The blues tradition is that you never quit; you keep on playing until your last breath. As a result, we\u2019ve watched people like John Lee Hooker and B.B. King take a seat on stage and keep playing live well into their 80s. When it comes to rock and roll, that\u2019s a less familiar phenomenon, but here we are\u2014it\u2019s 2018, Ian Hunter just turned 79, he\u2019s still playing shows and he still sounds great.<\/p>\n
This album captures Hunter live as a young pup of 71 back in 2010, supported by his longtime crew The Rant Band and back home in the UK. (Hunter emigrated to the US in 1975, just as he was getting his solo career started after a memorable run fronting iconic British rockers Mott The Hoople.) The band\u2014Steve Holley (drums), James Mastro (guitars, mandolin), Mark Bosch (guitars), Paul Page (bass), and Andy Burton (keys)\u2014is tight and muscular and every bit as worthy of notice as the E Street Band it sometimes feels modeled after. Up front, there\u2019s some mileage evident in Hunter\u2019s voice\u2014it\u2019s a little rougher and not quite as powerful as it was in his prime\u2014but he\u2019s a better singer than ever, knowing just how to use every bit of what he still has to its best effect. <\/p>\n
Among the many cool things about latter-day Ian Hunter live shows is you get to hear his newer stuff\u2014which is frequently brilliant\u2014alongside classics from 45 and 50 years ago. Which only underscores the conclusion that, as a songwriter, the man has just gotten better and better and better. In his earlier years, every album would have a handful of terrific songs, but there was also a fair amount of second-tier chaff. Hunter didn\u2019t always make great decisions about which songs to run with, or how to produce his music. <\/p>\n
Beginning with 2007\u2019s Shrunken Heads<\/i>, though, his last four studio albums, whether they\u2019ve been the best of his career or not, have absolutely been the most consistent. You hear it clearly here, as recent winners like \u201cArms & Legs\u201d and \u201cBig Mouth\u201d are placed alongside the hoary classic opening number \u201cSea Diver.\u201d Honestly, the new stuff just sounds better. It could be that he simply has more enthusiasm for playing newer material as opposed to songs he\u2019s played hundreds of times, but whatever the answer, \u201cSea Diver\u201d feels almost like a warm-up for what follows.<\/p>\n
From there the show builds steadily. As Hunter recalls the escapades of a younger version of himself in \u201cThe Great Escape\u201d he sounds thoroughly invigorated, as spry as he was at the time of the story. It\u2019s also lovely to hear, 30 years after the fervent response it received on Welcome To The Club<\/i>, that the opening bars of \u201cIrene Wilde\u201d still get a lusty cheer. He\u2019s an even older man now remembering a critical moment in his teenage development, but that\u2019s really the only difference, other than some playful twisting and turning of the familiar melody; it\u2019s just as poignant and meaningful as it always has been. This is also the first place where the occasional presence of a string quartet at these shows is felt, adding an extra layer of texture and dimensionality.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlowers,\u201d from 2009\u2019s Man Overboard<\/i>, is a solid rocker that leads nicely into \u201cSoul Of America,\u201d perhaps Hunter\u2019s most explicitly Springsteenesque number, featuring mandolin and harmonica reflective of both men\u2019s affection for Dylan. He then segues \u201cSoul\u201d right into \u201cMan Overboard,\u201d another song of social commentary, about feeling lost in the modern world and drowning it out with drink. From there Hunter returns to his massive back catalogue and begins pulling out plums. I\u2019ve never been a big fan of \u201cWaterlow\u201d myself, though it certainly has its partisans among IH fans, but that\u2019s the last bump in this setlist for yours truly. <\/p>\n