Music preview: James House at Warehouse Recording Co, Harrogate

The June 30 Proper Music release will be preceded by a series of concerts in the UK, with the final show and release party at The Warehouse Recording Studios in Harrogate, hosted by BBC Radio 2 DJ ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris.

House and his band will perform songs from his new album plus his own past hits and the hit songs he’s written for The Mavericks, Joe Bonamassa, Rod Stewart and more.

“Writing songs inspired here in the UK and recording them at Abbey Road has been a lifelong dream,” he says.

House, 62, has seen the highs, lows and everything in between the business of music and life itself can deal out – a man who has seen his name at the top of the charts, beside a Grammy nomination and on year-end top 10 lists of music critics – a man who has shared the stage with some of the biggest names in music.

A celebrated writer in his own right, he co-wrote Grammy and CMA-nominated songs A Broken Wing for Martina McBride and Dwight Yoakam’s Ain’t That Lonely Yet. Both received the rare BMI three million radio airplay awards and Diamond

Rio’s number 1 smash In A Week Or Two has over one million radio airplays.

Other artists to record his songs include The Mavericks, Tina Turner, Olivia Newton John and Rod Stewart.

Born and raised in Sacramento and Southern Oregon, he formed his own group, the House Band, and played up and down the West Coast, eventually landing a record deal with Warner/Curb Records in Los Angeles.

The band fell apart but James went on to land a solo deal with Atlantic Records, for whom he made an album in 1983. House kept writing and landing cuts with artists and his vocal talents were also getting noticed and he began a string of movie sound track recordings with movies like Teen Wolf, Fire with Fire, Ishtar and Tin Cup.

Some music friends from LA had just moved to Nashville and convinced him that this was the place to be, so on faith in 1989 House headed east to Nashville and has never looked back.

Not long after the move, he was signed to MCA Records by Tony Brown, where he began a string of chart hits of his own like Don’t Quit Me Now and Hard Times For An Honest Man. A switch to Epic Nashville produced the critically-acclaimed Days Gone By album that yielded the top five Billboard hit This Is Me Missing You, along with singles Real Good Way To Wind Up Lonesome and Little By Little.

In 1997 House recorded Little Deuce Coupe on the Stars and Stripes Beach Boys record and was the last artist to tour with the Beach Boys that included Brian Wilson. His appearance on the Letterman Show with them was included in the Television Hall of Fame.

Forward to 2016, 20 years after its release, and much to his surprise, House’s 1994 top 10 Billboard hit single This Is Me Missing You went to Number One in 2014 on the UK Country Dance Charts along with three other songs from the Epic Records release Days Gone By and stayed in the top 10 for a record 18 months.

House followed up with a new CD, Broken Glass Twisted Steel, and a 20 city sold out tour.

Also on the bill for James House’s Harrogate show on June 30 are Chris Difford, the Holly Rose Webber Band and Lowry Evans. www.warehouserecordingco.com