Fingerpickers delight - John James playing Slow Drag and Silver Swan

[ewalling]

For those of you that also love this kind of stuff, enjoy!

[ALCO]

Stunning!! Thanks for posting it.

Kind regards,

[ewalling]

You're welcome!

What's a little alarming, though, is that on an 'Acoustic Guitar Forum' which is supposedly international in spirit, you're the only person in 128 visits who thought to comment, and you're from my native England. Seems like Welsh guitarists don't cut the mustard among our American hosts ... unless everyone here is so amazingly talented that John James's rendition is a bit too rudimentary!

[dodge]

Im originally from England I have never heard of this guy before. Maybe he was a bit before my time. I will certainly checkout more of his stuff on YouTube. Thanks for posting.

[1Charlie]

I'm not worthy!!!

[womenhealers]

Wow! Fantastic stuff... I've never heard of him, but I'll be checking him out now, for sure.

[jansch]

I saw him live at Cardiff University around 1975. He was tremendous. He disappeared from the folk scene for many years, but has resurfaced in recent times. A great guitarist.

http://www.johnjamesguitarist.com/Sk...ie-Videos.html


http://www.johnjamesguitarist.com/

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by dodge

Im originally from England I have never heard of this guy before. Maybe he was a bit before my time. I will certainly checkout more of his stuff on YouTube. Thanks for posting.

He was loosely connected to Stefan Grossman's Kicking Mule team in the late 70s, along with a few other overseas pickers, who included the Swedish Lasse Johansson and Claes Palmquiist, and the Dutch Ton Van Bergerk and Leo Wijnkamp. It's because of playing like this that I got into playing acoustic guitar with some kind of seriousness beyond strumming along to tunes. I think this is a really fine example - it swings, it's complex, it's tuneful, and it's whole lotta fun both for us and, clearly, for him too!

[JonHBone]

I've not heard of him before. thanks for sharing! that was fun to watch (and hear)!

[eastcoast Chris]

John James, great guitar player and a great sense of humor on stage.made a great album with another uk guitarist called Pete Berryman.Look on youtube for a recording called Pie in my Sky.

[RodB]

Yes a delight. This thread led me to dig out an album I have from the mid '70s called 'Picture Rags' with a couple of tracks by him; 'Picture Rag' and 'Original Rag'. It also has Pete Berryman (mentioned above) playing Weeping Willow, as well as Ralph McTell, Stefan Grossman and others.

This and other records around that time was a great source of material and got me into finger-picking.

[Acoustic_Stevo]

That's a blast from the past. My original guitar teacher taught me Silver Swan about 28 years ago. My teacher was a big Stefan Grossman fan, and taught me lots of his tunes, as well as Dave Evans, John James, Duck Baker, John Renbourn, Bob Hadley etc etc.

[niko]

John is a decent singer, a superb guitarist and a fantastic entertainer. We invited him and Ian Melrose for the last edition of our little guitar festival in Douai (Northern France) last year. His show was one of the most dynamic with ever have in the last 10 years. The final jam with Ian and Lena (John's wife), was unforgettable
Sadly we didn't record the concert on video, but Eric Vaudet, a good friend of us, took a lot of photos. you can watch the whole album at this url :
https://goo.gl/r1Hn0K

We also had some funny conversations despite his (light) welsh accent and my (strong) french english

Don't miss him if he's playing in your area.

Nicolas

[Work & Worry]

I come back to this video a lot. One of my favorite UK ragtime pickers. I try to play "Silver Swan" the JJ way... real slow and greasy!

Also agree that his albums are great, particularly Live In Concert. I've got the between-song banter memorized on that one!

[blindboyjimi]

Thanks so much for posting. What left hand finger work! Amazing player.