Jim Dead

Jim Dead is a singer/songwriter whose music is steeped in folk and country traditions. Over the last two years performing his songs live he has steadily built up a strong catalogue of ballads and odes to various characters that may or may not have come into his life at some point.
Johnny Cash has a definite impact on much of his work, and like the Man in Black Jim Dead has ambitions to evolve his sound and style with each new chapter, whether it proves popular or not. Asking Jim of his influences, you’d be surprised to hear him mention the likes of Mark Lanegan, Greg Dulli, and Josh Homme alongside Cash, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and modern alt. country pioneers Richard Buckner, Howe Gelb and Ryan Adams. There’s also the influence of ‘grunge’ and golden era Brian Wilson.
Many of Jim’s songs spin concise tales of despair, hope and redemption, which often earn him comparisons to his heroes. At this stage it is easy to pin Jim down in the ‘Americana’ genre - with his storytelling rooted in folk, country and blues, while conjuring ‘spiritual’ images – but it’s pleasing to hear the music performed so well.
A native of Glasgow, Jim started his musical journey playing in a succession of local rock bands with friends. Jim began to explore the solo route during early 2001, writing simple songs which he recorded on a “busted up tape recorder”. Some of the material survived attempts at forming a successful band, while others were simply discarded.
In 2004 Jim started working with a variety of artists as a ‘side project’ to his main band Glitterball Vegas. Suddenly Jim’s simple songs were realised the way he’d heard them: “just two guitars. One plugged in, the other just acoustic” and he discovered that there was an audience for his minimalist style.
As more attempts at joining rock bands failed Jim continued to write and record his songs at home until he finally had a collection that he believed in fully. ‘Go Tell The Congregation’ was recorded in September 2008 with the help of friend (and old band mate) Stuart Begley on 6 of its songs and Danny Mitchell (who captured the feel in the room).
“It’s a collection I believe in and I’m happy that it kicks off with Whistle of a Distant Train. Stuart and I wrote the track years ago and it was good to just play it like that. Stripped down … just two guitars. Overall I think it’s a good record and I’m happy with how it turned out”, he states.
The collection certainly suggests that the years spent writing and playing solo has allowed Jim to develop as a singer/songwriter. His rootsy, minimalist playing style combined with his strong yet often fragile vocals is compelling and time will tell how this will develop.
So why so long in releasing the collection? “I wanted to make sure that I was going to be as happy as I could be. Although I believed in it, you can change how you feel about things in certain situations”, he says. “And I wanted to make sure that I didn’t just have a good recording. I wanted it to look good too ... and that’s been tough. But I think we got there in the end”.
Of the artwork Jim speaks fondly: “we found just the right spot to get the pictures”.
‘Go Tell The Congregation’ will be released through The Deadsville Recording Company in September. A sparse, hushed collection of songs that are precisely what you expect from the artwork. Sepia toned. Of the release Jim states “It’s been exciting doing this and in many ways I think ‘why didn’t I do this sooner?’. But I think the time is right”. But Jim won’t rest there; he’s already planning a second record: “well, although it’s just being released, essentially ... to me ... this album is a year old”. He looks at his guitars and says “I think the next one will be a bit livelier ... like waking up in the middle of a storm”.