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Blues guitarist James Armstrong has been nominated for two W.C. Handy Awards for best male contemporary blues artist and song of the year.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
The 'Dark Night' returns
Bluesman James Armstrong performs in Sunnyvale nearly four years after he and his son were almost killed
By Daniel Hindin
It's taken nearly four years, but bluesman James Armstrong says he finally enjoys life again.
This is no mean feat for Armstrong. He and one of his young sons were nearly killed during a gruesome home invasion in 1997. Even after they both managed to survive, Armstrong nearly lost what he'd loved nearly his entire life: his music.
Armstrong is now preparing to make a triumphant return to Sunnyvale four years after suffering severe nerve damage from an attack inside his Olive Avenue home by a knife-wielding man.
Armstrong, who has been nominated for two Blues Foundation W.C. Handy Awards, will stop over in Sunnyvale during his national tour to perform at Sunnyvale's Bathtub Gin & Blues on April 13.
Things are starting to look up again for Armstrong, who went through very dark period in his life after the assailant almost killed his young son and left Armstrong unable to play his beloved guitar.
On April 28, 1997 at 8 a.m., a friend of Armstrong's next-door neighbor, entered Armstrong's apartment without permission.
"I was on the floor playing with my two sons--they were 9 months and 2 1/2," Armstrong recalls. "The guy just walked in and I said, 'What the hell are you doing? Get out of my house.'"
Armstrong, afraid for his children's safety, immediately picked up the phone and began calling 911. As he was making the call, he turned around to find the assailant running at him with a knife in his hand. The attacker stabbed Armstrong in his left shoulder/neck area.
"At this point I just tried to protect myself and protect my sons," Armstrong says. "I just fought the best I could. I figured if I could lead him outside, he would leave my boys alone."
But his plan didn't work. the assailant went right for Armstrong's older son. He picked him up and threw him over the second-floor balcony.
By the time the ordeal was over, Armstrong had been stabbed three times and his son had suffered a skull fracture.
The assailant was eventually convicted on nine felony counts, including endangerment of a child and attempted murder. According to Armstrong, the assailant will be in prison for at least the next quarter-century.
Armstrong, who recorded his first album in 1995, spent a week at Valley Medical Center and had to cancel his first nationwide tour, which was to have begun just two weeks later.
"They had to remove my collarbone," says Armstrong. "I couldn't move [my left, fretting arm] for six or seven months. Then I started playing slide [guitar] on a table. Slowly from then I started using my hand more with my guitar on my arm."
Armstrong still hasn't regained full use of his left hand. He probably never will.
As a man who grew up with a guitar in his hand and started his first band at the age of 13, Armstrong felt lost.
In 1998 Armstrong hired a lead guitar player while he kept himself busy on the slide guitar. He recorded his second, introspective, album, Dark Night.
"Music was all I ever thought about," he says. "[My attacker] had basically ruined my life. I was at the point of letting this man win."
Still feeling down after recording the album, Armstrong decided he couldn't give in to his assailant. It took strong willpower, but he learned to take the devastating experience in stride and managed to look at the positive things in his life, to keep moving forward.
"It's hard to do in the beginning," he says. "I don't think anyone can say, 'Well, OK, everything's fine.' I found out you have to have other interests. I got into computers and built my own website. The other positive side of it is that I enjoy life again."
With his newfound lease on life and greater use of his left hand, Armstrong went back to the studio in 2000--this time on lead guitar--and cut his most recent album, Got It Goin' On. It took some adjusting to get used to playing. With only 60 percent use of his index and middle fingers and 40 percent use of his ring and little fingers, he is essentially limited to two fingers.
Armstrong says, "My fingers aren't as fast as they used to be. I had to change my style, but it all really fits--it all comes from my heart."
Got It Goin' On has received much critical acclaim and Armstrong, who now lives in Santa Cruz is in the middle of another nationwide tour. He's up for Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year in recognition of his latest album. And "Pennies and Picks," a track from the album, is up for Song of the Year.
"It's great," says Armstrong of the new joy he has found. "I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like a little kid again. I feel like I've been born again and I have another chance to do what I've wanted to do all my life."
Catch James Armstrong on his current national tour at Sunnyvale's Bathtub Gin and Blues, 1131 N. Lawrence Expressway, 408.734.2500, on April 13.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
