His most upbeat, hallucinogenic record to date ‘Misfit’s Jubilee’ was hailed by UNCUT as “the friskiest, most rock’n’roll album of his career” (8/10), while MOJO effused that “the timeless fury of these songs is just what we need more of right now” (⅘).
Fast forward to 2022 and White will be bringing its songs to the live stage for the first time. Performing as a three-piece band, the Georgia native will be joined by Geert Hellings and Nicolas Rombouts, both of whom played on ‘Misfit’s Jubilee’.
JIM WHITE – UK TOUR: JUNE 2022
12 – Newcastle Cluny 2
13 – Glasgow St Luke’s
14 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
15 – Manchester Deaf Institute
18 – Nottingham Bodega
19 – Birmingham Actress & Bishop
20 – Bristol Louisiana
21 – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
22 – Brighton Komedia Studio
23 – London 100 Club
Tickets on sale here: https://jimwhitemusic.net/tour/
Known for his catalogue of dark ruminations on all things Southern, White’s latest outing, ‘Misfit’s Jubilee’, features a nonstop parade of manic, blue-collar conflagrations exploring realms dark and light, mystic and mundane, cynical and heartfelt; all presented within a buoyant, hook-laden sonic framework.
Recorded primarily at Studio Caporal in Antwerp, Belgium, the record marks a departure from White’s usual hopscotch approach to collaboration—no bevy of celebrated guest artists and studios scattered across the globe this go-round. The album was written with just multi-instrumentalist White, his longtime drummer Marlon Patton, plus trusted Belgian sidemen Geert Hellings (guitar/banjo) and Nicolas Rombouts (electric & stand-up bass/keys), and the pared-down chemistry on display here lends ‘Misfit’s Jubilee’ a sonic integrity that far exceeds any of White’s previous efforts.
‘Misfit’s Jubilee’ draws from an array of original songs penned by White over the span of several decades—scattered among the recent compositions are songs back-burnered in previous epochs by White’s major label handlers, this after said songs were deemed too extreme for his “brand”. With no such middleman constraints this go-round, in ‘Misfit’s Jubilee’ White has found the perfect vehicle to unleash his twisted take on southern folk rock.
Since its release, White has also published his long-awaited debut novel “Incidental Contact”. Part memoir, part urban fable, the quixotic narrative unspools around a cluster of truly baffling events that befall White during a severe mental health spiral, episodes which lead to him being “discovered” by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.
Chronicling a harrowing ten year stretch mostly spent disintegrating behind the wheel of a New York City taxi cab, White navigates a daisy chain of gritty intersections between the real and surreal, encountering a dizzying array of agents of synchronicity: drug lords, con men, deviant proctologists, errant pigs, doomed lovers, psychics and psychos, and ultimately a string of cultural luminaries, each bearing enigmatic messages for White from the Great Beyond.
Above all Incidental Contact is a love letter to the fans of White’s Wrong-Eyed Jesus oeuvre—the marginalised seekers among us: the freaks, the outsiders, the lost souls—anyone who, as White points out in his iconic song Static on the Radio, “thinks less of what is written than what’s wrote between the lines.”
