► Get the album at the usual place...
Dark night of a dark day
This is Armstrong second album, recorded over a year after being severely stabbed in his left shoulder by a man who broke in his California house in April 1997 (1). It bears many traces of this frightening day and of the ensuing psychological trauma and long months of rehabilitation to slowly recover his ability to play guitar, his left arm having suffered serious nerve damages. With such a name, he couldn't but fight hard to get
his arm strong and fit again. Friends Joe Louis Walker and Doug MacLeod offered their support by guesting on two tracks each, and the final result is a neat collection of blues by a man who learned his trade by backing such blues giants as Albert Collins, Big Joe Turner and Smokey Wilson.
The songs are globally more introspective than on his first album (2). If his near-death experience seriously compromised his guitar playing, on the other hand it seems to have brought Armstrong extra musical maturity and quality in the compositions (he wrote half of the titles) as well as in the arrangements and the vocals. The album's title, "Dark Night", of course refers to the hard period that followed the stabbing, and if the general mood is understandably dark and underlined by the ominous presence of violence and death, paradoxically Armstrong's style remains luminous.
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| Michael Ross |
Straight blues, R'n'B, soul, funk, gospel, jazz…, Armstrong's Californian blues is a subtle and very thrilling blend of different styles. Deprived of his full playing capacity, he entrusted most guitar parts to the excellent Michael Ross who strangely bears a physical resemblance to Armstrong.Some songs openly evoke the ordeal he and his young son went through : "Dark Night", "Slender Man Blues" with appealing keyboard work from Parris Bertolucci, "Trouble On The Home Front" (with J. L. Walker on lead guitar), the outstanding "Lil' James" about his then two-and-a-half year old son who was thrown out from the second floor by the ground-breaker during the assault and miraculously survived to a severe skull fracture, the soulful slow blues "Standing In Your Way" (with J. L. Walker). Let's also mention the nicely rocking "Bank Of Love" (with MacLeod on guitar), "Witchin' Moon" and "Just In Case" (with MacLeod again).
A really nice album by a bluesman who has an appealing personal style and sound, and deserves a front place in any blues records collection. ■
(1) Read the full story of the assault and watch live concerts videos on : https://onurblues.blogspot.com/search/label/James%20Armstrong
(2) For those who missed it, it's never too late , it's at the usual place...
Interviews
→ https://youtu.be/63cQIYQnBzo
→ https://youtu.be/mkrNg6VbN7o
New live videos
● Reigen Club, Vienna (Austria) 2022 (with French musicians Alexandre Cantié on Hammond organ & piano, Antoine Escalier on bass & Pascal Delmas on drums) : https://youtu.be/jhQ4lRGMMV0
● Bradenton Blues Fest., 2021 : https://youtu.be/KvX44Y-CrJk
● Briggs Farm Blues Fest., Nescopeck (Pennsylvania), 2019 : https://youtu.be/uuLvlXh6cig
● The Blues Can, 2018 : https://youtu.be/uajuSsBUL44
● Denmark, 2018 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/iFsXssLq5Tw
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/gVaueqkHTJM
→ Part 3 : https://youtu.be/zJgjLmHxk1E
→ Part 4 : https://youtu.be/bg1mt32r5wg
→ Part 5 : https://youtu.be/Hdzs-BSiPm4
● Spain, 2017 : https://youtu.be/-wVbRZrLAsE
● One On One session, NYC, 2014 : https://youtu.be/q2c9jw0NR44
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