It’s almost impossible that Jimmy Hall still sounds as good as he does– but he does. The Alabama-born, harmonica-blowin’, sax-wielding singer-songwriter notable for his tenure fronting Southern soulsters Wet Willie has remained a force on stage and in the studio across six decades, seemingly inexhaustible, and fearlessly open to collaboration and experimentation.
“I don’t know any other way to put it except for it’s my comfort zone. It’s my joyful place. I thrive in it, I miss it when I’m not doing it,” says Hall, whose career has been marked by solo success as well as runs with The Nighthawks, supergroup BHLT (with Dickey Betts, Chuck Leavell, and Butch Trucks), and the late Jeff Beck to name only a few. “Sometimes I go, ‘What if I lost my voice? What would I do?’ Well, I’d figure somethin’ out– but boy, I’d sure miss it!”
As stalwarts of Macon, Georgia’s original Capricorn record label in the 1970s, Wet Willie set a pace that, even today, defies classification.
“The Allman Brothers were guitar-based and there was a lot o’ jam sections, but blues rock was kinda their genre. Marshall Tucker came after us, but they were a little more country-influenced, country rock. The jazz part of it was really cool– Jerry Eubanks playin’ sax and flute! But we were so wrapped up in R&B and funk and between James Brown, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke! Mix all that up! We loved the blues too and we did a lot o’ that,” says Hall during a mid-morning call from his home in Nashville. “Songs like ‘Dixie Rock’ was more of our tribute to Southern rock sounds, but ‘Grits Ain’t Groceries’, ‘Country Side Of Life’– we were makin’ funk! And people didn’t know where to stick that! We were writin’ all kinds of songs! ‘Keep On Smiling’, hell, that was quasi-reggae, really! But it was definitely something that people responded to– and still do!”
Gearing up for his annual Birthday Bash in Macon at the Capitol Theatre on April 22nd, Hall is in top form, still belting out gospel-soul-flavored rock with conviction and intensity as evidenced by his latest effort, the Joe Bonamassa-produced Ready Now.
“Workin’ with Joe, getting to know him– he lives in Nashville part of the time, and I’d had some opportunities to see him live and recognize his talent, and then other opportunities to work with him in the studio when he hired to me to sing, first on [Reese Wynans And Friends: Sweet Release],” Jimmy recalls.
“It was the first album that I knew that [Joe] had produced for his label called KTBA– or Keeping The Blues Alive– and it was my first opportunity to be in the studio with him behind the glass and directing me and collaborating with me on the material that we did. From there, he hired me a couple o’ other times. There’s a lady named Joanna Connor, Joe produced a record on her and I sang on it, and then on Eric Gales’ Crown album, I sang on one. That gave me an opportunity to see how he was in the studio and that led to him asking me if I was interested in him producing a record for me for his label. We shook hands on it on September 20th of 2020 when he asked me to join him for a livestream at the Ryman Auditorium. No audience– but he had cardboard cutouts of people out there in the seats, which I thought was brilliant! You could buy a VIP ticket and send them a picture, and they would put your cardboard cutout in a seat!
“I played harp on some things on that show, and at the end of it, we were all kind of still havin’ that afterglow of playin’ a great show– even though there was no crowd– you know, high-fivin’ each other and he said, ‘Man, I really wanna do this record with you. I think we should. Let’s shake hands on it,’ so I said, ‘Why not? Let’s just go for it!’
Ready Now took shape early on with the title track, a song of uplift and perseverance, and the bombastic “Jumpin’ For Joy”, written with Los Angeles-based songwriter Jeff Silbar.
“I started to collect songs and [Joe and I] started talking about co-writing. He urged me and invited me to write with several writers here in town– some of ’em I’ve met before and some of ’em I’ve written with before. I wrote with Tom Hambridge, who’s best known as Buddy Guy’s producer. He’s produced a lot o’ great blues artists. We wrote a song called ‘Risin’ Up’ and another one called the ‘Girl’s Got Sugar’. We got the material goin’ and started here in Nashville at Ocean Way Studio down off Music Row. We cut all the tracks in basically one week usin’ Joe’s band,” Jimmy says. “This record, I just have to say, I’m so satisfied! It’s very rewarding to work hard on something and really believe in it and put everything you have into the songs, and then hear from the fans and my peers, ‘This is really good, Jimmy Hall!’ And I’m goin’, ‘Well, I’ve tried for that before and I hope I can always accomplish that!'”
A surprise addition to Ready Now’s talented writers is Hall’s son Ryan, who in addition to playing keys in his father’s live band also penned the Gregg and Duane Allman-inspired “Dream Release”.
“Ryan told me that he was settin’ some goals for that year, and he said one was that he was going to run a marathon in honor of his mom, my wife, who ran one years ago. He said, ‘I wanna train and I wanna do that, and the other is I’m gonna write a song that’s good enough to be on your album,” remembers Hall. “I gave him advice. I did not write a single word of it. I didn’t write any of the music– he came up with all those chord changes and the feel and the story that’s so touching and beautiful about two brothers that grew up together and were very close and got into music together and their band named after them. And then Duane leaves this earth pretty shortly after the band gets going. Gregg moves forward despite any obstacles, keeps the band going, and achieves all kinds of great things, and then moving toward the end of his life… My son Alex went with me to Gregg’s funeral, and Ryan was thinkin’ about all those things and put it together around their reunion at the end of Gregg’s life and how Gregg would feel about it and what he would say and what a joyous, beautiful thing it would be for them to see and be with each other in another realm.”
The song made an impression– not only on proud parent Hall but especially Bonamassa.
“We had talked to Johnny Stachela, who plays with Allman Betts and Allman Family Revival and he was gonna play guitar on it, and then Joe said, ‘No, I gotta play guitar on this one. This is my baby.’ He had this [idea] like, “I’m gonna play like Pete Townsend on these stair-step chords moving up in the chorus!” Boy, I love to see that kind of excitement he had about this song!” Jimmy laughs. “Musically, it’s the most different thing I’ve done in a while because it’s pretty classical music and classical rock. When Joe Bonamassa heard it– and I didn’t tell him it was my son’s song in the beginning, I just wanted to see what he thought about what merit it had as a song– he said, “Jimmy, I love this song!” By that time, I’d told him it was my son’s, and he just grinned from ear to ear goin’, “God that’s so cool!” And then he started comin’ up with these ideas and was in this kind of frenzy of exhilaration about it! He was goin’, “I hear French horns! I’m gonna put French horns on here, and I’m gonna play guitar!”
Jimmy’s Birthday Bash in Macon has become a tradition full of all-star players and special guests– and this year is no exception.
“I hand-picked some guys that I’ve worked with through the years,” says Hall. “On guitar is Greg Foresman, who plays for Martina McBride, and he does his own solo stuff too. He’s a good singer and an amazing guitar player! Mike Joyce– on bass– played with me all through the ’80s and in Jimmy Hall and the Prisoners of Love, and then he got a gig with Delbert McClinton that lasted several years before Delbert kinda quasi-retired. Lynn Williams is on drums. He was with Leroy Parnell and Delbert McClinton too and played with me a lot in the past two or three years. My son Ryan’s on keys and vocals, of course– and we’ll play his song!
“And then there’s our secret weapon! My sister has another gig, and she’s been doin’ this thing with me, but [for this show] we have Miss Jackie Wilson on vocals! She’s a very soulful singer, who I’ve worked with in the recent past. Where we got the idea for her to come on this one– we were on Delbert McClinton’s cruise back in January, and I had participated on an album that was a tribute to the Rolling Stones [Let It Bleed Revisited – An Ovation from Nashville], and I got asked to do ‘Gimme Shelter’. I sang it with Bekka Bramlett– and she did a great job– but she wasn’t available to do it on the cruise, and we wanted to do this whole album as one of the shows. Jackie Wilson was there and we asked her, and she just killed it! It was so fun havin’ her on stage that we started talkin’ about doin’ some other things,” says Hall.
“It’s gonna be fun! I’ll do all the songs, of course, from Ready Now, and of course, I’ll do some Wet Willie stuff, favorites that everybody likes, and some from Rendezvous With The Blues and my other solo albums– and whatever comes to mind!”
Don’t miss Jimmy Hall’s Birthday Bash at the Capitol Theatre in Downtown Macon on Saturday, April 22nd!