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DOWN THE LITTLE ROAD
Nick Erby
Broadcaster Nick Erby recently did a probing interview with Jimmy about the new CD Down the Road, some career highlights, his kidney treatment and his new "silver fox" look.
It’s forty years this year since Jimmy had that super pop hit with Royal Telephone, which peaked at #2 on the national pop music chart in 1963. Since then there have been several career high points along the way – many about a decade apart.
After several "quiet" years through the 80s into the 90s, it was just under 10 years ago when Jimmy returned to performing his music and ended up recording the acclaimed Yorta Yorta Man album which was released in 1995. The period since then has contained more high points than any other time period in Jimmy’s career, which is now in its 5th decade.
Since Yorta Yorta Man Jimmy has toured and performed regularly, been elevated to Tamworth’s Country Music Roll of Renown and to ARIA’s Australian Music Hall of Fame. Then came those two outstanding "cult" albums, Messenger and Resonate, which took Jimmy in a whole new direction before returning now to country music.
"It’s been wonderful. I do look back through the years, decade to decade, to see how my career has been functioning, and it seems that something’s been happening (laugh) every few years like that," Jimmy told me in our recent interview.
Jimmy has a great passion for music and always looks deep into songs. "I’ve always tried to stay in touch with change in our music world, and stay in touch with the people’s choice, but another part of me has always said ‘sing the song that I enjoy within’ and I just want to go on crooning pretty love songs."
Crooning pretty love songs is what he’s been doing for over 40 years. In the late 50s he was a natural for the burgeoning variety shows on television, singing the country love songs of the day, made popular by JIM REEVES and the other melodic hit makers coming out of Nashville at that time.
The Yorta Yorta Man CD was produced by John Sayers as a more ‘country’ sounding album. This new release from ABC Down The Road, produced by Martin Hailey, Mark O’Connor and Buzz Bidstrup retains that rich, quiet, melodic crooning style that made the two pop albums Messenger and Resonate so popular.
I asked Jimmy, with his revitalised crooning style, if he was tempted to record some of his old favourites. "Yes I was tempted, but I decided for now I wanted a mix of some good new songs, with just three or four covers."
The covers include the 70s gem When I Dream (recorded by Jack Clement and now hard to get), I Don’t Know Why I Love You (But I Do) (a 1961 pop hit), and Smooth Sailing (co-written by Curley Putman who wrote the classics The Green Green Grass Of Home" and He Stopped Loving Her Today).
The new songs come from a diverse range of Australian writers. DON WALKER and TROY CASSAR-DALEY wrote the title song Down The Road, (which Troy sings with Jimmy), MELINDA SCHNEIDER wrote the song she sings on called Reach Out, JOHN and GENNI KANE contribute Pearls Of Wisdom; there’s another PAUL KELLY Sydney song (to compliment Jimmy’s previous recording of Paul’s Randwick Bells) called Summer Rain and there’s the outstanding treatment of A Reason For It All featuring Jimmy’s grandson JAMES HENRY in the role of the younger point of view to Jimmy’s mature side in the powerful social commentary by ERIC BOGLE.
The production team, led by Jimmy’s manager Buzz Bidstrup (of rock band Gangajang fame), not only came up with some very interesting and unusual new songs, they settled on four older songs that have now got a new life. And they developed four stand-out vocal collaborations, with TROY CASSAR-DALEY, MELINDA SCHNEIDER, the McCLYMONT SISTERS (Brooke, Samanatha and Mollie) and JAMES HENRY (Jimmy’s grandson).
And recording was a different experience for Jimmy. "There were four studios involved – and it was exciting going from one to another, because the changes kept on bringing forward fresh ideas, and it was wonderful being part of a building process.
"In other recording sessions, where it was all done at the one place it was more mechanical. This was a mixture of environment and situations that brought about fresh feelings as we brought the album together."
Jimmy Little is very excited about the period he is entering – taking his new album to the people. He lives for his music, and to perform it. I remember Jimmy coming out of what was his "quiet" time, that period during the 80s and early 90s when his career slowed down. I remember how his spirits lifted dramatically when the Yorta Yorta Man album came together and the joy he got from the touring and performing that followed.
In our recent discussion I reflected back to those "quiet" days, wondering if Jimmy still had that philosophical strength of acceptance that had back then, knowing he would have to work through it with confidence that he would come back again.
He told me "It was a little concerning, wondering if I’d run out of juice and energy and ideas for the adoring public. So I took a few different steps in other directions, into the world of acting and teaching – teaching other up and coming performers what the art of performing is all about. I remember the quiet times as a great learning curve for me as I waited in the ‘waiting room’ for my time to come around again."
I love Jimmy’s spirit, his strength and his faith. He hasn’t done it with ease. He’s never brought any of his own troubles to his audience, and he won’t this time. But this time Jimmy is taking his new music out with a major handicap – he has pretty big kidney problems, which saw him hospitalised for a long time last year. Now he spends a lot of time each day on a dialysis machine, but as always he remains philosophical and positive.
"I’m glad to say my doctors are happy with my progress in maintaining a level of health that can get me about. I do dialyze three to four times a day – it’s a little confronting and sacrificing to get about freely. If I was hospitalised, like I was in the early days, it would take a lot out of my week. But I’m getting about and doing shows quite comfortably."
And a couple of footnotes to the story.
Firstly the hairstyle.
About ten years ago Jimmy came to the Gympie Muster after finishing a movie acting role with grey hair and a grey beard. A number of us thought he looked terrific and hoped he would stay grey, but it turns out the greying process wasn’t finished at that time. "A few years ago I wanted to look like my dad, but it wasn’t as good then. My dad was a "silver fox". – young and grey and so beautiful.
"Now the greying is just about right so I feel that I’m at that time of my life when I can let the natural grey bloom."
Secondly – The Royal Telephone
It’s 40 years since that trak became Jimmy’s biggest career hit. I asked him if he’s ever estimated how many times he’s sung it since. He thought it would be in the thousands, but was quite surprised when he realised that if he’d done just 100 concerts a year it would be over 4,000. It’s probably closer to 5,000, because he’s done it in every show he’s performed.
"I’m glad I’ve had to sing it. I’ve never grown tired of it because the audience at every show makes it feel fresh. I look at the audience and know that there are a lot of people who haven’t seen it done live before – so that adds the freshness to me singing it again and again – and I never grow tired of it."
I asked Jimmy if there are any songs on the new CD Down the Road that he hopes to be singing every night for the rest of his life.
"It’s too early yet to know that, but there are at least six of the songs that I’m developing a very strong relationship with."
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