Living the blues
James Armstrong brings his soulful blues to Valencia
BORN into a musical family in Los Angeles in 1957, James Armstrong has had the blues in his blood from the very start. His mother was a blues singer and his father played jazz guitar. Armstrong formed his first band in the seventh grade, and by the age of 17 was touring the country.
He started making waves on the local California blues circuit in his 20s, and became the youngest member of Robert Lee ‘Smokey’ Wilson’s band.
In the 1980s, James was a founding member of the band Mama Roo and got his first recording contract, for Crescendo Records.
In the early 1990s he was discovered and signed by HighTone Records owner Bruce Bromberg, who had also discovered and signed Robert Cray and Joe Louis Walker.
Armstrong was about to tour promoting his critically acclaimed first album, Sleeping with a Stranger - of which Richard Skelly from AllMusic Guide noted he is ‘a supremely talented songwriter, a guitarist who has no need to be overly flashy, and a more than adequate singer’ - when tragedy struck. The events surrounding a home invasion left Armstrong without the use of his left hand and arm, including permanent nerve damage. This threatened to end his career forever, but thanks to the support of friends, fans and the blues community, Armstrong came back two years later with a second album, Dark Night.
What Armstrong lost as a result of the attack, he gained in ‘a whole new respect for the music itself, the power in slow blues, how the silences between the notes are as important as the notes’. At this time he also turned his efforts to perfecting his songwriting, vocal and slide guitar skills.
The results were a third album, Got It Goin’ On. The album received two Blues Music Award nominations, one for best blues guitarist and the other for best song of the year, with the track Pennies and Picks.
James was also noticed by the music industry, having songs in three films - Bank of Love was used in Hear No Evil, starring Martin Sheen and Marlee Matlin; whilst Two Sides to Every Story was featured in Speechless with Michael Keaton and Geena Davis; and also in The Florentine with Jeremy Davies and Luke Perry.
Over the years, Armstrong has performed in many countries throughout North America, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia and the Middle East, and shared stages with the likes of Keb Mo, Coco Montoya, Chaka Kahn, Shemekia
Copeland, Tab Benoit, Charlie Musselwhite, Walter Trout, Ricky Lee Jones, Jan and Dean, Mitch Mitchell and many more.
Armstrong’s latest release, Blues Been Good to Me came out on Catfood Records in October 2017. Prior to this he released two other albums with the label: Blues at The Border (2011) and Guitar Angels (2014), both of which ranked in the top 40 of the year ratings in Living Blues radio charts.
Armstrong continues to tour extensively and pays tribute to the past with the traditional blues, and his unique songwriting skills.
Fans of soulful blues in the same vein as the aforementioned Robert Cray should get plenty of enjoyment listening to Armstrong’s back catalogue.
As usual Spotify and YouTube are good starting points and if this kind of blues is your thing then get along to 16 Toneladas in Valencia on February 11, when James Armstrong’s 10-date tour of Spain rolls into town.