Jimi Beavis is the "Gentleman Giant" of Brisbane and his new record, of the same name, is out independently Friday 29th November online, selected stores and at shows.
Jimi Beavis' music is eclectic as it is enigmatic - old time, new time, in between time. Dark, brooding like a long black. Light and fluffy like cream. Smooth like a fine brandy. Rough like a cheap brandy.
Jimi Beavis’ Gentleman Giant has been an album in the marking since he was 19 when he developed a desire to one day put the songs he was writing into an album form. Or perhaps as a 16 year old, fuelled by his discovery of music of Bob Dylan and his contemporaries and then tracing back their influences to the blues and folk of the 1950s and earlier. He has amassed a knowledge of roots music from all areas, as well as formidable harmonica chops.
After recording two EPs as a solo artist, Jimi collected his favourite blues originals and his band and started recording Gentleman Giant in Brisbane’s humble Parsonage Studios with producer Steve Robin. The band laid down three songs over a weekend and returned in May to finish the rest off, along with two B-sides.
Jimi has put his heart & soul into this record. He believes that, as much as possible, “The best blues is made with the musicians all perfoming at once, reacting off each other to make the music genuine,” said Jimi. “Some of my favourite blues albums have that feel – listen to Muddy Waters’ Hard Again or Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues. The music feels like it is a living, breathing being.”
The feature track "You're much too Young for me" will have a filmclip, out 12th November and was written about returning to university in his mid to late 20s to study English/Film teaching. Jimi found himself surrounded by younger women and he wrote this as a way of convincing himself it was okay to date some of them (not at the same time).
He is touring the album through November and December, taking in his home town of Brisbane and then hitting the road with it to Sydney and Melbourne - Melbourne at the Public Bar on Thursday November 28 with The Mightiest of Guns and Tim Neilson, Sunday 1st December at Brisbane's Black Bear Lodge with Sahara Beck and Johnny and the Fembots and Sydney's iconic Coogee Diggers on Sunday 8th December, with Big Blind Ray trio. See http://www.facebook.com/jimi.beavis for ticket details.
"Brisbane's own besuited blues troubadour, Jimi Beavis. Beavis and his band of three get the show off to a flying start with an entertaining, funny, and perfectly loose set; full of black humour and charm from start to finish." - The AU Review
Jimi Beavis' LP Gentleman Giant will be available from November 29 from iTunes, Jimi's Bandcamp site (physical and digital), select record stores in Brisbane and at shows.
THE GENTLEMAN GIANT TOUR
MELBOURNE
The Public Bar - 28 Nov
w/ The Mightiest of Guns & Tim Neilson
BRISBANE
Black Bear Lodge - 1 Dec
w/ Johnny and The Fembots & Sahara Beck
SYDNEY
Coogee Diggers - 8 Dec
w/ Big Blind Ray Trio
After a massive weekend filled with Wes Carr’s Buffalo Tales, Jimi Beavis and Karl S. Williams – not to mention the Southside Tea Room stall at Splendour In The Grass – Southside are BACK this week...
Brisbane Blues Troubadour Jimi Beavis' album Gentleman Giant is nearly ready for release (it's out independently Friday 29th November online, selected stores and at shows), but to give everyone a...
