Search - James Blackshaw :: Sunshrine

12-String Genius

Piers Moktan | Khorsor Elephant Stable, Nepal | 06/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Do you remember `Black Mountain Side' from the seminal first album by Led Zeppelin? Yes, that was Jimmy Page's brief showcase of his talent on the acoustic 12-string guitar, treating us to an oriental-infused and orgiastic display of sheer, goddamn musical drama. As a teenager it blew me away-I had never heard anything like it, and it took me years before I did again. I thought that discovering John McLaughlin's Shakti project would be the nearest I would ever come to experiencing the delights of `Black Mountain Side' (and that in itself was pretty momentous, culminating in my witnessing the finest musical performance of my life at London's South Bank when he reformed them as Remember Shakti). But now with James Blackshaw (and also Jack Rose on the superb `Raag Manifestoes') I have found the true inheritor to that wonderful experience of 2 minutes and 12 seconds of Jimmy Page's genius.

James Blackshaw is an incredible musician, typically spoken of with reverence and affection by comparison with the acoustic legends John Fahey and Robbie Basho. What Jimmy Page achieved in two minutes, Blackshaw manages to sustain for 26 on the title track, thankfully rather less insistently frenetic though. For merely one man, a guitar, and some hand bells to entrance a listener for so long is surely a remarkable achievement. And he was only 23 when he recorded this, his follow-up to his debut album `Celeste', making him one of a very small elite of masters at playing exploratory, raga-inspired, and folk-tinged acoustic 12-string. This album may only consist of two tracks, `Sunshrine' and the shorter `Skylark Herald's Dawn', but it's nonetheless an essential addition to the collection of anyone who loves music that can transport you into states of contemplative bliss."