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Shotgun Jimmie - Still Jimmie
By Chris Weaver
(07/01/09)

Back in March, amid a flurry of hot new releases on the Canadian music scene, adoptive Maritimer Shotgun Jimmie his second solo record since the breakup of Sappy Records stalwarts Shotgun & Jaybird. Still Jimmie, backed by the guys from Attack in Black and issued as the first release of You've Changed Records, acts as a slight departure from Jim's previous work, but, like the title says, he's still the same Jimmie we've come to know and love.

Now, I reviewed this album for my blog about three months back, just after (or just before? I can't recall) it had been released, and the differences between it and Jim's previous endeavours had been stark and they threw me off a little bit. However, given three-and-a-bit months to digest the album, I've seen more and more in common with, not only his last solo album, but with early Shotgun & Jaybird also. Oh, continuity!

At first glance, especially given the contrast between the first lines of each albums, there is a huge thematic departure. Duet, on the last record, starts: "Let me play you a song, and if you like it you can sing along, and if we make it all the way through it, we'll do it again but then we'll call it a duet." vs. Mind Crumb's "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm super-fine. I'm tired, I'm tired, tired all the time. Go back, go back, go back anytime; go back to find: did we really mess it up?". And, yeah, the album does deal a lot more negative than The Onlys--but! I can't talk about this just in relation to what came before. Let's get this show on the road.

Let's talk about "Dawson City". It stands out on the record for me because it's a call-back to the early Shotgun & Jaybird sound, back when it was just Fred & Jim up in Dawson City--the lo-fi, stripped down beauty. The nostalgia is apparent, it drives the song, but it's become one of my favourite tracks on the album.

If you've listened at all to Jim's music, you know he's a rocker with a love of words. Nowhere is this more apparent than with "Louis Depson", which not accidentally sounds one hell of a lot like "lowest depths". Throughout the song, he plays with this, these similar-sounding words to create different meanings. In "Waist Deep In The Water", Jim sings "We're not wasted, we're wasted", toying with the definitions and the possibility for us to be both things at once.

Last time out, the highlight of the album was Jim's duet with former CHMA Program Director Ilse Kramer, with "Bedhead", which has become something of a signature tune. For Still Jimmie, Jim recorded a duet with Simone Schmidt of the Toronto band $100, called "Quicksand". Maybe it's Simone's voice, but this is one of the saddest anthems to unhealthy, doomed love I have ever heard. It is downright beautiful.

I like to think of a few of the tracks being linked, loosely. You've got "Province to Province" with the worry that, after so much moving around the country, everyone's been spread so thin (echoed in "The Cost of Doing Business") and has been separated. There's also "Dawson City", steeped in nostalgia. This is all brought to a head, though, and any questions on belonging are answered with the last verse of the album, in "Tread Water"--"I'm pretty happy here, I've got a nice view...I just want to say, hey! Thank you." It seems that despite any regrets on things and folks he's left behind, Sackville is where he wants to be.

But, come on, the man sings about Bricklins and DeLoreans while being one of the most genuinely friendly guys ever I've met. What's not to love?

Shotgun Jimmie (and Attack in Black, and $100) can be seen at Sappyfest in Sackville, NB from July 31st to August 2nd 2009. Still Jimmie is available from iTunes, or, if you're in Sackville, you could just track down the man himself.

Related links:
+ Shotgun Jimmie's Website
+ Shotgun Jimmie's MySpace
+ SappyFest

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Chris Weaver is a devourer of music originally from Saint John but now based in Sackville, NB. He is an on-again off-again blogger and avid concert-goer who may as well have the salt air of the Bay of Fundy running through his veins (if air in one's veins wouldn't kill a man). He can be heard on CHMA 106.9FM in Sackville.