Jim Hinde
Shout Down the Wind

This new CD from veteran singer and song writer Jim Hinde has got to be his best yet. In fact, it might just be the best CD of the year, period. It is certainly, so far, the most necessary. Our America in the early 21st century is not what we hoped it would be. Our international adventures have opened a door to a dark and disturbing future. We need light and that is just what we get here. Light and determined resistance.

Jim has been a constant presence at Seattle ’s Pike Street Market for the past 15 years, where he helped to found the Pike Market Performers’ Guild (PMPG). In 2001 he won a Northwest Regional EMMY Award for his role as narrator in a PBS documentary about the Market, “Soul Of the City.” His singing is powerful, his playing accurate and true, and his songs have the clarity of well-honed craftsmanship, all of which shines through on this album. A Vietnam veteran, Jim brings the depth of experience to his work. The subjects are mature and well thought out. The singing is strong and sure, as is the musicianship. Accompanied by Scott Law and Will Dowd, with extra vocals by Bob Crosby, your ears will not be disappointed.

But more than that there is the intent and the direction of this album. Sung from the vantage point of a father and husband, and as a vet, these songs aren’t meek. They speak directly and never miss. Jim doesn’t want to just vote Bush out of office, he wants to see him get arrested, to watch him do the “Perp Walk.” In “Marching To the Border” we see a thousand would-be conscripts headed for Canada , to get away from “Sam the Alligator” who is eating so much of our youth. In “Frank Dennis and Me,” Jim sings of his own Vietnam experience and what it has done to him, over all these years. The title song, “Shout Down the Wind,” is an invitation and a challenge to us, to gather once again in the streets, in the capital, to reclaim ourselves. These songs are anthems, they are larger than just the one who sings them.

Some of these pieces are sublime, some grab you by the shirt, and others are funny as only a sharpened anger can be. The way you laugh is the way you want to see justice done. The melodies will stick with you, the lyrics will make you think. This is the real thing. 

There are 10 songs all together here and I’ve only mentioned a few. But the last song, the one we are left with, needs a moment of its own. “The Dance.” Like a choreographed ballet, we seem to be intertwined and sometimes destined to our fates. Again we see Vietnam , and Iraq . But in the end there is a nudge, a suggestion that we don’t have to keep dancing like puppets, we can make our own steps. That would be the best kind of dance, wouldn’t it?

So get this album, and then listen to it. Let it get into your head. And when you see those people on the overpass by Fort Lewis, or you feel like throwing your shoe at Rumsfeld on the TV, or the next time you just feel like there must be something done but you don’t know where to begin…  Well, I’ll let Jim Hinde finish it: “Don’t give up and don’t give in. If you stand on the street again, I’ll stand by your side and we’ll shout down the wind.”

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CD Review by Jerri Snider / Published in Victory Review, March 1996

Jim Hinde
Freedom Road

Jim Hinde is the voice and the songwriter behind the wheel on Freedom Road. Along for the ride are Reggie Miles, washboard, harmonica, and vocal harmonies; Rod Backman on baby bass; and Scott [Law] Weiskopf on guitar and mandolin. Everyone's from Washington, even the guy who took the great cover picture of Jim (he looks like a cool guy)! The songs are catchy, fun, and often humorous. Hinde reminds me of what I like best about Lyle Lovett -- both write and sing about whatever the heck they want, not what is mainstream. It's hard to pick favorites, but I loved "Getting Fat In New York City," God's Last Name," and "Sam The Alligator," which is a good name for Uncle Sam. I get the feeling that Jim would also be great at writing and performing kid's songs. However, what he is doing now is great fun, the music is an incorporation of folk with jazzy, sometimes bluesy elements. Jim's voice has a sort-of in your face style, which goes well with the somewhat cynical (though truthful) topics of some of his songs. Look for him around Seattle, I am certainly hoping to spot him!