By Jimmy Steinfeldt
Jimmy Steinfeldt: Your new album, released March 15 this year, is called Straight Up and I hear the vinyl version comes out September 15. I love the opening track “Let The Praying Begin.”
Jamie James: It’s the first single and we have the video on YouTube. When I was a teenager my first girlfriend’s parents didn’t like me. It was the late 60s and I had long hair. They asked me how did I see my future and I said I wanted to be a professional guitar player. That didn’t go over well. My attitude was if they don’t like me, then pray for me. My feeling is if you are unhappy about anything in life just pray. That’s a good way to deal with things.
JS: Tell me about the harmonica playing.
JJ: In 2020 I had a heart attack and a quadruple bypass saved my life. Next the pandemic hit. During my recovery I started taking harmonica seriously. I had several harmonicas from my friend Harry Dean Stanton. I had loved the instrument since I heard Paul Butterfield when I was young. I practiced everyday as I was writing these songs. I play Hohner Marine Band harmonicas.
JS: What’s your favorite microphone?
JJ: Shure makes a bullet mic I love to play through a 50s era tweed Fender amp. I like to sing using the Shure 58, especially for a live show.
JS: Tell me about your song “Showbiz Boogie.”
JJ: It’s the second single also with a video on YouTube. It’s a bit autobiographical. I got my first electric guitar in 1966. The song is about guys like me who are still playing after all this time. I love playing today as much as I did when I was thirteen. I’ve come to understand it’s all about getting better and better. I like to sit down and play practically anything. I travel the country: Chicago, New York, Dallas, L.A. I see lots of great players out their slogging away who are my age and older who are still out there playing even if they aren’t million selling artists. But in this job you still have to do the “Showbiz Boogie.”
JS: You also have a great and danceable track “Septuagenarian Blues.”
JJ: It’s also autobiographical. “Septuagenarian Blues” is coming out in August and will be the next single also with a music video.
JS: The final track on your new album is Heavy Load Blues. I really dig this song. Tell me about it.
JJ: When you split up with someone you are in love with that can really feel like you’ve been knocked down. I just feel it’s like a heavy load. You can’t shake it. You just have to let it happen. Eventually you can move on.
JS: Tell me about your fellow musicians.
JJ: Tom Walsh on drums, Tom Mancias on bass, Ken Stange on keyboards. Tom’s been with me since the late 80s including with Harry Dean Stanton and Dennis Quaid. When I wrote these new songs I went to these guys and asked them to be part of it. They loved the songs and we went into the studio and recorded the album in one afternoon. The album was recorded live. We did add the keyboards later and I made some guitar tweaks but it’s basically a live recording which is what I did with The Kingbees and what I know best. My vocals are in one take and later I added some harmonies. I also added some harmonica parts that had to be played hand held as opposed to in a harmonica rack. The session was in July 2024 and this was the first time we really played together since 2023 so we just captured magic in the studio that afternoon.
JS: Who produced the album?
JJ: Me and my engineer Paul Hassler who has a great studio in downtown L.A.
JS: What guitars do you like to write your songs on?
JJ: An old Taylor that a friend of mine handmade at Taylor. Also a 1934 Gibson. Finally, one of Harry Dean’s old guitars, a 1954 Martin that he used in the movie Cool Hand Luke.
JS: Do you use any guitar effects.
JJ: I don’t use effects just pure tone. I used old guitars on this album including an old Trini Lopez guitar. I also used the Harry Dean Stanton guitar on all tracks because I wanted to have his spirit on this record. I also play a Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood neck and a Music Man Silhouette guitar. Music Man was started by Leo Fender after he sold Fender to CBS and now Music Man is owned by the Ernie Ball company. I’ve been using Ernie Ball guitar strings forever.
JS: Ernie Ball is also my guitar string of choice. Tell me about your influences.
JJ: Before 1966 when I got my first electric guitar I was playing an acoustic with 4 strings that my next door neighbor had. But my influences would be The Animals, Dave Davies, The Who. The Beatles were more sophisticated and harder to figure out. Keith Richards was a little easier to figure out. Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly. I had a record player in my bedroom and a kid at school taught me a trick to learn guitar parts. You tape a couple of quarters on top of the arm that holds the needle and it slows down the RPM. I also liked songs from movies and TV. The Batman theme, the James Bond theme. My biggest single influence was Jimi Hendrix. In 1967 I heard Are You Experienced. I had never heard anybody play guitar like that. It blew my mind. I didn’t want to touch it, it was other-worldly stuff. He was my guitar god. I also liked Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Freddie Stone of Sly and the Family Stone.
JS: Do you know the singer and harmonica player Kim Wilson?
JJ: For sure. My band The Kingbees opened for the Fabulous Thunderbirds. I liked Kim’s harmonica playing. I also liked Huey Lewis’ harmonica playing. The guys I really liked included the old blues cats like Little Walter and Jimmy Reed. I also like the way Bob Dylan uses the harmonica to suit his songs.
JS: Speaking of old harmonica blues cats your band name is The Kingbees. I think of the song “I’m a King Bee” by Slim Harpo.
JJ: Buzzin ‘round your hive! Yep, but that’s not how we came up with the name. In 1964 I was really into drum sounds. My mom would take me to parades. It was so exciting to hear live drums in a parade. One day I heard drums coming out of a neighbor’s basement but it didn’t sound like parade drums. I was maybe ten and they were teenagers and they were playing Rock and roll. They had the name Kingbees on the bass drum. I went home and told my mom I wanted to be Kingbee when I grew up. So maybe fifteen years later when I started my band I went with The Kingbees name.
JS: Did you ever take lessons?
JJ: No. I used to go to the library and study music theory and learn about chord structure. I got myself a Mel Bay guitar chord book which I still have and still refer to. Just a pure desire to learn the guitar. I remember seeing the Rolling Stones movie Performance which came out in 1970. Soon after the release of their album Beggars Banquet. Keith Richards sits down in the studio and he just whips out this really cool riff effortlessly. I decided I wanted to get to where I can do that!
JS: How did the Kingbees come to bee? (ha, ha)
JJ: The second day after I moved to L.A. from Toronto in 1975 I met Michael Rummans at a party. It was in Laurel Canyon at Jim Paterson’s house. He had drums, etc set up in the living room. I also met Jan Cash Landy, who I would later sign a record deal with. By the way across the street a guy was playing an instrument he called the stick which he played upright. Turned out to be Emmett Chapman inventor of this type of guitar. Anyway, back at the party Michael was playing bass. I told him he was great and got his phone number. Next, I met a neighbor in Hollywood who was a house painter. One day I saw drum sticks poking out of his overalls so I invited him to jam. I played them the new songs I had written, we jammed and that was the beginning.
JS: Can you share a story about your friend and bandmate Harry Dean Stanton?
JJ: A documentary called Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction was about to be made. Harry called me when the documentary was proposed to him and he said he really didn’t want to do it but if I would do it he’d do it. We met with the director and I said that shooting Harry at his shows, including backstage, really wouldn’t be nearly as good as shooting at his house. He was comfortable there and you could hear his truly amazing singing voice because he loved to sing with acoustic guitars just sitting on his couch. His voice was so pure and beautiful in this setting. A lot of the interview with Harry ended up being shot there. As more and more famous friends of Harry got interviewed the scenes with Harry and me got cut more and more.
Harry and I went to the premier where we saw it for the first time. It starts off with Harry and me but then most of the documentary are interviews of the famous people that knew Harry. Not even as much interviewing of Harry as you would expect. At one point in the film they show Harry sitting on his couch singing and you hear this beautiful harmonizing but you can’t see where the other voice is coming from. The other voice is coming from me sitting right next to Harry on the couch but I’m cropped out. The singing scene goes on and on. Finally Harry, who is sitting right next to me in this dark theater at this premier, stands up and screams at the top of his lungs “Goddammit the camera should be on both Jamie and me when we are signing harmony, goddammit” Everybody turned to look at him and the place got so quiet. I slid down in my seat with embarrassment. He was passionate that way about things. With his love of music and has history in film he wanted the film to capture the music. I have to say the movie was otherwise great.
JS: Can you share a story about your friend Dennis Quaid and his band The Sharks?
JJ: Both Harry and Dennis were musicians before they were actors. I met Dennis through Harry. They knew each other through the movie The Missouri Breaks. Dennis left college for the summer looking for something to do and his brother Randy said “Drive my car up here to Montana where we are shooting a movie” He did and he ended up being the guy who drove Harry Dean Stanton to the set every day. Years later when Dennis was a movie star and he’d run into Harry, Dennis would say “Can I give you a lift Mr. Stanton, need a lift?”
Here’s a story about Dennis. We opened for Wynonna Judd at a fair way outside L.A. The show ends and I drive all the way back home, tired as can be, and a couple hours later my phone rings and it’s Dennis. “Jamie, you gotta help me out. I’m here in the county jail for speeding.” Dennis by the way is into speed. He’s a pilot, he’s a lead-foot in his sports cars and so this made sense. It was like three in the morning but I said “Well OK I’ll drive all the way back there and help you out.” Then Dennis started laughing. He got me good! He liked to pull pranks. Thankfully I didn’t have to drive out and save him.
JS:: What’s up next for Jamie James?
JJ: We just wrapped on the video “Showbiz Boogie” for YouTube. The vinyl version of the album comes out September 12 and we also will put out “Septuagenarian Blues” around that time. I have the itch to perform. That should be coming in the near future. I want to play these new songs for people. The album has gotten great attention. Excellent reviews, podcasts all over including India and this morning England!
So, Jimmy here’s a real coincidence. March 15 of 2025 is the day this new album Straight Up came out and March 15 of 1980 is the day my band The Kingbees’ first album came out.
JS: Here’s another coincidence Jamie, March 15, 2015 is the day you and I first met!
JJ: Wow. That is a coincidence!
For more info on Jamie James, his music and videos
https://www.instagram.com/straightupjamie/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-JQiUxfDM
