Jack J Hutchinson
The British blueser-turned-rock’n’roller on Brazilian adventures and bucking the odds.
We meet Jack J Hutchinson in a quiet Central London pub, just round the corner from the blues bar where he had a popular gig for years. Lately, though, he’s found fans further afield. Fresh from the release of new album Who Feeds The Wolf? – a warm, rugged fusion of grungy southern rock, Zakk Wylde-esque weight and bluesy strains – the singer/guitarist has just returned from a tour of Brazil.
“People knew my songs!” he says, beaming, all Blackberry Smoke-rivalling threads and beard. “We did a blues festival in the UK at the weekend where everyone was sitting down, and in Brazil everyone’s just going apeshit during your set. My bass player said: ‘I like it when people sit down and listen.’ I was like, ‘I fucking don’t, I want them to go ballistic!’”
It’s a long way from Hutchinson’s formative years in Burnley, where Led Zeppelin lured him into rock’n’roll while his classmates listened to Oasis. But when he first moved to London his initial motive was to study art. There he spent late nights painting giant canvases and playing southern rock and covers gigs. Then, at 25, he was diagnosed with reactive arthritis and left unable to play guitar. At one point he was told he might not walk again. Confidence and strength shattered, he moved back in with his parents. And then one day: “My dad came in and said: ‘I want you to take this letter and post it.’ So I hobbled down to the post office, and hobbled back. I think it was the first step to me walking again.”
Back on his feet, he played in varying blues band line-ups – including the Boom Boom Brotherhood. But as his songwriting began to lean in a rockier, more ambitious direction, things had to change. “The Boom Boom Brotherhood guys were unavailable to do a tour of Spain, so I had to find a band really quickly,” he explains, “so I hired Felipe [Amorim, drums] and Laz [Michaelides, bass] as session musicians.”
Raucous shows of heavier, rockier material for singing-along crowds in Brazil, Russia and the UK ensued, capitalising on Hutchinson’s longtime fondness for Zakk Wylde, The Black Crowes and Black Sabbath. By the time they got home it made sense for Who Feeds The Wolf? to reflect this.
In a cruel twist of fate, this has all coincided with family heartbreak after Hutchinson’s father – and his earliest champion – was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “But my mum has said: ‘You’ve got to go and do your own thing and try and enjoy it.’ I think she has the opinion that he’d be really proud of it.”
Indeed, judging by Hutchinson Snr’s response to rock’n’roll, she may have a point. “I’ll put on an AC/DC DVD or something and his eyes light up, and he’s able to talk a little bit,” Jack says with a smile. “Most of the time now you can’t get anything out of him. But put on Sweet Child O’ Mine and he’s straight there.”
For album and tour info, visit jack jhutchinsonmusic.com
“I hobbled down to the post office. It was the first step to me walking again.”
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