James Armstrong
California-based blues guitarist, songwriter, and singer James Armstrong may be small in physical stature, but his guitar playing, original lyrical themes, and singing will leave the most hardened of blues fans convinced of his brilliance. It's fair to say that Armstrong has the music in his blood: he is the son of a jazz guitar-playing father and blues-singing mother. Raised in the Los Angeles area, he founded his first group in junior high school. He has cited Jimi Hendrix, Robert Cray, Albert Collins, Albert King, and Eric Clapton as inspirational in his development. Highlights from his years in the Los Angeles area -- before moving north to the San Francisco Bay Area -- include shows backing Collins, Big Joe Turner, and Los Angeles veteran Smokey Wilson.
After releasing the critically acclaimed Sleeping with a Stranger in 1995 for the San Francisco-based Hightone label, Armstrong's promising touring career was interrupted by tragedy. One night in April 1997, a robber broke into his home and nearly stabbed Armstrong to death. After weeks in the hospital and months of rehabilitation, Armstrong picked himself up, dusted himself off, and started all over again. In the late '90s and into the new century, Armstrong hit the blues festival circuit with a passion, and put in a particularly impressive performance at the Pocono Blues Festival in Pennsylvania. In 1999, Hightone released Dark Night, with Joe Louis Walker and Doug MacLeod taking lead guitar turns on two tracks. By the spring of 2000, Armstrong again entered the studio to record Got It Goin' On, an album that showcased his delicate guitar stylings and soulful singing backed by Joe Louis Walker's rhythm section and a guest appearance on two tracks by keyboardist Jimmy Pugh of the Robert Cray Band.
After his tragic stabbing, Armstrong found he couldn't run his fingers up and down the guitar neck as fast he once was able. He realized that faster isn't necessarily better, and recognized that good blues is more about feeling anyway, citing the slow, powerful, methodic stylings of one of his influences, Albert King. "2 Sides," a selection from Got It Goin' On, was included in the movie Speechless starring Michael Keaton, but plenty of other Armstrong originals demonstrate why he is to be taken seriously as a songwriter who continues to sail into heretofore uncharted lyrical waters. Although Armstrong took a decade-long hiatus from recording after Got It Goin' On, he reappeared in 2011 with Blues at the Border on Catfood Records. Three years later he put out Guitar Angels, which was followed in 2017 by Blues Been Good to Me.
© Richard Skelly /TiVo
Discography
18 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Blues Been Good to Me
Blues - Released by Catfood Records on 20 okt. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sleeping With A Stranger
Blues - Released by HighTone Records on 17 okt. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Blues At The Border
Blues - Released by Catfood Records on 1 dec. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sleeping With a Stranger & Got It Goin' On
Blues - Released by Floating World on 19 nov. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Guitar Angels
Blues - Released by Catfood Records on 18 feb. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Got It Goin' On
Blues - Released by HighTone Records on 19 sep. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Absolution
Alternative en Indie - Released by James Armstrong on 2 mei 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bright Day, Blue Shore
Pop - Released by James Armstrong on 6 okt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Viking Age Music
Wereldmuziek - Released by James Armstrong on 13 jan. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Fractured Elisions
James Armstrong, Keshav Batish
Jazz - Released by Woven Strands Productions on 7 okt. 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Absolution
James Armstrong, Epic Music World
Pop - Released by Epic Music World on 2 mei 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Right or Wrong
Rock - Released by James Armstrong on 19 jul. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I’ve Loved I’ve Lost
Hip-Hop/Rap - Released by James on 18 mei 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo