James Hunter and Jesse Dee

After years spent toiling on the margins of the English trad-soul scene, James Hunter turned American heads in 2006 with People Gonna Talk, a terrific collection recorded with producer Liam Watson at London’s Toe Rag Studios (birthplace of the White Stripes' Elephant album). Hunter’s recent disc, The Hard Way, also produced by Watson, largely duplicates the previous album’s charms, with the singer crooning airily about not wanting to do his lady wrong, over crisp string- and horn-accented arrangements.