Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter James Jackson Toth has been making songs for a long time, but he needed his wife to point him to the obvious common thread: “It’s like a modern version of that old tv show This Is Your Life,” he explained to Aquarium Drunkard. A selection of ten tunes on seams of memory and passage of time are brought together on the debut LP under the moniker of James & the Giants, featuring musicians from across the various eras of Toth’s time recording as Wooden Wand. You get what you expect to hear: beautiful, understated Americana (a well-produced warm and rich sound with a 70s feel) with equally beautiful lyrics (“Let’s laugh like we deserve it // Don’t use it all at once, let’s conserve it // Don’t dance the night away, let’s preserve it // Cause the sky is a hall of mirrors”). What a great way of coming to terms with things and reckoning with the past.
The self-titled James & The Giants album, produced by Jarvis Taveniere, is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Kill Rock Stars Nashville.
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