LABOR RECORDS RELEASES NEW ALBUM OF FOLK SINGER JEMIMA JAMES - "BOOK ME BACK IN YOUR DREAMS"
A SUPERB COLLECTION OF NEW MATERIAL BY THE NEW ENGLAND SONGBIRD, INCLUDING THREE TRACKS JOINED BY ROCK ICON MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD
"Jemima is a lyrical lady with a quick eye for character and an uncommon ear for fashioning tunes. She is fantastic! Her perceptions are wry, witty, and mischievous." -Virginia Poole, music critic
Labor Records is pleased to announce a brand new release by Jemima James, the renowned folk singer. Ms. James, who recently was a big hit at the "Down Home Blues Festival" in Camden, S.C., will be featured in many festivals in the coming year. Grammy Award winner Rob Bowman has praised Jemima James as "wondrous," deeming her a "powerful performer." She is currently teamed with the noted songwriter Kent Cooper and together they've written a vast array of highly original songs that Ms. James renders in her own provocative style. She gives a heart-wrenching take on "Tracking Through The Snow," a song that Cooper has referred to as invoking the isolation that too many women must endure.
I been following myself all night
Tracking me through the snow
That's a lonely lonely woman
She don't know where to go
I can't believe how lonesome
Those footprints make me feel
They just keep on going
Like a long lost wagon wheel
Three of the 17 songs were recorded in the 1970s with her friend, Michael Bloomfield. These are never before released tracks that are imposing even beyond their historical significance.
Jemima James was born in Vermont in l950, and raised in Colorado. She is the descendant of a prominent if complex family-William James is her great grandfather, Henry James, her great uncle. Her father, an artist, was an alcoholic, unpredictable and castigating, keeping the household in a constant state of upheaval.
Jemima started playing guitar and singing at an early age and, fresh out of high school, hit the road to make music her way of life. At various times she became part of the performing musician population of Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Mostly she sang original songs of her own invention and gathered a devoted following. Her songs and style of singing appealed to a wide variety of musical tastes including folk, country & western and the blues.
Her previous CDs-the self-titled "Jemima James," and the wonderful "Slaughterhouse of Love"-were also remarkable achievements. Among the notable songs included on these recordings were the starkly personal "Hearts on Loan," and the magical "Watcher at the Station." She appeared on several CD volumes of Peter Simon's "The Vineyard Sound" in the company of such luminaries as Carly Simon, Richie Havens and Susan Tedeschi. She is also a featured performer on Vol. 1 and 2 of Kent Cooper's collected works: "The Blues and Other Songs." Here she is in the company of Sonny Terry, Louisiana Red, Johnny Shines, Roosevelt Sykes, Sugar Blue and other blues greats.
"Ms. James' voice is full throated and deep in the chest when she lets loose: 'It feels like a burning hell, don't leave me It's you baby that fills my cup.' As for presence, Jemima James has the knowing look of a woman who has seen it all and can sort it out for the innocents." -Martha's Vineyard Times
REVIEW / Independent (The Triangle’s Weekly)
She gets called a blues singer, but JEMIMA JAMES is pure, old-school country. The lyrics on BOOK ME BACK IN YOUR DREAMS, courtesy of producer Kent Cooper, are low-down blues, but James’ vocals are rooted in country. It’s an interesting mix. Guitarist Chris Berry stirs things up too, switching between flatpicking and funk on a song like “Emergency Call.”
James is soft-spoken but gets her point across, sounding like a world-weary Brenda Lee without the whoop. “Girls With The Long Hair” resembles John Prine both in sound and content: “They found her in the squalor of a junkie-deserted basement/ She left here yellow-bagged/ as quiet as she’d ever been.”
This woman was born in the wrong decade. “I’d Rather Say Goodbye Right Here” is perfect ‘60s country, the kind of stuff Loretta Lynn would have loved to have wrapped her pipes around. In fact, it would be right at home on a jukebox in the heartbreak section, right beside Merle Haggard’s drinkin’ songs. But “Dog Following Me” – with labelmate Deneen McEachern on backing vocals and Berry throwing tinkly, toy guitar notes around like confetti – sounds like country blues backed by a black gospel choir.
Sure, it’s hard to get a label to stick, but it goes down real good. Get yourself a snoot full, kick back and enjoy.
--Grant Britt
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