Guitarist, singer and songwriter James Armstrong was born to play the blues. His mother was a blues singer. His father played jazz guitar. As a child he absorbed the sounds and lessons of his father's friends, among them, Irving Ashby, Nat King Cole's guitarist. Armstrong formed his first band in the seventh grade and by the age of 17 he was touring the country. Today he travels the world and continues to infuse his voice and guitar-playing with his unique personal history, raw instincts and seasoned skills.
His first HighTone Records release, Sleeping With a Stranger, drew widespread critical acclaim in North America and his popularity spread like wildfire across the ocean to the European circuit. In 2001 his song Pennies and Picks, off his third release Got It Goin' On, garnered a 2001 WC Handy nomination for Song of the Year. Armstrong himself was nominated f or Contemporary Male Blues Guitarist of the Year.
Known as an artist who respects the solid foundation of the blues tradition, Armstrong keeps the genre alive by injecting a contemporary groove into everything he does. He credits Jimi Hendrix and Robert Cray as singing influences and Albert Collins, Albert King and Eric Clapton as guitarists who constantly inspire him.
Armstrong learned the blues by playing it- a lot of it - in the club scene of Southern California in the early 1980s. He recalls backing "Big" Joe Turner during that time at Santa Monica's Music Machine, and a similar gig with Albert Collins later on as part of a band that included guitarist Coco Montoya. James has gone on to share the stage with the likes of Roy Brown, Chaka Khan Ricky Lee Jones, Jan & Dean, Mitch Michell (Jimi Hendrix's drummer), Sam Taylor, Debbie Davies, Tommy Castro, Joe Louis Walker Mike Finnigan, Chris Cain , to name just a few.
Armstrong also learned the blues by living it. After a near-fatal incident Armstrong recorded Dark Night in 1998. It revealed another side of the artist, highlighting his ability to move from his earlier muscular blues style to a bravely instrospective approach. Dark Night is proof that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. And, in Armstrong's case, makes you write even better songs.
With his release of Got It Goin' On Armstrong not only proves he's one of the best slide-players in the business, he shares an impressive spectrum of styles and experiences. The song Pennies and Picks reveals the less than glamourous side of life on the road. Mr. B's is another true story, about a club in Santa Monica where James was their number one sold-out act every weekend in the early '90s. Love Will Make You Do Wrong is a cautionary tale about the downside of the heart. And the mesmerizing Another Dream, quickly became a post-9-11 blues ballad for fans and djs across North America.
As both a songwriter and performer, Armstrong knows how to weave a variety of moods and atmospheres into his shows. And that skill translates well to the screen. Several of his songs have been chosen for movie soundtracks, including Bank of Love, used in both the Martin Sheen movie "Hear No Evil" and in "The Florentine" starring Jeremy Davies and Virginia Madsen. And Two Sides to Every Story is featured in the Micheal Keaton-Geena Davis hit "Speechless".
Seen live Armstrong has a stage presence that combines inherent grace with growl and grit. He can make a noisy rabble lean into his whispers, and he's had entire crowds follow him, quite willingly, into snowy streets and, once, to the edge of the sea where he serenaded the setting sun. Little wonder he's been dubbed: The Prince of The Blues. |
