James Blackshaw is an english guitarist and pianist. Last year he was devilishly late for his gig at Monarch. I say devilishly because only the devil himself would have tried to prevent this man from making it to the show on time to share with us his fantastic and very often jaw-droppingly beautiful music.
To date he has amassed a body of work most 29 year olds in bands all over the world would give their mis-spent youths for. Having variously been compared to the likes of solo-guitarist genii like John Fahey and Robbie Basho, Blackshaw has carved a niche all his own in the guitarist-composer world, mostly due to that very output and the diversity within. At times elegiac and solemn, the songs can often explode into acoustic orchestras as violins melt into the foreground while others lead off with piano paving the way for the guitar wizardry to come.
Since The Cloud of Unknowing was released in 2007 he’s released a further three records of unrivalled beauty and complexity, even adding some vocals on The Glass Bead Game (2009) but not the kind that sing words, no, that would be too showy. On recent album All is Falling, Blackshaw has started to play the electric 12-string guitar which, if you’re a nerd of 12-string guitars, is an entirely different beast. I’m not one of those nerds but I’m still listening to The Cloud of Unknowing and O True Believers and I’m nowhere near tired of them yet. One of these years I’ll get around to the rest of it.
From the album artwork to the choice of touring bands he plays with (last year he toured with doom-metal maestros Sunn O))) you get the feeling Blackshaw only does what he wants to do, which is fair enough when you can play the guitar like he can. The comfortable and ear-huggingly gorgeous Volksbhne is just the place for talent like Blackshaw to shine.
Here’s his fingerpicking up close for ya’ll.