Just A Little Longer

Dear all,

I'm so sorry to have to say that, while I'm getting close, I'm now certain that my new album will not be finished in time and need to push back the release date again. Not by much this time. I'm confident everything will be ready by the end of May.

I would like to apologise again and sincerely thank everyone for their support and their patience, it means a ton to me. I've no doubt overthought things more than usual, been more hesitant and taken more time than I ever have in the past, but I'm almost there and I can't wait for you all to hear it.

I hope everyone is keeping well.

Best wishes as always,

James

New Album Delay

Dear all,

I just wanted to give an update on where I’m at with the new album and say a few words before the end of the year.

With the deadline I gave myself fast approaching, it’s becoming apparent to me that I’m not going to be able to finish the record in time, at least not in a state that I’m completely happy with.

While I’m very pleased with the significant amount of work I’ve done so far and can’t wait for you all to hear it, I confess progress has been slower than I would have liked, with the last couple of months proving particularly tough to spend time on the album due to other work and life commitments. To rush things out at this late stage, especially after being absent for some time, feels wrong so I’m asking that you please bear with me just a little bit longer.

The new deadline for the release of the album will now be April 13th, 2024. The date itself might seem a bit arbitrary but it will mark nine years exactly since the release of my last record and I’m confident it will give me more than enough time to finish things up.

I’m sincerely sorry for disappointing everybody who pre-ordered the album and were looking forward to listening this year, but I assure you it’s not far off completion and I truly hope it will be worth the wait.

I also just wanted to say a massive thank you to all those people and to anyone who took the time to write me a kind message or say hello to me at a show. Your support in making this album and in general has meant so much to me and I feel incredibly grateful to be back in this space again after such a long time not knowing if I would or whether people would actually care.

I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and well and happy. There’ll be more soon but in the meantime, all my best wishes and thanks for taking the time to read this.

James Blackshaw, 13/12/23

Tour with Grails

I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be on tour supporting my old buddies Grails in October! This will be first tour in eight years and I'm so happy to be travelling with such a great band and stellar people.

Please check out the tour dates below and check out their new album 'Anches En Maat' out September 22nd on Temporary Residence.

GRAILS OCTOBER TOUR 2023

with James Blackshaw

04-10 AT Linz @ Stadtwerkstatt*

05-10 HUN Budapest @ A38*

06-10 SK Bratislava @ Pink Whale*

07-10 CZ Brno @ Batch festival*

08-10 CZ Prague @ Meet factory*

09-10 AT Vienna @ Arena

11-10 DE Berlin @ Roadrunners Paradise

12-10 DE Bochum @ BHF-Langendreer

13-10 BE Brussels @ Botanique

14-10 NL Groningen @ Vera

15-10 DE Hamburg @ Hafenklang

16-10 DK Copenhagen @ Vega

18-10 FIN Helsinki @ Kuudes Linja

19-10 EE Tallinn @ Paavli Kultuurivabrik

20-10 LV Durbe @ Zemlika festival

21-10 LT Vilnius @ Sodas2123

22-10 PL Warsaw @ VooDoo

*Grails only

Dear all,

Just wanted to say a big, big thank you to all of you who have preordered my forthcoming album and for the lovely messages of support. It's been incredible and I really can't wait to share what I'm working on with you all.

I'd like to announce a show with the wonderful Gwenifer Raymond, here in Hastings on July 18th at Stooge Coffee. It'll be Gwen's first here and only the third show I've played here despite living in Hastings for over 15 years!

I'd love to play more shows in the run up to the release of my new album, so if you're a promoter, a booking agent or would just like to set something up in your hometown, please contact me at: [email protected]

Similarly, please feel free to write to me at the above address in regards to work on any musical projects or simply just to say hi!

More soon and much love in the meantime,

James

New Album Pre-order

Dear all, Eight years have passed since my last album ‘Summoning Suns’ was released. A while back, feeling burnt out and like I wanted to find a bit more stability in my life, I decided to take a break from live performances and at least take my foot off the pedal a little bit with regards to writing and recording. That announcement sounded more dramatic than I intended in retrospect, but here we are in 2023, with nearly a decade of insanity between now and what felt like a comparatively breezy summer back in 2014 when I was making my last record. Life finds a way of getting in the way. Every time I wanted to jump back in and play again, it felt like something would dishearten me. The pandemic and the sudden passing of one of my best friends and closest collaborators - John Hannon, who recorded nearly everything I've ever made – in particular. I never found the stability I craved, bouncing around between bar and kitchen jobs. A couple of them I liked a fair bit. Others were awful. One even resulted in a nervous breakdown/mixed episode that lasted three months. The closest thing I found to the sense of self-worth and achievement I had while I was making music was cooking my own food, in my own food business. It's hard work a lot of the time certainly, but seeing people enjoy something you’ve made from start to finish is such a rewarding experience. I was beginning to take that job even more seriously as a full-time gig when I slipped on some black ice and broke my right shoulder one evening in mid-December last year. Aside from coping with the pain, I found myself unable to move my arm, out of work with little support and at home caring for my dog Dexter, who was diagnosed with terminal liver disease a couple days after my fall and passed away this February. For months I wondered when – and if – I’d be able to play guitar again and I wanted so desperately to throw myself back into music, to communicate something or anything at all about this overwhelming sense of loss I was feeling. I’m happy to say I'm now in good health, both physically and mentally. In fact, at the time of writing, I’m about to play a show in London this coming week. It’ll be my first since I played Oslo in early 2020. I’m also incredibly excited to announce that I’ve just started work on a new instrumental album. There’s no title yet and the cover photo you see here is just a placeholder. I plan to release the album by the end of this year and I’d be incredibly grateful for your help in achieving that. By pre-ordering on Bandcamp, you’ll be helping me enormously with recording costs, repairs, paying other musicians for their time and of course my own time. When I started out, I was fortunate that a lot of these expenses were covered by small advances from the labels I worked with, but sadly I don’t think many labels have that sort of money in such trying times. You’ll receive the full digital album as soon as it’s released, no later than the 31st of December 20203. This album will not be available to stream on Spotify or for purchase digitally anywhere else but here. Please do let me know if you’d be interested in purchasing a CD or LP later down the line. If there’s enough interest and it ends up going to press in the future, I’d like to offer everybody who pre-orders the digital version a discount so they can get their preferred version and not pay twice for both digital and physical. I truly appreciate your support and don't take it for granted. I hope this will be the first of a lot more new music to come. James Blackshaw, 03/06/23 

A new song - my first in nearly five years and hopefully the first of more to come in 2020. This came out back in mid-November 2019 actually, but apparently I’m terrible at updating this site...

Happy New Year everybody!

I’m selling this rather lovely Loriente Clarita classical guitar that I used to record ‘Love Is The Plan The Plan Is Death’, ‘Fantomas’ and Myrninerest’s ‘Jhonn, Uttered Babylon’ featuring David Tibet of Current 93. It sounds and plays beautifully and I hope it finds a good new home. The money from the sale of this guitar is going towards financing my new solo album, so know that if you purchase it, you’re helping me too. Happy to devalue the guitar by adding my childish squiggle of a signature to the guitar, if it floats your boat. Much love, James

End of hiatus

It’s been a while. After three years of not performing live and nearly five years since my last solo album, I feel a new energy and desire to record again and return to the stage. I never meant to be particularly dramatic about announcing my hiatus from music. I never knew if I’d feel this way again, but I’m genuinely happy I do. I hope to have some news regarding new recordings shortly. In the meantime, if you’d like to book me to play a show, in any town or city in any country, please contact me directly at: shoryobuni AT hotmail DOT com I’m also selling some guitars to help and finance the new album. And pay bills. You know how it goes. Much love and hope to see you soon, James

Albums available for download again

The following albums are now available to download again via iTunes:

Celeste The Cloud of Unknowing Litany of Echoes Lost Prayers Sunshrine

Please watch this space for more news on LP reissues of the aforementioned titles and more news about other things soon.

All love,

James

Your help needed!

Dear all,

As I mentioned before, some of my older albums are currently unavailable to stream/download digitally. These will soon be available again and in some cases reissued on vinyl via a new label.

The albums are:

Celeste, Lost Prayers & Motionless Dances, Sunshrine, The Cloud of Unknowing and Litany Of Echoes

However, unfortuntely some of the original artwork is missing.

If you have any of these albums on CD or LP in good condition and can scan the covers at a minimum of 1400 x 1400 at 300 DPI, I would be immensely grateful if you could send the artwork files to me at [email protected]

Many thanks and best wishes,

James

Unavailable

I’ve had a few e-mails lately from people who either want to buy or stream some of my older albums - namely ‘Celeste’, ‘Lost Prayers & Motionless Dances’, ‘Sunshrine’, ‘ The Cloud of Unknowing’ and ‘ Litany Of Echoes’ - and can’t.

They have been removed from iTunes and Spotify for the time being, but they will be available again soon, in some shape or form.

Apologies for the inconvenience in the meantime.

Finale

Here it is, my last two shows:

Aug 4th - Blå, Oslo

Aug 7th - The Beacon, Hastings (free afternoon show, please arrive by 1pm)

I really wanted to do more. If I didn’t come to your city/country, I’m genuinely sorry. I tried. It didn’t happen. That’s all I can say.

I appreciate you all for your support. New music will come out, just not sure when, but I will continue to write here.

James

Hiatus

I don’t really believe in speaking in absolutes, but - at this point in time - I have no intention of performing live again, beyond the few commitments I’ve already made and a farewell tour in the next few months. Perhaps the best way to put it is that I will be on indefinite hiatus in that regard, but continue to write and record new music, albeit less frequently than I have in the past.

I realise some of you reading this may be sad or disappointed. I’m truly sorry, but please know it’s not a decision I’ve taken lightly or made hastily. The truth is, there is no one clear and overriding reason, rather a combination of reasons that have led me to this point, but I would like to explain as best I can.

For the last 11 years, most of my income has been from live performances. I’ve been immensely fortunate to be in the position to work full-time as a musician for so long and it’s not something I’ve ever taken for granted. But while I enjoy performing, my heart has always primarily belonged to writing and recording new music. I wish releasing records alone could provide enough income to pay my bills and cover my rent, but it doesn’t, not remotely – not for me and not for the overwhelming majority of musicians and labels out there. Touring is a necessity and one which I am finding increasingly stressful and problematic.

I’d like more freedom to make the kind of music I want, without the pressure of needing to release records at certain intervals in order to tour, and without the limitations of having to think about performing that music live, which is becoming increasingly more difficult and crippling creatively as my interests veer further away from solo guitar music. It simply hasn’t been possible to perform a great number of my songs without other musicians and the opportunity to play with a group has rarely presented itself.

I also have concerns for my family and my physical and psychological wellbeing now, which rarely factored into things when I was younger. It’s harder to be away for extended periods of time and I want more stability in my life in all senses of the word.

It seems the solution is to not take part in this process any further, to earn a living elsewhere and to make music solely for the reason I started in the first place – for the love and enjoyment of it.

Thank you to everybody who has bought my music, come to my shows and supported me over the years. There are so many promoters, audience members, labels, agents and other musicians who I’ve met who have become dear friends. My gratitude to you all is infinite.

- James Blackshaw, 11/04/16

Bandcamp Store Now Open

I now have a Bandcamp Store where you can purchase signed (if you want!) LPs and CDs directly from me as well as digitally download some of my albums in high quality format audio.

New Album 'Summoning Suns' Out February 2015

James Blackshaw

Summoning Suns

CD - Feb 4th, P-Vine (Japan)

CD/LP - Feb 17th, Important Records (USA)

'Summoning Suns' is James Blackshaw's tenth studio album and the first recording to feature his voice and lyrics. Drawing inspiration from 60's and 70's singer-songwriters, baroque/orchestral pop and folk music, while still sounding contemporary, 'Summoning Suns' is Blackshaw's foray into more traditional forms of songcraft.

Blackshaw sings in a gentle but assured voice  while his words combine his personal experiences, neuroses and fantasy through many layers of abstraction, poeticism and dark humour.

While the deft fingerpicking acoustic guitar style of Blackshaw's previous recordings is still a prominent part of the sound, the songs are lushly and intricately arranged for drums, bass, piano, violin, flute and pedal steel guitar and features contributions from Simon Scott (Slowdive), Annie Nilsson and Japanese musicians Mori Wa Ikiteiru and Kaoru Noda (with whom he duets in Japanese on one song).

Listen to 'Confetti' :

Apologia LP now available for pre-order on Bladud Flies!

Apologia is my first solo guitar recording from early 2003, some months before I recorded Celeste. Previously only self-released as a CD-R in an edition of 30, Apologia is now available for the first time on vinyl in a limited edition of 500 on Bladud Flies! 

Orders will be shipped on December 4th, 2014.

Go here for more info and to pre-order:

http://music.bladudflies.com/album/apologia

All Saints Records compilation featuring James Blackshaw reworking of Roger Eno track available June 2014

All Saints Records will release a two-disc compilation called Greater Lengths that showcases original material from its core artists alongside a clutch of recent remixes. Greater Lengths is split into two discs: the first, titled Originals, brings together original compositions from All Saints affiliates— Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Jon Hassell and John Cale among them—while the second, Re-Works, collects 13 remixes from contemporary fringe artists like Hieroglyphic Being, Gavin Russom, Sun Araw, Peaking Lights, Bee Mask, Bandshell, Motion Sickness Of Time Travel and patten.

James Blackshaw contributes a reworking of Roger Eno's 'Between Tides'.