When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string, something spiritual takes place. This unassuming 23 year-old is transformed into a guitar god whose name belongs alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, and Glenn Jones. Making instrumental, solo, acoustic music that remains consistently interesting and moving is a difficult task. Yet, time after time, Blackshaw hits out of the park. Sunshrine is the latest in a string of impressive releases, all with their own mood and inspiration. This is Blackshaw's first real CD release and contains two new pieces.
Blackshaw comes from the Robbie Basho school of raga-infused acoustic explorations. The peaks and valleys on Sunshrine form an impressive mountain of folk meanderings. Sunshrine eases you into its gaze before beginning a full-on assault on all your senses. It is aural magic. Along with the 26 minute title track is the short and reflective "Skylark Herald's Dawn." Blackshaw brings you back to earth slowly, allowing you to catch your breath before closing your eyes. It doesn't get much better than this.
LP available on Bo' Weavil Recordings.
Praise for James Blackshaw's previous Digitalis release:
“The follow-up to Blackshaw’s debut recording, Celeste, on Campbell Kneale’s Celebrate Psi Phenomenon imprint, is an absolute beauty: an out-of-nowhere set of solo thought scored for open-tuned 12-string guitar, harmonium, radio, bells, ride cymbal and floor tom. Lost Prayers And Motionless Dances navigates the void in a fug of Celtic-sounding modes and fistfuls of drone in a way that recalls Volume 1 of Robbie Basho’s masterful The Falconer’s Arm. Wire that with electricity, patch it to the moon and strap on a set of goggles for one of the most satisfyingly psychedelic conceptions recently beamed from the brains of a loner.” - David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue
"This feels monumental to my ears. It’s certainly the best record of 2004 that I didn’t actually hear in 2004. If contemporary names like Jack Rose and Glenn Jones mean anything to you, this is simply a release that you cannot walk by. Fingerpicked 12-string guitar beauty meanders like a gently floating river across pastoral farmlands, but before getting there we’ve passed through a trance-inducing harmonium introduction, which provides blurry images of mist-clad harbors at dawn. And if you turn this section up loud I am sure you can here the doors of an abandoned harbor warehouse creak on its rusted hinges as the wind chimes. It’s simply a stunning start to this one-track CD, which clocks in at 35 minutes. Just when you think you’ve grasped the essence of this recording Blackshaw moves effortlesly from the acoustic folk guitar explorations to something a whole lot more experimental (in a Celebrate Psi Phenomenon fuzz kind of way), and before we realize how it all happened we’ve all moved on to a circular folk groove that’s so beautiful and mind-blowingly perfect that it left me with the mouth wide open. Discovering James Blackshaw has so far been one of my personal musical highlights during 2005, and I have a feeling you’ll feel the same way if you decide to examine his mesmerizing and soothing sound world closely. Highly recommended." - Mats Gustafsson, The Broken Face