Nowadays it’s the artists and comedians who have the courage to speak truth to power. “We get laughed at quite a bit,” opines Ian Hunter “but we get around, and we see a lot more.” The iconic voice of Mott the Hoople and acclaimed solo artist unleashes Shrunken Heads: a state of the union message that speaks to his generation as Hunter always has ala his contemporaries Dylan, Springsteen, Reed, and Patti Smith.
With guitarist Andy York as co-producer, Hunter’s twelfth album sparks with the fervor of a live performance, melding Americana and traditional blue collar rock ‘n’ roll. “It’s a real band record” Hunter notes with pride. “Andy is a worrier, he’s very committed. I can write the songs, but I get very impatient in the studio. Fortunately I had a window where I used everybody I wanted.”
Ian’s Shrunken posse includes Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy (backing vocals on three cuts), E-Street Band violinist Soozie Tyrell along with the usual suspects: drummer Steve Holly (Wings), bassist Graham Maby (Joe Jackson), guitarists York (John Mellencamp), Jack Petruzzelli (Rufus Wainwright) and James Mastro (John Cale) and Andy Burton (the dB’s) on keys.
Waxing political and personal “When The World Was Round” tells it like it is. “Like the song says ‘there’s too much information and not enough to go on.’ It’s all bullocks, fucking Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh and all these people. There’s bright right and stupid right. And there’s bright left and stupid left. You can’t find out fact from fiction. People get lost in their own little families - both parents are working, so they don’t take much notice.”
Is there hope for the future? “Fortunately the Americans do seem to be smartening up with people like Giuliani, Clinton, Barack - whom I’m a huge fan of. The way it’s structured, I don’t know how much it’s gonna cost to be president - but they’re definitely going to be in somebody’s pocket.”
Since advent of the internet legions of Hoople/Hunter fans have kept up with all the dudes’ news. In between album releases, fans can pick Ian’s brain on the “Horses’ Mouth” feature by way of http://www.ianhunter.com. “The thing with Mott was that we really never had management, so when the band split up, all our followers were isolated. We weren’t that big a band, so you have pockets all over the world, and that’s how it was left. With the web, it’s brought all these people together again. There are parties going on even though we’re not there!”
Amid Ian’s many admirers is the King of All Media - Howard Stern, who honored the artist with his own neo-American Idol rendition of “All The Young Dudes” on a recent show. “Yeah, it was pretty awful” laughs Hunter. “Later at a gig, I sang the song and he was up front. Howard had this incredible shit-kicking grin all over his face - it freaked me out! Howard has been very good to me.”
--Tom Semioli
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IAN HUNTER's SHRUNKEN HEADS is released May 15, 2007 on Yep Roc Records. All AmplifierMagazine.com subscribers and mailing list members are automatically entered for a chance to win a copy of this album. Subscribe (it's FREE!) and join mailing list now for two chances to win.
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