Louder AAA
Back in May 2024, rock’n’soul evangelist Jim Jones, ex-Thee Hypnotics vocalist, titular ringmaster of first a Revue, then a Righteous Mind, and now, emblematic of his ever-expanding reputation, Jim Jones All Stars, was touring Europe in support of the reanimated, Happiness Bastards-era Black Crowes.
Birds of a distinctly corvine feather are wont to flock together, and so it was that, between each fulfilling their particular stint of tearing-up-the-stage duty, Crowes vocalist Chris Robinson and Jones fell into discussing future plans. JJ revealed that a new album was on the All Stars’ immediate horizon, to which Robinson replied: “Why don’t you put it out on my label?”
Recognising a priceless opportunity to make a portion of rock history with a decidedly southernfried flavour, Jones decided that such a finger-lickin’ opportunity doesn’t present itself every day, and countered with: “Are you up for getting involved?”
And so it came to pass that the elder of the Crowes’ Robinsons not only produced but also performed on Cat Fight, the All Stars’ second, no-quarter-given, full-length studio extravaganza: a blazing, 50-minute testament to precisely how 21st-century rock really ought to be rolled.
Jim Jones has made it his business to preach the gospel of rock’n’roll since being welcomed into the bosom of its church at the tender age of seven. His father had just bought a state-of-the-70s-art music centre, and passed on his vintage Dansette record player (and a box of sacred 45s) to an entranced pre-teen All Star wrangler.
The Dansette was an outmoded, borderline-lethal contraption, all frayed wires and humming valves. But to young Jones it was a time machine. A doorway into rock’n’roll history, powered by seven-inch discs of high-octane vinyl that set his nascent soul aflame, transporting him through screaming sonic portals into the presence of other-worldly formative characters like: “Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, great rock’n’roll from the original era, early ’66-ish psych-type things, Big Boy Pete’s Cold Turkey and various other early heavy guitar neo-psychedelic mod things. I’d listen to Great Balls Of Fire on repeat for hours at a time."
In that pre-internet age, discovering and questing for rare slices of vinyl brought an enhanced value to the artefacts that made up a serious rock fan’s record collection, a value that exceeded mere acquisition. These weren’t conveniently packaged RSD reissues.
“When you finally found a record after a long search, it took on sacred value,” enthuses Jones, surrounded by the multifarious accoutrements of a life less ordinary: fat vintage guitars, scuffed amps, a veritable Aladdin’s cave of fonky doodads and assorted shee-it. "It was fetishised. You’d invested a lot in it already, which made it kind of holy."
Jones sees these invaluable remnants of rock past as portals into other worlds - better times, way before rage bait and binary political toxicity defined the culture – each an essential breadcrumb in a long single trail that’s snaked through music history from Yodelling Jimmie Rodgers onwards.
"You hear the same format and spirit through Robert Johnson, Little Richard, The Beatles, the Stones, the MC5, Motörhead. It’s just another breadcrumb taking you to the other universe. An escape hatch from the mundane… What I do on stage is an invitation onto the dance floor; I’m like Triton holding the rocks apart in Jason And The Argonauts. That’s my job – to use music as a doorway into being at one with the universe. I’m with my people, I don’t have to worry about what the latest trends are, I’m just in the moment and in the now."
Magically, with the help of Chris Robinson, Cat Fight offers access to one such portal. Noted rock historian Jones knows all too well that creating rock magic doesn’t just involve chords and notes, GarageBand and compressors. It’s about capturing special moments at specific locations in time and space. Like the Stones at Nellcôte, Led Zeppelin at Headley Grange.
“I was talking to Harry Grafton,” Jones resumes, “The Duke, who puts on the Red Rooster Festival at Euston Hall in Suffolk, a fascinating guy who worked with the Stones for a while, and he said that when he was doing up the Hall they found seashells embedded in the walls under the plaster that used to be used for soundproofing. So my thoughts turned to Exile On Main St and I asked if we might record there.”
So how did recording ultimately pan out?
“Euston Hall was otherworldly, properly posh. We set up the gear, had a few people in guesting, and as we talked through the songs Chris said: ‘I really love Make It Rain’, the first track. So I said why don’t you do a bit of singing on it, because I wanted a song with some dual singing, like The Beatles’ Drive My Car, and… Well, it didn’t come out like that at all.”
What it does do, though, is rock like all kinds of intercourse, with an ample ass-animating side order of Jon Spencer hellaciousness. Following a chat with Green On Red’s Chuck Prophet at a festival, the pair rediscovered that they’d met previously, drunkenly enthusing into each other’s face backstage at Thee Hypnotics’ first London show, at the end of the 80s.
With that in mind, Chuck ventured down to the Hall to add a pinch of his guitar spice to the All Stars’ already simmering Cat Fight gumbo.
And then there was Gloria Jones. Marc Bolan Gloria Jones. Tainted Love Gloria Jones. Rock’n’soul royalty incarnate.
“She came down to a show as a mate’s plus-one,” Jim twinkles palpably. “We were chatting after, and I asked her if she’d be on the album. She said: ‘I don’t really do that any more.’ I said: ‘No, no no, you don’t understand, you’re gonna be on the album whether you like it or not.’”
Charmed, she graciously provided an album intro that only she could.
Elsewhere there’s a Sticky Fingers-worth of horns, a David Johansen-dedicated L U V U that offers more Thunders than a gale warning, and a shot at Eddie Floyd’s Big Bird fit to shake an embalmed booty. It’s a great album, a cordon bleu breadcrumb of a priceless portal into a perpetually popping rock’n’roll Big Bang.
So what’s next?
“Back on the road with The Black Crowes, and then headlining the Scala [in London] in October, our biggest headline to date.”
Better take your passport. If Jim opens up a portal you could end up anywhere.
Cat Fight is out now via Silver Arrow. The Jim Jones All Stars play UK dates in July and October.
