JAMES BLACKSHAW (UK - Young God/Current 93) 6/17 @ Garfield Artworks

[manny at garfieldartworks.com]

You won't want to miss this!

Wed June 17 8 pm all ages $7 advance/$10 door
Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Avenue

live from the UK on Young God Records
(note: he's also collaborated with lutenist Jozef Van Wissem who was just
here, on Van Wissem's Incunabulum label. and he is a member of Current
93!)

12-string acoustic fingerpicking wizard
JAMES BLACKSHAW
http://www.myspace.com/jamesblackshaw

on tour with the duo
GREG DAVIS (Kranky/Carpark Records) & CHRIS WEISMAN
http://www.myspace.com/gregdavismusic

and special local guests
Michael Tamburo
and Chris Niels / Taichi Nakatani Duo

Advance tickets will be on sale at stores as of June 1: Eide's
Entertainment, Paul's CDs, Caliban Books, Wicked Discs, Dave's Music Mine,
Slacker, and The Exchange Squirrel Hill.

We'll make it as easy as possible for you to get in for the $7 price.
Yes, we'll be printing up advance tickets to sell at stores - but if you
can't make it to the stores we'll give you another option. Simply send an
e-mail to me with your real name and your real phone number, stating that
you would like to reserve tickets at the advance price, and just let me
know how many you want (you can reserve up to 4). This is the simple
equivalent of a will-call system. Then give me your name at the door, and
I will read it off the will-call list and admit you for the advance price.
Sound easy? It is. And as long as you show up, this same courtesy will
be extended to you the next time this is offered in the future.

Hope to see everyone at the show.

Information on JAMES BLACKSHAW:

New studio album, "The Glass Bead Game", due May 26th 2009 on Young God
Records

Initially inspired by the guitarists of the 60’s Takoma label to teach
himself fingerpicking, James Blackshaw writes long-form pieces primarily
for solo 12-string guitar and piano that are heavily influenced by
minimalist composers and European classical music and which use drones,
overtones and repeating patterns alongside a strong inclination for melody
to create instrumental music that is both intelligent, hypnotic and
emotionally charged.

Born in London in 1981, Blackshaw has so far released six solo studio
albums, one live recording and has also appeared on numerous compilations
in the last five years. "O True Believers" (2006, Important
Records/Bo’weavil Recordings), "The Cloud of Unknowing" (2007, Tompkins
Square) and "Litany of Echoes" (2008, Tompkins Square) have received huge
critical acclaim from printed and online publications including Pitchfork,
Billboard, The Wire, The Observer, The Times, Uncut, The New York Times,
Rolling Stone Magazine, The Onion, Magnet and Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
"The Cloud of Unknowing" was also listed as one of the 50 best albums of
2007 by The Wire (no. 24) and Pitchfork (no. 34). His latest album,
"Litany of Echoes" was listed as Uncut Magazine's 13th Best Album of 2008.

Blackshaw has recently signed to Michael Gira's (Swans/Angels of Light)
Young God Records label and his seventh studio album is to be released in
May 2009.

Blackshaw is currently a member of Current 93, Brethren of The Free Spirit
(duo with Jozef Van Wissem) and performs live with Pantaleimon.

He has toured extensively in Europe, US and Japan, playing approximately
200 shows since 2005 in a broad range of environments from sold-out 1,000
capacity venues supporting Jose Gonzalez to intimate church shows and
institutions such as The Douglas Hynde Gallery in Dublin and The ICA in
London. He has featured on National Public Radio in the US, BBC Radio 2
and performed live on VPRO television in The Netherlands.


Selected Press:

"... A veritable solo symphony that's as schooled in uncommon beauty as it
is in complex 20th century composition... Blackshaw writes high drama into
instrumental music with subtlety and charm, speaking on sentiments and
stories without requiring a single lyric... Blackshaw seems fully settled,
engaging his pieces and ideas with the unflinching belief of Tony Conrad
in 1964 or Steve Reich in 1965... The Cloud of Unknowing carves out a new,
peerless space altogether-- one that puts Blackshaw at the top of his
class." - Grayson Currin, Pitchforkmedia.com

"In the tradition of "American Primitive" guitarists within which he's
often grouped, James Blackshaw cuts rather an odd figure. Neither
American, nor primitive, nor as Litany of Echoes begins, even playing the
guitar, the English musician is all about upending the expectations we
might have from his instrument. Whereas kindred spirits like John Fahey
and Robbie Basho looked East for their Raga-inspired guitar diversions,
Blackshaw instead sounds more East-Coast: his long-distance guitar tunes
recalling NY minimalism, or Sonic Youth, as arranged for chamber
orchestra. Mesmerising stuff, and proof that less is often more." - John
Robinson, Uncut Magazine

"There's an indecent ease to James Blackshaw's guitar playing. His
fingerpicking mantras are as melodic as a music box, gliding through
dizzying tempos like clockwork... Such is the silky control he exherts
over his instrument, Blackshaw often sounds more like a court harpist than
a backwoods strummer." - Derek Walmsey, The Wire

"The hypnotic arpeggios at the heart of James Blackshaw’s acoustic guitar
playing reflect strong influences from outside the precincts of folk
music: minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Terry Riley, and some of
their precursors, like Erik Satie. Mr. Blackshaw, a British autodidact
still in his mid-20s, fingerpicks his 12-string Guild with an immersive
focus befitting such heady allusions. At its best, his sumptuous new
album, Litany of Echoes, conveys a stark and ancient feeling, like
something handed down through the ages...." - Nate Chinen, The New York
Times

"Twenty-seven-year-old Brit James Blackshaw has lately emerged as a major
force in the world of instrumental guitar, his epic, austere compositions
and unpretentious 12-string technique perching him somewhere between John
Fahey and Robbie Basho... Downright beautiful stuff." - Jonathon Cohen,
Billboard Magazine

"The most gem-like overlooked album this year is neither hairy nor scary;
rubber-necking into the great unknown isn't high in its priorities. But it
is preternaturally beautiful. O True Believers by 24-year-old guitarist
James Blackshaw features 10 fingers and 12 strings and, frankly, urinates
all over whatever will be the Mercury Prize's token folk nominee next
year. Blackshaw is British, but virtually no one has heard of him outside
the US folk underground; he deserves ticker-tape parades. His style
derives from the Takoma school founded by John Fahey, but that is all
detail. Blackshaw's got it all: skills to hyperventilate for, and
instinctual loveliness in spades." - Kitty Empire, The Observer

"One of the best and most original instrumentalists in the new, acoustic
renaissance" - David Fricke, Rolling Stone Magazine