While on tour in Europe, James released a “new” album. To be honest, it’s 8 tracks from the pre-release for his new album and two songs he recorded while in London, England the ninth of October. Niko and Matt from The Freeborn Brothers, with whom James is touring, made this happen. James arrived in Europe with no merch at all, so a plan was made and a cd was born. I have to give it to my Polish friends Niko and Matt, they get the job done! In Belgium we joke about Polish people being thieves, lowlifes and lazy fucks… but these two prove me wrong every time! It has nothing to do with racism, it’s just stereotypes, so please get the sand out of your vagina…If you are on tour and need cd’s, get in contact with these guys, they’ll hook you up and make it happen!!!

We all love to sing along to James’ songs, he has a way to make you smile and cry at the same time. This new release is not a sing along album, not at all. It’s heavier, more metal, like a semi-acoustic doom metal monster. In almost each song there is an electric guitar in the background building a base but not taking over. His voice and sublime guitar picking is still the main course, but it has such a different feel compared to his previous releases. “I’ll take the rain” could be a Paradise Lost song if you add drums and more guitars, but this stripped-down version does the trick. “Never Alone” is the next one, and shoot me if I’m wrong, but I’m sure that James based this song on the Cock Sparrer song he loves to play. It has the punk vibe but never gets to the sing along, soccerhooligan anthem as the song I think it is based on. But it works just as well!

The title song, Who Will Raise The Flag, is a typical James Hunnicutt song, but oh so metal, slow built up, grabbing you by the throat lyrics that you try to give a place in your life but don’t really understand, his fantastic voice kicking you down, lifting you up and then just leaves you feeling like you need to do something for someone, but you forgot who it was and this person really needs you now… It’s weird how he does it, but he always makes you think…
The two songs recorded live in London at the end of the album bring back James as most of us know him, a guitar and a voice, and will take you home after a “hard to understand” first run of this album but make sure to play it over and over again, it grows on you!

This cd is limited to 100 copies so most of you will never have the opportunity to buy it, don’t be sad, the new album will be released soon and has the same songs on it.

There is a mistake on the sleeve or/and on the cd, song number nine and ten have switched places, that’s what you get with working with them polish folks. I’m just joking, not about the mistake, it’s for real. But if you can get shit done as fast as Niko and Matt can, you can take over the world without people noticing it. I just hope these two stay on the *Team Simple side and let us do what we like, have a beer, go to shows, have fun with the people we love and be good to the folks who deserve it…

*Team Simple: people who like to party, have fun, get drunk, don’t care, don’t drink, do drugs, take care of their friends, don’t do drugs, be straight edge, hate religion, believe in god, don’t preach, eat red meat, love their rabbit, walk their dogs, holdhairbackwhilepuking, love life, don’t give up, joke on you, kick you in the nuts and hug it out…

Look out for our interview with James Hunnicutt and The Freeborn Brothers. We will be posting it soon…