Colorblind James Experience
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Colorblind James Experience were an alternative pop/rock band founded in 1980 in San Francisco, California . Bandleader and singer/songwriter/guitarist "Colorblind" James Charles Cuminale was originally from Rochester, New York but assembled early versions of what would become the Experience in Oswego, New York before relocating to San Francisco. After a couple trying years, the band regrouped and moved again--back to Rochester, which remained its home base until Cuminale's premature death in 2001. Aside from a brief flirtation with fame in the UK and Europe after BBC DJ John Peel gave the Experience some much-deserved exposure, the band was criminally underappreciated--except by its small but devoted following.
Often humorous and parodic--and just as often laced with a profoundly questioning spirituality--their music blended elements of polka, country, cocktail jazz, blues, rockabilly, Tex-Mex, rock & roll and other genres. The band's sound was to a large extent inspired by the "old, weird America" famously chased by Bob Dylan and The Band during their Basement Tapes period, but other prominent influences included Ray Charles , Randy Newman , and Van Morrison .
Their line-up changed repeatedly over the years, and their third album was released under the name of Colorblind James and the Death Valley Boys. For more detailed information on the band's history, refer to former lead guitarist (and Cuminale's brother-in-law) Phil Marshall's blog "Colorblind James and Me" at http://www.rexhavoc.blogspot.com
Colorblind James Experience Discography
- Colorblind James Experience (1987)
- Why Should I Stand Up? (1989)
- The Peel Sessions EP (1989)
- Strange Sounds from the Basement (1990)
- The Rochester Sessions (1992)
- Solid! Behind the Times (1992)
- I Could Be Your Guide (1996)
- Call of the Wild (1999)
- Greatest Hits (2000)Template:US-pop-band-stub