Edito de BlackheartI was born in McMinnville Oregon where my father was a teacher and mill worker, and my mother was a nursing student. We moved to a small town in Eastern Oregon when I was two. My Dad wrote songs in his spare time, and my mother played the piano and organ at church. Many of my earliest memories involve rattlesnakes. We lived on the Double B ranch and one of the hands had given my Mother a Colt 45 saying that with three small kids she ought to know how to use it. Not long after, a fat three foot rattlesnake curled up in the back yard, and Mom shot it from the kitchen window. Unsure if it was completely dead we spent the next hour or so pitching cans of Campbell's soup at it through the window. The next dozen or so years were typical of a rural upbringing; fishing, hiking, practicing with a lariat for the junior rodeo (and really sucking at it), and trying to blow things up. After high school I moved to New York where I made an unsuccessful bid at getting a college education. I ended up spending most of my time hanging out in Greenich Village folk clubs. One day I was walking down 52nd street near my Hell's Kitchen apartment, and I saw a place where the facade was made out of a cut up tour bus. Inside the front door was a life size signed cut out of B.B. King. I asked for a job and soon I was flipping burgers at the Lone Star Road House, and sneaking in the back door to see shows. I saw Emmy Lou, Etta James, snuck into the band room to hang out (from a distance) with Rick Danko and Greg Allman. For two years I saw dozens of folk and blues shows while I began writing and performing my own songs at downtown clubs and open mic's. At some point I traded in my dream of playing at the Newport Folk Festival for rock and roll, and years of shit jobs and financial brinksmanship beat some grit in to me. By 1995 with no record and a (un)healthy taste for whiskey I decided to bail out of the city and go back to Oregon. I packed what would fit into a drive away car and headed to Portland for a job as a carpenter and a plan to get serious about writing. In 2000, my first cd Mexiquita was released, and I landed a residency gig at The Laurelthirst Public House. This has been my home away from home these last few years and I have been able to call some of my favorite songwriters and musicians my peers. Folks like Little Sue, Pete Krebs, Casey Neil, Fernando, Caleb Klauder, the Jackstraw boys, and many more. I put out a second cd in 2002 titled Blackheart. I'm currently working on a new album tentatively named The Blackgaurd's Waltz. I live in a cozy little house on a dead end street, and I still have a taste for the road. Thanks for checking out the website, and enjoy the music. James Low Lire la suite