Friday night at the Green Man Festival 2006, and something decided me to check out this young 12-string guitar player on the Green Man Cafe stage (the smallest of the three). That year the stage was in the corner of the courtyard by the entrance, and the Dance Tent was not far away. People were crushing themselves closer to the stage just to try and hear what was happening there. James Blackshaw's guitar wasn't one of those acoustics with a socket that you can plug in (sorry, I'm sure there's a proper technical term for that, but…); he just had to hold it near the microphone. I could hear Blackshaw muttering about the "terrible" sound, but, with the competing noise from the bar and the Dance Tent, I was straining just to hear the guitar, let alone to judge the quality of the sound.
I can't say I enjoyed the performance, but something about it impressed me. (I've since started using the tag raga folk on Last.fm, but at the time I'd never really listened to that approach to the guitar.) When I got back to civilisation I looked up JB on the web. Back then none of his recordings were available for download and the CDs/LPs seemed almost wilfully difficult to get: either limited editions of a hundred copies, or released in the US only making ordering from the label prohibitively complex and costly. I found that both infuriating and enticing. But there was a link from James's site to the Boa Melody Bar, a niche mail order store run by a woman (?) called Gayle from her kitchen table, as far as I can tell. If you want to buy anything you have to email to check it's still available, and a conversation ensues. Charming. This isn't the last we'll hear of Gayle on Music Arcades.
I chose O True Believers from her small catalogue of Blackshaw releases, because… it was relatively new at the time, and I liked the title. When it arrived, I knew it was too precious to treat as background music. I reverted to an old teenage habit, lying on the floor under that enormous ceiling, light off, headphones on. Just smim in it. The recording is gorgeous — too good for headphones, actually; it needs a space to fill.
Since then, James, who's still well short of his 30th birthday, has been pouring albums out at a remarkable rate. He's broadened to playing on the piano on his latest album, and collaborated as a member of Brethren of the Free Spirit. Along with Alasdair Roberts and, particularly, the various Alex Neilson/Lavinia Blackwall bands, James combines massive ambition with vision and a prolific energy. I knew this isn't a widely-held view, but I think those folks are absolutely the most exciting scene to emerge this decade.
I've seen absurd prices on Amazon Marketplace before, but the £180+ that this CD commands at the time of writing really takes the biscuit. Surely this is the top of the market, and its stock can only go down from here? I'm almost tempted to break by 27-year prohibition against selling CDs and LPs and put my copy on Amazon for £150 to see if anyone's daft enough to pay that. I once saw a vinyl copy of the album at a gig Eric put on, and I wish I'd got that as well, for it must be priceless by now.
Oh, yes, nearly forgot: I've seen James play several times now since 2006. One of the things I found out in that first web search was that he'd played a gig 20 minutes from my home, which Eric had promoted and invited me to — but I decided I was too busy to go. I had lunch with Eric yesterday, having learnt my lesson: even when I don't fully understand what he's up to, I underestimate him at my peril!
Nowadays just about all of those obscure releases are now available on eMusic. I downloaded Sunshrine on Thursday, and listened to the title track on the 388 bus after lunch with Eric, on my way to meet someone who turned out to be another JB fan. And now I see things from the other side of the digital watershed: it's lovely to be able to binge on this tireless stream of music, but the white earbud experience on the bus doesn't match lying on the floor in the dark under the vaulted ceiling.
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