Keith James

Keith James

Keith James is a Chicago-based record producer and singer-songwriter. He is born in 1987 and is associated with folk, acoustic music, soul and mellow, chillout-oriented songwriting.

Early life and background

Keith is born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and spends his early years in Surrey and Berkshire. During the early 1980s, he performs hundreds of times on the wine bar circuit and records four vinyl albums, which later become collectable.

Production work and studio approach

Through much of the 1990s, Keith works mainly behind the mixing desk and in the studio, building a reputation as a producer and sound engineer. His recordings use multi-track analogue tape, and his studio work is marked by a hands-on approach to artists beyond simply recording them.

Songwriting and albums

Keith is described as a prolific writer with a large song catalogue. His CD albums include Tomorrow is Longer Than Yesterday, Outsides, The Songs of Nick Drake, Postcards and No.1 Paradise Road. A career-spanning collection, A Small Few Grains, is also part of his output. He records and performs material of his own, as well as work connected to other writers.

Performance activity

Keith tours widely across the UK as a solo performer and as support to larger acts, and he also performs across Europe and the Americas. For several years he performs concerts of The Songs of Nick Drake, and by the end of the seventh tour in spring 2006 he and double bassist Rick Foot have given more than 250 performances of the set.

Later work

He resides in Canterbury and is putting the final touches to a recording studio called Bare Wires, intended mainly for his own new material but also available to other artists. He and Rick Foot also plan a project setting selected work by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca to music for tour.

Other note

The name Keith James is also associated with a separate radio host from Victorville, California, and with the duo Buttersweet.