One dreary day in February I called James at his home in Brittany, France. Being instantly cheered by his voice, I had a nice chat with him about his instrument, his current repertoire, and his spring tour to the US and Mexico. He’ll be performing in Portland on Saturday, May 12th, at PSU’s Lincoln 75, at 8:00PM (see calendar for additional details).

I’ve known Jim since I came to Oregon in the early `80s and was profoundly moved by his music. Back then it was strictly a 6-string classical guitar and its repertoire, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that in his hands the guitar was at home in a way I’d never experienced before and rarely since. His caliber of playing is as good as it gets, IMHO. Little did we know that he would soon begin his journey into the wider community that included studying in Spain with José Tomas, winning prestigious international awards, including the Ramírez Prize of Santiago de Compostela and the Tárrega Prize of Benicasim, then moving to Brussels for many years, where his fine cds have been recorded and where he migrated away from the 6-string guitar to an 11-string arch guitar. Ever restless in pursuit of his musical muse, James has moved on now to the 19-string arch harp guitar, an instrument which allows him fuller expression with his Celtic-inspired playing and song. He credits David Russell, and Peter Blanchette, Pierre Bensusan as his greatest musical influences.

First of all, would you tell us about your guitar?

My 11-string arch guitar that I played last time I was in Portland (2000) was inspired by guitarist Peter Blanchette’s design: an instrument with the best qualities of the lute and guitar. Gary Southwell of Nottingham, England built it for me, and I played it exclusively for a number of years. My Renaissance, Baroque, and a few cds of contemporary music were made with it up until 2002, when I had my friend, Bay Area guitar maker Alan Perlman make me another 11-string arch guitar which sounds more guitar-like, but has the same small Baroque size and shape as the Southwell.

I began playing with my colleague Mariusz Radwanski, and we formed Bardou, a duo of guitar and nyckelharpa (a Swedish instrument similar to the English hurdy-gurdy), that occasionally includes other members. We play Celtic-inspired music; we don’t play traditional music, but music that is inspired by traditional music from Ireland, from Brittany, France and so on. At some point we decided we wanted to add another voice. We had the 11-string arch guitar and the nyckelharpa and we thought it would be nice to have a little Celtic harp sometimes. We started looking at the options. Do we find someone to play the Celtic harp? At some point having a full-time harpist would clash with the guitar. I thought maybe I could learn to play the harp, then I’d just put down the guitar from time to time. But before I could do that, I came up with this major brainstorm to have a little Celtic harp grafted onto my 11-string arch guitar. My idea was to have the treble strings be harp strings, because I can use the basses on my guitar; I can tap them out with the left hand. This was kind of a crazy idea that might or might not work. At the time I was still spending part of the year in California and frequently hiking Mt. Tamalpais with Alan, so I proposed the idea to him. He enthusiastically said, “Yes.” Of course we didn’t know exactly how or if it would work -- we took pieces of cardboard and mocked up different designs.

The day finally came when we tied it onto the 11-string. It worked; it sounded amazing; it was even tonally balanced with the rest of the instrument, one not louder than the other. There are 8 strings on the attachment, tuned from B (7th fret, 1st guitar string) to an octave higher and it has harp levers which will tune the pitch of each string up or down a half step. That’s really practical for tuning purposes, and sometimes even in the middle of a piece I’ll flick one or two of the levers over to make a change.

On the guitar part I have the 6 strings tuned like a guitar. I used to have them tuned up a half step, but since I play with other musicians a lot now, I have them in normal tuning for practical reasons. Then I have 5 extra bass strings tuned B (below 6th string E), D (octave lower than 4th string D), A (octave lower than 5th string A). The other two, which are off the fretboard are usually tuned g and f#, but occasionally, if I’m playing in D Minor for example, I’ll tune the f# down a half step. If I’m playing in E sometimes I’ll tune the G up a half step. But most of the time those 5 extra strings are at the same pitches. I use regular guitar strings. For example for the lowest string I use a hard tension low E string.

I’ve had Alan build me a second arch guitar and harp attachment which is all steel string and it’s a lot of fun. I don’t usually travel with both instruments because it’s just too much to carry. The two 8-string attachments are interchangeable, and what really sounds great sometimes is putting the steel string attachment on the nylon string guitar. Then I’ve really got two instruments. Of course they ring a whole lot. On some pieces it’s great and on others it doesn’t work so well.

Tell us about your program for Portland.

My sound is still classical for the most part, but it’s a real mixture of styles: Celtic, Baroque, folk, and so on. The program will have music with a lot of Irish influence. It will include many of my own compositions: a suite, which will include some poems of W.B. Yeats, which I’ve set to songs interspersed with Turlough O’Carolan melodies I’ve arranged; a number of songs I’ve written, one in French, several in English; and then some instrumental pieces more in the Medieval Celtic style; and from the Baroque, a few François Cuperin transcriptions from the harpsichord suites.

Thanks, Jim. We’re really looking forward to Saturday’s concert.