The beauty of Shotgun Jimmie's music has always been the perfect purity of its heart. Since first appearing before listeners with a group called Shotgun & Jaybird in 2003, “Shotgun” Jimmie Kilpatrick has embodied a charmed (and charming) musical persona in that there is no question whether or not the sentiments imparted by his songs are true (everyone knows they are), but Jimmie can melt fans' faces with white hot passion too – when the mood strikes him. Each successive release has not only seen the songwriter's songs and style improving but, now on his sixth solo album, Shotgun Jimmie has turned a whole other corner; Everything Everything is the sort of classic record that every singer/songwriter hopes to make, someday.
While saying that a record is “perfect” is undoubtedly a bold statement, anyone who listens to Everything Everything will at least have to concede that they're hearing something special as Kilpatrick turns something as potentially mundane as “Standing In A Line” as the airport into an exciting experience which shouldn't be missed. Here, Shotgun Jimmie apes the excitement that (before now) only Spongebob Squarepants could pull off believably and gets listeners feeling that anything is possible as they line up to wait with him. It's kind of incredible how intoxicating the energy of this song is; there is no guitar solo to marvel at or remarkable wordplay in the lyrics, but the song is just energizing because it perfectly articulates excitement and anticipation and gets all of those who hear it to feel it too. That anticipation brims over into “Big Sur” (which can only be characterized as a song about nothing – at a minute long and with no clear subject, it sets up as a short ballad of beautiful words), but the real hook and pay-off comes in “Growing Like A Garden,” where it's impossible to explain how the song's parts come together in such a perfect way. In that song, a playful guitar line (what is it about that deliberate strum across muted strings at the beginning of the chorus which just seems to hold listeners in its hands?), a perfectly sweet and childlike vocal melody and sugarcoated lyric sheet (“Darling it's alarming and it's growing like a garden/ It's wild and unexpected and in bloom/ An excellent example of the things you can't plan for that just turn out to be true”) are the tools that Shotgun Jimmie uses to secure his place both in listeners' hearts and in rock n' roll godhood. Listeners will find themselves humming “Growing Like A Garden” repeatedly for hours after the record's over (it's inevitable – take this writer's word for it), but they'll also go back to hear songs like “Carry On,” “Sum Of My Parts,” “3212,” “Skype Date,” “Over A Million” and the album's title track because the three-minute (at most) length of each (on average) just won't feel like enough; they'll want more, they'll need more, and they'll want to make sure they take it all in.
When listeners finally do make their way out of Everything Everything, those who have experienced it will know they were right – this album is something special.They'll have been won and overcome by it; they'll want to hear it over and over and they'll want to share both the music and their thoughts of it with everyone who will listen to them. There's no denying it; everyone needs to hear Everything Everything.
Artist:
www.shotgunjimmie.net/
www.myspace.com/jimjimers
www.facebook.com/Shotgun-Jimmie/
www.twitter.com/jimmieshotgun
Album:
Everything Everything is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
