Times Colonist (Victoria)
January 19, 2006
By Adrian Chamberlain

Some relieve stress by exercising. Others meditate, guzzle booze, scrub the bathroom or fold origami giraffes. Vancouver rocker Colin James copes by getting down and dirty. With his house, that is.

"I took a sledgehammer to a basement wall that had to come down eventually," said the musician.

Why was James stressed? It stems back to the September release of his 10th album, Limelight, a canny combo of pop, blues-rock and blue-eyed soul a la Van Morrison. Usually, James tours the heck out of a new recording immediately. But this time, he and his management decided to wait until now. The delay was partly because they wanted to centre a Colin James tour around a prestigious Feb. 4 date at Toronto's Massey Hall.

However, the postponement drove the die-hard road-hound to . . . well, banging his walls with a great big hammer.

"I've been itchin' to get goin'," James says. "If I don't do that for four months, it's like a part of you is missing."

James gets going tonight and Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, opening for Bryan Adams. Next week, he embarks on his own month-long tour, starting in Halifax and finishing in Calgary. His band -- with a two-man horn section -- includes former Odds guitarist Craig Northey (also a songwriting partner) and keyboardist Simon Kendall, who played with Doug and the Slugs.

Once upon a time, James was a hot guitar-slinger with a high pompadour, singing about chicks, cars and voodoo things. Now, at 41, he's more interested in the soul croon of Van Morrison than machine-gunning crowds with electric blues solos. "After Stevie [Ray Vaughan] died, I looked for someone who could take that spot of reverence for me, you know. Van Morrison ended up doing that."

The deal was sealed when James' wife gave him a special 40th birthday gift. The pair went to see Van Morrison perform at a mountain winery near San Francisco. James was impressed at how the elder singer was able to tastefully mix up his show -- early rave-ups such as Gloria were mixed with mellow ballads from his latest disc.

Limelight is replete with Van Morrison-style soul balladry, and even includes one of his hero's greatest hits, ‘Into the Mystic’. It has done well in adult contemporary radio, both charting and receiving regular airplay.

Now into his fifth decade, James believes he's entering a bright new phrase of his career. For one thing, he thinks he's singing better than ever. And he's more interested in songwriting than he used to be. "Lately, I've had a real fascination with singing," he said. "I feel I'm only just starting to feel comfortable with my timbre and my voice . . . I listen back to the [1989] ‘Why'd You Lie’ days, and I was a kid. I sound like a kid."

On Limelight, James shares songwriting credits with Northey, Tom Wilson and Colin Linden, who also co-produced the disc. He trusts and enjoys the company of all three. It's a far cry from his early days on the Warner label, when he'd be linked with songwriters-for-hire whom he'd never met before.

"You'd meet them for lunch, then go to some room that you couldn't wait to get out of. I used to have a knee-jerk reaction of horror. I'd pull my car over on the way to some session in L.A., and have to catch my breath, hyperventilating, being nervous about the whole thing."

On two of his most popular albums, James depended on the songwriting efforts of latter-day heroes. His two Little Big Band recordings were horn-driven interpretations of vintage jump-blues tunes by Roscoe Gordon, Roy Brown, Ike Turner and others. His last Little Big Band effort was released in 1998. Now, James says he's ready to do it all over again.

He's already lined up old friends Greg Piccolo from Roomful of Blues and Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell for sessions in May. Chris Kimsey, who produced the first Little Big Band recording in 1993, was also contacted. On his upcoming cross-Canada tour, James will browse through vinyl bins of used-record stores in search of more latter-day gems.

A Little Big Band tour will follow. And, there won't be any waiting around, either. "I'm pumped about it," he said. "We just go in there -- boom, boom -- and do it."