play white music. When he hears me play a Steve Tyrell or a Rod Stewart CD, he leaves the room and on some occasions, leaves the house!

So last night we went. He was appearing at a nasty joint called Smith's Olde Bar. This is a fire trap ready to explode. My apologies to the owners, but the Atlanta Fire Department really needs to make a visit. The show was upstairs (wooden) which added to my fears. At one point, Steve, who came with this wife, Donna, from Raleigh, pointed out the AC units over our heads with unknown inches of filth on the filters. Good thing it wasn't warm weather or those units would be blowin' asbestos and vermin all over the room. It reminded me of those old college bars (the UL at Marshall) where you couldn't distinguish if the odor you were smelling was beer, cigarettes, fried food... I could go on, you know. It had that scent that we have all experienced. I think there was a little scent of dope in the air as we entered the room. Kind of a unique welcome, don't you think? But this wasn't what I was going to write about. Enough background, I think you get the point. Besides Butch said many times how he liked the place. Poor thing.

We arrived early, around 6 p.m. James was going to come on around 10, so we had lots of time to get ready. There were people from North Carolina and South Carolina, and, of course, many locals. Four guys came who rented an RV for the trip from Charlotte. I swear if I didn't know better, one of them was Milton N.'s son. We all know that Milton has never claimed to have a child, but this kid makes you think. They were sloshed, so I don't know if that vehicle is still parked at the curb, or if they made it back to Charlotte. The names that come to mind who were in attendance are: Jason, Holly, Mary, Clyde, Butch, Steve, Donna, George, Jeff, Dana, Scott (Milton's child), Tommy and myself. There were others from the world of shag, but I didn't get their names.

At eight o'clock, the red light came on and we went upstairs. Thirty minutes later, a small band entertained (?) us for an hour and then around ten, James and his band came on. I really like his music. Tommy thinks all of the songs sound the same. James is a friendly, outgoing guy. It's kind of hard to understand what he's saying when he speaks to the audience because he has such a heavy British accent, but when he sings the accent disappears and in some songs he sounds like the old black artists from back in the day. The audience seemed to know all of his songs and James was impressed that so many sang along with him. The band was great, especially the two guys who played saxophones.

If you too, don't know who James Hunter is and would like to hear a bit, go to: http://eventful.com/performers/James Hunter, and then go to the videos. I liked the one titled, "Walk Away."

Here's something that you need to know. James can be bought. Steve wrote a song title on a ten dollar bill and Butch handed it to him. Three songs later, he was performing Steve's requested song. Now that I think about it, maybe Tommy would take requests if the pavilion people would write their requested song on a twenty dollar bill. That's the ticket! Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Holly! It was fun.