Singer-songwriter Jim Galloway is inviting friends and fans to share the 'Good Times' with a CD release party and video shoot March 7 in Oxbow.
“We've got some great stuff planned,” says Galloway. “'Good Times' is partly inspired by the wonderful summers I've spent at White Bear Lake. We'll also be shooting the video for the album's first single, 'Drown in a River of Doubt.'”
The event, to be held at Prairie Horizons School, celebrates Galloway's first solo project, his musical evolution, and his gratitude for his own 'Good Times.' Galloway says the album is “Adult alternative contemporary. It's a smooth-sounding, chill album, with a bit of a vintage sound.”
“It's a big soup of my musical career-everything I've listened to or performed for 35-odd years,” says Galloway. “ 'Good Times' is a very good description. It describes a good time in (my) life. I'm healthy at 50, my family is happy and healthy, and I guess the theme is to enjoy the good times when you have them, because things can change in a minute.”
Galloway's first recording was as frontman for rock band, White Heat, with a major label, CBS. The album, 'We Never Heard of You Either' sold over 130,000 copies and several singles hit the Billboard charts. However, White Heat and other acts were caught between the record label's conflicting priorities-promoting the Rolling Stones' massive Steel Wheels tour and nurturing a new act-a boy band called New Kids on the Block, and eventually disbanded in 1990.
“Back then, everything was so programmed,” says Galloway. “It was very commercial, even down to what your name had to be. Stepping out of that and coming back years later... this album is like the complete opposite.”
To launch his latest album, Galloway and his wife Shirley-whom he calls “My backbone and my biggest fan”-have planned an evening that is designed to welcome friends, fans, and families.
“We'll start off with students from Kari Mitchell's Music for Young Children program who are taught at Grace Notes Studio here in Oxbow,” says Galloway. “Then singer-songwriter Penny Buhr Johnson will take the stage.”
“I'll be playing some acoustic stuff off the album and then my band and I will play some Jimmy G. (and the Cable Guys).”
Galloway and band members David Hyman (piano), Erin Brown (bass) Brad Meyer (sax), and Hal Neilsen (drums) make up Jimmy G and the Cable Guys, “a party dance band” and one of the singer-songwriter's many side projects.
“During the last five years, I've worked on some new projects, besides this album,” says Galloway. “Shirley and I both play with 2 Sharps and a Flat, which plays gypsy Celtic jazz, and I'm fronting The Project, a group of very talented musicians who sometimes play at The Lancaster Tap House in Regina.”
“I've got a lot of projects on the go,” adds Galloway, who is known for his generosity towards his fellow musicians. “I seem to be the music guy in his area.”
“It took me six months to do the album. I'd work on it from about six o'clock until midnight, just pickin' away. I'm looking forward to lots of live performances and getting it out there,” he says. “That's part of what this release party and video shoot are about, getting it out there, so people can see what it's like live.”
“We're going to try and really capture the live experience. It'll be very interactive, and we've got lots of great things planned for people who come out,” says Galloway.
“It'll be fun.”
Jim Galloway's 'Good Life' CD release party will be held March 7 at Prairie Horizons School in Oxbow. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. CDs are $10 each and can be purchased at the event. For more information, check out Jim Galloway and Jim Galloway CD Release Party on Facebook.
