Hello my name is James Mitchell, I am 19 and live near Basingstoke in Hampshire (England) and...as you might have gathered or hopefully heard that I am a guitarist. What you may not know is that I have been playing the guitar since I was 6 years old. But only recently however, i have taken my playing to a higher level, trying out new playing styles such as blues, jazz, funk, country and most seriously, solo acoustic fingerstyle. Ever since I went to see 'Tommy Emmanuel' play live, it has inspired me to try out this new and exiting style and go to see and listen to other artists who share the same style of playing, such as 'Martin Taylor', 'Clive Carroll', 'Juane Matine', 'Chet Atkins', 'Steven King', the list is endless......

 

'Tommy Emmanuel is my true idol. A man who has very little time even for himself, had listened to my cd and guided me onto the right track, thats the kind of person he is, (Tommy, I thank you very much). 

By applying this style to my other influences, it has given me the abillity to achieve a sound that needs no acompliment and produces an act that is a break from the norm and teenager stereotype.

 

Soon i am to continue my studies at the 'Academy Of Contemporary Music' (ACM) in guildford, where i hope to take my playing to a much higher level. 

 

My main ambition is to be a musician, but more in the 'behind the scenes' area of the music industry doing sessioning, teaching and song writing. But I would never want to give up performing in front of live audiences. "There is no bigger buzz!" (KEEP THE MUSIC LIVE!)

 

As well as performing as a solo act, I have been part of a band 'The Guy Morgan Project' (named after the lead singer and song writer) which turned out to be very succesfull for us. We were a group of very ambitious, professionally minded musicians and we had recorded a live album before we had to split, (due to going off to different universities).  We have put up a website to help the band live on: (http://guymorgan30.tripod.com/theguymorganproject/).

Please feel free to visit the site.

 

I have done many things in my playing career so far that I am proud of, such as playing at the 'Millennium Gloucester Hotel' (London), 'The Anvil' (Basingstoke), meeting and playing with very talented and great people. but perhaps performing in front of 'Tommy Emmanuel' himself, that is a dream come true! 

 

Thank you for finding the time to read this!