JIM WHITE – Reading Between The Lines

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.