If the stature of an artist can be measured by the company he keeps, then Colin James is soaring near the stratosphere. Chasing the Sun, the blues-rock singer-songwriter’s electrifying 21st studio album, features the kind of towering musical guests typically found on the other side of velvet ropes.
These include Americana icon Lucinda Williams, bassist Darryl Jones and drummer Charley Drayton, who have backed Miles Davis and The Rolling Stones, to name just two both have played with, plus American harmonica ace Charlie Musselwhite and gospel greats Ann and Regina McCrary.
Playing with those performers, James confirms, “was insane. I’m a huge Miles Davis fan and I had to be careful not to inundate Darryl with questions about him.”
Though the guests were corralled by James’ frequent collaborator and dear friend, musical titan Colin Linden — who co-produced the album with James at his Pinhead Recorders studio in Nashville last November, adding guitars, bass, and dobro across the album’s 11 tracks — the artists themselves showed up for James.
And not just because he is one of the planet’s most technically accomplished and widely acclaimed guitarists, not to mention a heck of a showman. Chasing the Sun’s seven originals, penned by James alongside a constellation of equally gifted songwriters including longtime sidekick Tom Wilson of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, plus two members of rock maulers The Trews and assorted bold-face others, are some of the most dazzling of James’ long and varied career.
His four expertly chosen covers, meanwhile, confirm James’ extraordinary stylistic versatility, as he elevates tracks by John Hammond, Paul Butterfield, Linden, and Lucinda Williams herself, on the album’s sinewy opener and single, “Protection.”
Williams adds trademark raspy vocals to the song. Even a veteran like James, who has gigged with giants from Keith Richards to Buddy Guy to the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan, felt a smidge queasy covering a song by an artist he adores and who was standing, like, right there, while he was singing.
“Oh yeah,” the eight-time JUNO Award winner and Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame inductee howls from hometown Vancouver. “Lucinda is such a revered songwriter, such a legend. But she’s so nice. And hearing our voices together on tape was such a pleasure.”
It’s no exaggeration to say that all of Chasing the Sun — the title lifted from a lyric on the album’s spare, slow-burning closer, “Open Your Mind” — is an absolute pleasure. The album’s highly accessible songs reflect the relaxed and convivial atmosphere of both the writing sessions, which mainly happened in Wilson’s Hamilton, ON home, and its recording in Linden’s “purpose-built,” 1,000 square-foot, standalone home studio in his Nashville backyard.
“It’s so exciting for me to work with an artist who is such a close friend and is still just getting better and better,” says Linden, who has produced five previous albums with James, dating back to 1997’s award-winning National Steel, and who met the guitarist when both were teenagers essaying the Canadian folk festival circuit.
“Colin is still so engaged with his own artistic development,” Linden continues. “And it just got better every time we dug in deeper, which is not always the way it is. There are some places on the record where I can’t tell if it’s me or him playing guitar, even though we play differently. There is this blending of styles indicative of the vibe of serving the music.”
And the music they’re serving absolutely kicks it. Take “I’m Still Alive,” a goosebump-raising gospel-blues corker propelled by the testimonial purr of B3 organ (courtesy Reese Wynans) and the surging vocals of the McCrary sisters.
“I think the idea of staying alive in the music business was kind of in our minds with that one,” James says. “It’s hard to stay in the game long-term. I’ve been lucky enough to change styles when I needed to, and to adapt and move through the changes in music and stay alive in an active and present way.”
Fittingly, James nods to rock ‘n’ roll with “Star Studded Sky” and, especially, “This Song Kills Hate,” a pair of string-shredding scorchers penned by a sextet of diversely talented writers including James, Wilson, Wilson’s son Thompson Wilson, keyboardist Jesse O’Brien plus Colin MacDonald and John-Angus MacDonald of The Trews.
“As a guitar player, Colin is second to none,” John-Angus MacDonald offers. “There were times in the writing room — Tom Wilson’s living room, I should probably mention — where we would all just zone out and listen to him solo when we should have been working! Even in an intimate setting like that, he has the ability to ‘wow’ on his instrument.”
Two covers on the album perfectly showcase James’ “wow factor:” late harmonica player Paul Butterfield’s “In My Own Dream” — which ironically, does not have a harmonica part — and Linden’s own “Devilment” which he penned in the early aughts with Toronto bluesman Paul Reddick. (Both Linden and Reddick released the song on solo albums in 2009).
“‘In My Own Dream’ is very obscure and it made it on the record by complete fluke,” James says of the brooding Butterfield track on which he plays acoustic guitar. “It’s very introspective. I filed it away and eventually brought it up with Colin who said, ‘We have to do it.’ It’s such a cool song and has such a different vibe than the rest of the album.”
In the blistering “Devilment,” James’ muscular guitar throws down against Musselwhite’s wailing harmonica while Jones, Drayton, and Linden raise the rafters in the background, creating what will be, in a just world, a juke-joint staple from Biloxi to Barstow.
“I’ve often been put in the rock category because of my early pop hits. But if you really look at my past there’s a lot of blues in there. It’s taken a long time to change that perception south of the border,” says James, whose recent milestones include a nomination from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation 2023 best blues rock album — his first, for 2021’s Open Road. That nomination complements 30-odd Maple Blues Awards scored to date in Canada.
“Maybe people don’t buy into a blues guy in his early 20s. When you’re knocking at the door at age 60, people are like ‘Oh yeah, come on in,’” he laughs.
And how does age 60 feel? “Pretty good. My life is good. My kids are in the workforce doing their thing. My wife Heather sometimes comes on the road with me now, although we do have four dogs, so that can put a wrench in things,” he chuckles.
“And I still love making records. I still find joy in all of this.”
