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ARMS is TG, Matty, Tlacael, and Dave. Our new album, Summer Skills, is out now.

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James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing

James Blackshaw - “The Cloud of Unknowing” (from The Cloud of Unknowing, 2007)

I’m a sucker for a well-deployed Don Delillo reference.

Nobody plays 12-string acoustic guitar like this guy, James Blackshaw. He’s youngish (26? 27?) and terrifyingly skilled, and uses his powers for the forces of good, as it were. Instead of going the Leo Kottke / Tacoma school route of acoustic-guitar-as-conduit-for-timeless-Americana-tropes, Blackshaw taps into something akin to 20th-century minimalism, playing tsunamis of individual notes that fall one over another like a series of little silver beads. Chords morph from one into the next in this hypnotic, fluid way — but the songs themselves are perfectly formed things, exquisitely paced (10:55 never went by so fast) compositions with hard-to-pin-down emotional touchstones. I can’t say enough nice things about this guy and his music. Even if you’re “not into this kind of stuff”, give it a try — this is some timeless beauty, right here.

30 Plays

Notes

  1. cjn reblogged this from armsongs
  2. shurewhynot said: beautiful stuff :)
  3. armsongs posted this

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