Robin Hunter and the Six Foot Bullies

EDEN MUNRO / eden@vueweekly.com

Robin Hunter & the Six Foot Bullies
You Just Gotta Get Used Of It
(Independent)

Robin Hunter has been part of Edmonton’s music scene for long enough now that he qualifies as part of the old guard. For a good number of years, his role was largely defined by his work in the Imagineers, the indie-rock trio that put Hunter’s vocal and guitar talents to excellent use. When that band ended as the ‘90s came to a close, Hunter set out on another, somewhat quieter path, showing up as a sideman alongside a cast of musical characters like Wendy McNeill, Devilsplender and Everett Laroi, among others, as well as at the head of a new trio: Robin Hunter & the Six Foot Bullies. It’s with this band that Hunter is releasing a new album that reminds of just how much he means to this city.

The opening track, “Drunk Limousine,” starts off with Hunter’s voice announcing, “OK, one, two, three, four,” accompanied by a few chunky hits on muted strings, before the song bursts forth in a folky, bluegrass style. Hunter spins a circular tale about a circular life—work all day, come home, start all over again the next morning.
There’s a shift into dark and cloudy territory on the second half of the tune where the pace slows to a crawl and Hunter tears out a heartfelt verse or two, making it hurt while slowly letting a little ray of hope and light shine through: “I go out and I get bent / And I come home again to the years that went / I got a heart, I been hearing it beat / I been listening to this story repeat / There’s gotta be more to life then a job and an apartment / There’s gotta be more to life than the years that went.”
It’s beautiful, really, the way that Hunter doesn’t flinch from the downside in his lyrics, allowing for a rising and falling in spirit—sort of the way life works out for most folks.
The next couple of songs hold the record steady, the driving slide of “Purple is a Royal Colour” leading into the gentle rolling of “Dayless Moonlight.” Then, in the middle section of the album, Hunter & the Bullies turn up the pressure with a triple does of hurt.
“Dark Days Ahead” is the sort of blues you’d expect to hear in the Mississippi Delta during the bad times, Hunter singing all about hard luck and the blues, his percussive guitar pushing and pulling against Thom Golub’s singing bass and John Woroschuk’s mandolin, while “A Way Out of the Irons” is about as epic as you can get working within the confines of a trio—Hunter’s voice rises above the growl of the music as he sings desperately of needing “a way to stop my blood from just slipping away.”
If this were a record, those tracks would end Side One and “Hard to Speak What You Wish” would kick off the trip to the last groove, and it would be perfect for the job, moving slowly, ominously towards the real fray—gin and pain come together in this one.
As the record spins on, Hunter continues to dig into the darkest recesses of the soul where darkness and light can sometimes coexist. There’s a sense of wear and tear in the words and music, but I like to think it all turns out all right in the end.
- Vue Weekly Edmonton

It's going to be the year of the Hunter
by Fish Griwkowsky
You Just Gotta Get Used of It
Indie
Sun Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5
As much as I cherish hazy memories of Robin Hunter smashing around the stage in a punk rock band through the entire '90s, playing the guitar with his teeth under a boneless poodle of hair, his new album is inarguably a beautiful thing set firmly in his present.
The players involved are flexible and dramatic, the production by John Blerot again proving he has simply the best set of ears in the Edmonton area. Every little scrape of skin on ribbed string is bottled forever for us.
Overall, it's calm (until it busts open), complicated (except for the simple parts) and altogether unpredictable. Hunter does not make safe choices. Instead he lets songs melt in your ears, choruses shifting several keys as Thom Golub's priceless Bela Nagy upright bass provides the friction.
There's something almost theatrical about this, Tom Waits-y - though, there is nothing of the dreaded "actor music" here. But contrast Golub's deep bass picking with Hunter's high voice on the last song, Sunken Gem, and you'll get what I mean. It's this half-but-never-fully defeated promise of a guy underwater to rise up and take over everything ... soon.
"This is gonna be my year," is how the album ends, which might not be a bad prediction for Hunter.
Other notable songs are the Band-swanky Purple is a Royal Colour (that actually has the Canadian spelling, impressively) and the radio-friendly A Way Out of the Irons, which has enough pinches of pure rock magic to serve as the axis of the entire album. It's a classic last song on the first side, for all of you who remember a substance called vinyl - easily one of the best tunes of the year from anywhere, tingling with subtle little production Easter eggs. I pulled out the headphones and went twice as crazy. There's also a slide blues number about an empty suit harassing the singer down the street that's especially clever.
In a word, yes. In two, yes, please.
- The Edmonton Sun