Although Ian Hunter keeps a bit of a lower profile these days, he still gets out for the occasional solo tour. Hunter is also a regular fixture on Ringo Starr's annual All-Starr Band shows. Still wearing those ever-present shades, Hunter is always good for a version of "All The Young Dudes" or "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" at those shows, right alongside the likes of people like Joe Walsh, Grand Funk's Mark Farner, or Men At Work's Colin Hay.
Ian Hunter also still makes records, though, and on his new one Man Overboard, he sounds as sharp as he ever has. Hunter's voice, which has always had that Dylan sort of rasp to it, has become even raspier with age. But, as with Dylan's most recent work, it suits him very well and there are still few singers who can match his way with a phrase.
As for the songs themselves? From what I can tell here, the man hasn't lost a single step in that department either. As he did with Mott The Hoople and on his early solo albums, Ian Hunter's lyrics ride a delicate balance between introspection, the occasional touch of melancholy, and an always self-deprecating sense of humor.
But the eleven songs on Man Overboard are a different bag than Hunter's early solo work or with Mott The Hoople to be sure. The guy's gotten a bit older, and it shows. The thing is, where those albums he made with Mott were characterized by their dirty sound and sense of reckless abandon, the sound here is cleaner and a bit more refined. That sort of thing comes with age and experience I guess.
Still, Hunter has lost of none of his edge, nor his gift for a phrase or sense of sardonic wit in the lyric department. The music here runs the gamut from the Stonesy blues-based stomp of "Babylon Blues" to "The Great Escape," which recalls the sort of mandolin-heavy funk of Pete Townshend and Ronnie Laine's sadly overlooked classic Rough Mix.
But more than anything else, Ian Hunter remains that rare songwriter who has a gift both for weaving a great story, while adding just enough touches of both humor and — when called upon — sadness, to make you know these are songs that probably come from personal experience. On "The Great Escape," Hunter recalls playing in a pub on his 21st birthday and narrowly escaping a bar fight because "you gotta' get away, especially if the guy is bigger than you."
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