TheDNAof Stone’sguitar runsthrough thewholeLP
BY RICK FULTON HE was only meant to borrow Keith Richards’s famous 1964 Gibson Hummingbird acoustic for one day – but rocker Jim Jones ended up using it on all the tracks of his new album.
And why wouldn’t you? The Hummingbird helped create legendary Rolling Stones tracks like Street Fighting Man and Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
And 50 years later, the blistering sound can be heard across the incredible new album Collectiv by Jim Jones and The Righteous Mind.
Jim revealed how he got his hands on the famous guitar for his own band’s second album.
He said: “While I was writing and doing preproduction for the LP, I knew I wanted some acoustic guitar on the recordings. I own a lot of semiacoustic guitars but no actual acoustic.
“I have a great friend, Alan Clayton, who’s been mates with Keith Richards for years, and I knew a while back that Keith had given Alan that famous guitar that he’d used for writing and recording many iconic Stones hits.
“I had tried it before and knew it was a pretty tasty guitar, even without the back story.
“I asked Alan if I could use it, and luckily he said yes.
“He brought it to the studio and we hung out for the day,”
But one day isn’t enough when you’re handling a piece of music history. Jim added: “I recorded the parts that I wanted.. but then.. you know, it really is a beautiful instrument, and so in the end, I wasn’t satisfied until I’d played it on every track .. a few of which really didn’t need it Jim Jones’s fantastic new album Collectiv features rocker Keith Richards’s famous Gibson acoustic at all, but it just seemed right to have the DNA of the thing on the whole LP. “So, even if you can’t always hear it, it’s there, it’s on everything.” If you are a fan of Jim’s, from Thee Hypnotics, Black Moses, The Jim Jones Revue and now Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind, you’ll love his dirty rock ’n’ roll mixed with garage psych-rock and a splash of voodoo soul. And the songs on Collectiv from Sex Robot and Satan’s Got His Heart Set on You to the dark crunch of I Found a Love make this album arguably his best yet. Keith must have blessed him. You can find out for yourself this weekend. The Righteous Mind play McArts, Galashiels, tomorrow and King Tut’s in Glasgow on Sunday, with support from new Scots trio ID Kid.
Jim said: “I love to play King Tut’s. I’ve played there many times. If you sell out they give you a bottle of whisky.
“We didn’t quite do it when I was last there with Thee Hypnotics so fingers crossed we’ll get back on track with this next gig.
“Come on down, people, I’ll share the whisky with yer.”
Last year, Jim reunited his 80s garage rock band Thee Hypnotics who’ had split in 1999 to support a box set of their music released by Beggars Banquet.
But he was also working on the Righteous Minds’ second album, the follow-up to 2017’s Super Natural, while he toured with his old band. He said: “It was really cool to hang out with everyone and blast through the old songs again. The chemistry is still there. It’s probably the end of it now, we’ll see what happens.
“I never stopped working with Righteous Mind.
“We were rehearsing and preparing for the CollectiV LP at the same time I was touring with Thee Hypnotics.
“I just made them fit around each other.”
For Collectiv, Jim is joined once again on the new album by Gavin Jay on bass, Mal Troon on guitar, Mat Millership on piano and newbie Andy Marvell on drums.
Jim said: “This is the first batch of recording we’ve done with Andy.
“It wasn’t working out with Phil Martini and he joined the band for the last bunch of live dates before it was time to work on the new LP.
“He’s a good fit for the band. It’s great to have him.”
Collectiv is out now.