Jim Ford
Harlan County

There are albums that make you feel good and spin around in your head all day long, without the need for the radio or MTV to play them for you 300 consecutive times.

One of these is "Harlan County" by Jim Ford, and so far there's nothing strange except that it is almost forty years old. Indeed, Jim moved from his native New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1966 and then to San Francisco, where he built a good reputation as a classy songwriter for numerous artists.

In 1969 he debuted with this album that still makes me cheerful today in the depressing hustle and bustle of the crowded subway during rush hours. Ford has a fresh "white" soul voice and the musical territory he moves in is the rhythm & blues ballad, or more specifically, the soul-pop sometimes tinged with country. The superb arrangements supported by the robust rhythm section do the rest and deliver a series of memorable songs.

For example, the muscular title track with r&b horns, the wonderful "I’m Gonna Make Her Love Me" and the lively boogie of "Long Road Ahead", already by Delaney & Bonnie, all great interpretations by our artist accompanied by the exceptional vocal backing of Pat and Lolly Vegas. At other times it's the ballad that prevails like in "Love My Brain" or the country twist of "Changing Colours" or even the epic and intense "To Make My Life Beautiful" that takes us back to the best years of our lives. Otherwise, it is the energetic blues of "Working my way to L.A." and the version of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" that will surprise us by tapping our foot while waiting for that train to Yuma on the bench of platform 2.

A few years later, Ford's manager organized a session for him in London to record the new album with a solid pub rock band that had little to do with his splendid arrangements, so the result was not considered satisfactory and that was the end of it. Except that Jim won over many pub rockers from Albion, including Nick Lowe, who recorded his track "36 Inches High" on the famous album "Jesus of Cool".

The interesting part of our hero’s story stops here, and I will never stop thanking him for that happy expression I have plastered on my face as I listen to his "Harlan County" on my headphones, arousing the envy of the stressed crowd jostling to get into the subway carriages.