One more for the road...acoustic guitar style

I’m going to Chicago for the weekend for my dad’s birthday, but I leave you with a review of the latest installment of the Imaginational Anthem series, which ran a day or two ago at Blurt.

The Imaginational Anthem series started in 2005, as a way to unearth forgotten guitar pickers from the American primitive tradition. For Volume 1, label head Josh Rosenthal doggedly sought out men (and one woman) from the Takoma school's 1960s heyday, resurrecting the careers of Steve Mann and Harry Tausig, remembering Takoma-school patron saint John Fahey, and also welcoming younger players like Harris Newman, Glenn Jones and Jack Rose. Yet as the series continued, it has moved out of the past, towards a younger generation of folk blues traditionalists. Volume IV focuses almost entirely on younger players, demonstrating, if nothing else, the strength and staying power of acoustic guitar blues.

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Tompkins Square is not big on free mp3s, so there’s nothing to post from this installment, but what the heck, here’s James Blackshaw playing “River of Heaven,” from #2, which is better anyway…

All is falling…

Tried and failed to get an assignment to review the new Swans, which is excellent, but I did manage to snag James Blackshaw’s lovely All Is Falling for Blurt.

I wrote:

An extraordinarily beautiful eight-song cycle, All Is Falling continues James Blackshaw's development as a composer and arranger, as well as guitarist. Like last year's Glass Bead Game, it extends well beyond the 12-string wizardry that first brought Blackshaw notice, moving into dizzying landscapes of guitar, piano, voice and strings.

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One of those “not really a video” videos of Part 3


I’ve got a new mix coming pretty soon…trying to get all the songs I want to put on into some sort of order that makes sense, though I may give up at some point and just slap it up there.

James Blackshaw extends his sound

There are an awful lot of acoustic guitar players plying the trade these days, more perhaps than in the glory days of Takoma in the 1960s. Even so, there’s always room for another good one, and James Blackshaw is one of the best. He’s even pretty good at the piano. Here’s my review of his new album, the Glass Bead Game, in today’s Blurt.

“Twelve-string phenomenon James Blackshaw has long been known for conjuring luxuriant, symphonic sounds out of his guitar. Indeed, even on pure solo guitar recordings, like ‘River of Heaven’ from the first Imaginational Anthem compilation, it is hard to believe that one person, playing one instrument could be responsible for all that cascading, shimmering, iridescent beauty. But however expressive, however versatile Blackshaw can make his acoustic instrument, it is apparently not quite enough. Here in his eighth full-length (and first for Michael Gira's Young God imprint), he extends that palette even further, adding guest vocals, violin, cello and flute to the toolset - and even switching from guitar to piano for two tracks. It is bold move, but it pays off. The Glass Bead Game is a dizzying achievement, showcasing not just Blackshaw's musical skills, but his vision and spiritual depth as a composer.”

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