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Jim Jones All Stars: Your Arms Will Be The Heavens – single review

Jim Jones All Stars: Your Arms Will Be The Heavens (Ako-Lite Records) DL | Stream Out Now Jim Jones All Stars release the second single, Your Arms Will Be The Heavens, from their forthcoming debut album which is due out in 2023. In contrast to their first single, this one has a much mellower vibe […]

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Jim Jones All Stars: Your Arms Will Be The Heavensjim jones all stars

(Ako-Lite Records)

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Jim Jones All Stars release the second single, Your Arms Will Be The Heavens, from their forthcoming debut album which is due out in 2023. In contrast to their first single, this one has a much mellower vibe taking in more country and gospel influences, whilst still retaining that underlying intensity which has become the hallmark of any Jim Jones performance.

As the dust finally started to settle from that dreaded pandemic which derailed the momentum that had built up around The Righteous Mind, Jim Jones was busy making contact with a bunch of old friends to try and fulfil a request to fill a slot at the Wilderness Festival over at Cornbury Park in the picturesque surroundings of Oxfordshire. Fortunately, all the planets quickly aligned leading to this inaugural gig for the newly formed All Stars. This not only provided Jim the opportunity to finally tread the boards once again, but also to rekindle his mojo which had been in lockdown mode for far too long.

So a new rock’n’roll phenomenon was born and a new dye was being cast, not only with some new faces which included a full horn section, but some more familiar aides including long term side-kick Gavin Jay on bass and former keyboard player with the Jim Jones Revue Elliot Mortimer. And with veteran punk guitarist Carlton Mounsher (The Swamps, Death Wish) and drummer Chris Ellul (The Heavy) completing the line up, this was already looking like the formation of yet another formidable force of nature.

Jim jones

Louder Than War witnessed this new beginning back in April 2022 at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge which proved that all the swagger, power and intensity you would expect from a Jim Jones performance is still there in spades and the rollercoaster was now well on its way down the track.

The All Stars were then drawn over to Memphis by an old friend of Jim’s, John Getze, who was putting together a new independent label, Ako-Lite Records, and wanted the All Stars to be their first project. So the wheels started to spin even faster, the plane tickets arrived and Jim and the band found themselves recording their debut album in the depths of the rock’n’roll heartland of Memphis.

The results of that recording session finally started to filter through in October with the release of the debut single It’s Your Voodoo Working, a cover of a song originally recorded by Charles Sheffield, with a typically hard-edged rhythm and blues vibe dominated by grinding rhythms and rude horns. The new single, Your Arms Will Be The Heavens, takes a very different sonic turn with what Jim describes as “a Leonard Cohen meets Johnny Cash-style gunfighter ballad.” This one also features Righteous Mind’s very own Mal Troon on pedal steel and Stahv’s Solomon Ayre Rosenschein on lead guitar.

As ever with Jim and whatever band he pulls together, this is yet another golden nugget in an ever-increasing treasure trove of sonic delights. Jim describes the new single as follows, “this is a dark song thematically, but really it’s about ascension…and knowing that, in the important life or death moments, you have the power to choose what feels true to you, and not necessarily what’s been prescribed.”

Jim Jones All Stars

John Getze as producer also explains that “the whole vibe in Memphis was so infectious. This song took on a life of its own and melds country, gospel and a bit of that Spector Wall of Sound sonically.” And this really captures the essence of the sound.

Following on from a blistering session for the Marc Riley show on BBC Radio 6 (which you can hear back here up to 24 December 2022), two further singles are planned for release in advance of a tour due to commence in Spring 2023, with dates being announced shortly. And then we can look forward to the release of the debut album, Ain’t No Peril, which will no doubt deliver the wide ranging, intense and genre defying soundscapes which we have now come to expect from any Jim Jones project, and long may that continue.

Photo credit: Jeff Pitcher

You can buy the single here or stream it here.

You can find Jim Jones All Stars on FacebookInstagram, and Bandcamp.

                                                       ~

All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile.

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