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JAMES ARMSTRONG

jarmblues.com

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter James Armstrong was born to play the blues.  His mother was a blues singer and 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.  His song “Pennies and Picks”, off his third release Got It Goin’ On garnered a 2001 W.C. Handy nomination for “Song of the Year”.  Armstrong himself was nominated for “Contemporary Male Blues Artist 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 in California both headlining and backing some of the bigger names in the blues.  And he also learned the blues by living it.  After a near fatal accident Armstrong recorded Dark Night.  It revealed another side of the artist, highlighting his ability to move from his earlier muscular blues style to a bravely introspective 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.

It was on his first Toronto appearance that Armstrong introduced Dark Night and it was on his last appearance that he recounted his stories from Got It Goin’ On.  But it’s been awhile since James Armstrong has graced a Toronto stage.  And theres no place more fitting for his return than Waterfront Blues.