Jim Hurst Travels & Time
Jim Hurst would be the first to tell you his soon-to-be-released Travels & Time isn’t a pure bluegrass recording. The 13-cut disc that comes out in March features a colorful palette of country, jazz, blues, and bluegrass, taking listeners on a captivating emotional journey. That, of course, is reflective of Hurst’s musical travels. His resume includes stints as a guitarist in the bands of major country stars Trisha Yearwood, Sara Evans, and Holly Dunn. He also built his bluegrass chops playing with Claire Lynch, David Grisman, and the Jim Hurst/Missy Raines duo.
His deft finger work and smooth vocals have laid down tracks on his 8 CDs Open Window, Second Son, A Box of Chocolates, and since his solo career began in 2010 including Intrepid, Looking Glass, JHT-1, Atlantic Crossing and From the Ground Up. Hurst’s original single, “It’s a Beautiful Day” that featured harmony vocals from Dale Ann Bradley, Claire Lynch, and Shelton Feazell peaked at #2 on one of the bluegrass charts where it remained for quite some time.
Hurst has been working on his latest project over the last few years. “I love what I get to do!” Hurst said. “This set of recordings has taken its cool easy time, but not for any real tangible reason.”
In fact, one of the cuts, “Procrastination Boogie” did take a while to see the light of day. “Missy and I were going to record that on our last duets album in 2003. I said, ‘Let’s do “Procrastination Boogie.” But the song was bumped until this new recording when Hurst playfully delayed the recording of the song again initially while recording it in the studio.
“We’re going to warm up into the tempo, and then I just stopped it. “Hey guys! Hang On. Sorry. Let’s do this later.” The other musicians were sitting there quiet, as if to say “What the hell was that?” And I stepped into [playing] it and bam, they got on top of it.”
That playful live snippet is included at the beginning of the song. As other songs for the album fell into place, Hurst began to realize that an unintended theme for the recording emerged. “It wasn’t intentional to start with. Every song I came onto had something to do with traveling. Several songwriters gave me the opportunity to record their creative art and their thumbs up for my versions, with the exception of songs from earlier times. But I think those creators might like what I did with arrangements and feels. Every song here matters to me musically, and I enjoyed working through my ideas and I made efforts to be respectful while creating my versions. The ones I have spoken with about their songs gave me their approval, and I am grateful.”
One of the covers is his arrangement of “Southbound” that Doc and Merle Watson co-wrote and first recorded. Jim wanted to do his respectful rendition, but he said it was scary to step into the place of the late revered guitarists. “I felt like I could do both Doc and Merle’s parts with my left hand because they were doing twins, one of them playing harmony and the other playing the melody.
“We got in the studio, and I threw it out at the guys and said, ‘Let’s try this and see what you think.’ They went, Oh, dude! You’ve got to do that. It gave me the boost I needed to go ahead and do it. I knew that I could play one or the other parts without too much trouble. It wouldn’t sound exactly like them, but I couldn’t copy what they did. But you’ve got the Doc and Merle fans. You take a chance on insulting the memory of Merle and Doc to these people. I can’t do it like those guys, but what I do is very respectful. I want to do it because I respect them and honor them and love what they did.”
The IBMA’s Guitar Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002 is modest in his picking skills for the bluegrass genre. “I can’t see myself being a Lester, a Jimmy Martin, a Larry Sparks, or a Doc Watson. I truly love bluegrass dearly, and my dad played at home and listened to WSM, but I don’t see myself having a career doing that. I don’t know if that would be a success for me to just play bluegrass because there are so many out there that really do it well.
“Plus, I want to try to get people to understand who I think I am musically. I want them to hear a side of bluegrass that is not mainstream dyed-in-the-wool traditional bluegrass. We do some things that are in there, but it’s in my way of playing bluegrass like on “Reuben’s Train” that I think I can do well. It gives me an identity. The flatpickers think I’m a fingerstylist. The fingerstylists think I’m a flatpicker. I’m kind of in the crack between the two. I’ve had people I admire come up to me at a festival and say, “Man, you’re just right for the combination of what’s out there.” You give somebody something else to listen to. They’ve just got done listening to Larry Sparks and they’re getting ready to hear Blue Highway, and here you are. I think it’s just me being a different flavor as in an ice cream shop.”
Blessed with the skills to play both fingerstyle and flatpicking style, Hurst lets his creative muse guide him along the way. “On the album a lot of times, if it’s a bluegrass sounding song, I want to play it with a flatpick because I want to honor the tradition. There are a couple of songs on there that I could have done fingerstyle, but I thought it sounded more appealing to a bluegrass audience by doing it flatpick. It’s more about what I want to get out of a song versus whether it’s flatpick or fingerpick. I normally have both available to me.
“There’s songs on there that I could have done either way. As a matter of fact, on “I’m Leavin’” the opening guitar track is what I wanted—a lot of open ringing strings throughout the whole thing. I never deviated. All I did was that on that guitar. Then I recorded the second guitar which also does the solo both capoed and flatpicked.
It’s fun to have somewhat availability to do both. I’m not the flatpickers flatpicker. There are times when I play 16th notes or 8th notes. I don’t like to do it the whole time. I like mixing it up. With a lot of the newer, younger flatpickers, it’s all about steam. They’re very good at it, but that’s not interesting to me. I admire the fact that they’re so good, so fast that they can do it. They don’t make mistakes and the dynamics of it is what it is.
“I’d rather leave people guessing a little bit as to where my accent is going to be. Is this going to be 3 quarter notes or 3 sixteenth notes? I guess it’s a selfish thing. I’m not thinking about what the audience may like or not when I’m playing a solo.”
Hurst provides another sample with his take on Earl Scruggs’ classic, “Reuben’s Train.” It’s believed to be the first recording of Earl doing his three-finger banjo roll style. Hurst backed into cutting an instrumental version for David Grisman’s Tone Poets compilation album. Jim told Bluegrass Unlimited he was visiting a friend in California when Grisman called him. “Hey, what are you doing man?” Hurst recalls, doing his best Grisman impersonation. Hurst got the invite to come play a solo on a song, or so he thought. Jim arrived at Grisman’s home studio and began prepping.
“Look man. Just whatever you want to do. I then realized he wanted me to record a solo tune! He said go in there and start warming up. He says I gotta get sounds and check mics and levels. He already had the mics set up. I’m just goofing off and warming up, thinking I just started playing what became known as “Reuben’s Train.” I’m throwing everything in there except the kitchen sink, and I thought about adding that!”
Later, Jim went into the control room to see if the sound was set. “I go in there and he starts playing me back all the stuff I’ve played. He’s been recording me the whole time on a 2” reel. He’s got 20 minutes of me fiddle farting around in there, and one of them was that version of “Reuben.” But for Hurst’s version on his new album, he chose to include the lyrics to the song.
Hurst also was thrilled to have banjo legend Alan Munde on the recording. “Some may learn that Mr. Munde is also a jazzy guitar player! Who knew?!? I am so honored he agreed to join me on “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Munde played the middle guitar solo. The two men then co-wrote the instrumental, “Nekkid Thumbs,” after Alan suggested the two of them record as a duet. “Awesomeness! By the way, Alan played my one of a kind in the world Harmony Alan Munde Signature archtop acoustic guitar. He autographed it for me after the session.”
Another pivotal moment that was dear to Jim was when he persuaded his two grown children to record with him. Brandon played bass for him in the early 2000s for a brief time but didn’t want to pursue music professionally. His daughter, Crystal Hurst Tesh agreed.
Jim tried to encourage his kids musically growing up he told BU. Meanwhile, he reached nearby for the first guitar he ever owned, a Gene Autry model Silvertone that he was given at age 4. Brandon played around on it some but later became interested in drums. Crystal refused to sing in front of her dad. Try as he might Jim could never get them deeply interested in music, but the last couple of Christmases, the kids caved. “We’ve been getting together, singing Christmas songs. They would say, ‘Dad, sing “It’s a Beautiful Day”’ or ‘Dad, sing “Our Old Home.”’ They’ll sing along with me, and it just makes my heart swell up and makes me feel good. So, when the 3 of us were in the studio at the same time, it was all I could do to get through it without crying my way out. Then, Crystal calls me after the session and said, “Dad, I just got off the phone with Brandon and he pulled over his car. He’s crying; he can’t drive.”
Brandon sang tenor vocal and Crystal performed high baritone vocal for “One More Lonesome Train” and Brandon sang baritone vocal, Crystal tenor vocal on “Old Country Church.” They were set to join their dad on stage for a performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Hurst credits the host of musicians that joined him in the studio for making his vision come to life. “The musicians who joined me were and are fantastic! They agreed to help me render what I was hearing and creating, and they each made me dig in harder and with more heart while having a lot of fun! I thank all of you. You killed it!
