That Eric Alper

British soul master James Hunter and The James Hunter Six share the official video for “Gun Shy,” lifted from new album ‘Off The Fence,’ out now via Easy Eye Sound. Co-written with bandmate Myles Weeks, the track captures the tongue-tied rush of a new crush over a dance-floor-ready groove before breaking into a blues-soaked sax solo from Michael Buckley. It swings with ease and lands with style.

“I had heard the phrase ‘gun shy’ before but didn’t know what it meant,” Hunter says. “When Myles Weeks, our bass player, mentioned he had a concept for a song with that title, he outlined the theme as being that of someone being nervously reluctant to declare their romantic intentions. I asked him if he minded if I wrote it, and he graciously said yes. As per my usual ‘Thesaurus method’ of song-writing, I threw a pile of ballistics-related terms on the table and set about arranging them into verses. Once I’d stuffed them into a spare tune I had lying around, we committed it to tape.”

He adds, “Then it was time to make the video. One dark December evening, my wife Jessie accompanied me to a studio in a Victorian-era warehouse in Tichborne Street, in the North Laines, Brighton. Our director, James Slater, filmed me prancing about and lip-syncing on a big sheet of paper unfurled from a roller suspended from the ceiling. I had a blast.” Featuring twelve self-penned tracks, including “A Sure Thing,” “Here And Now” and a duet with Van Morrison on “Ain’t That A Trip,” ‘Off The Fence’ marks Hunter’s eleventh studio album and 40 years since his recording debut.