At the age of 18, James is releasing his full-length album "The Map in Hand." James grew up with the guitars and voices of James Taylor, the Beatles, Queen, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Collective Soul. Usually he heard them riding in a car on 99E with his dad and two older brothers. A few years later, James and his brothers, Peter and Andrew, formed a band. Peter, the oldest, played electric guitar, Andrew was on drums, and James sang and played electric bass. They were called Bird's Eye View. Bird's Eye View practiced endlessly in a bedroom in north Portland (Oregon). The sound the brothers produced was an extraordinarily advanced brand of alternative rock. James met a man named Chris, who had a home recording studio. Bird's Eye View recorded five songs in that studio. Andrew sent those songs in to the Portland Rose Festival's MusicFest Competition. They were accepted as part of the top eleven bands out of Portland. James was 13. They didn't win the competition, but playing for industry professionals was honor enough. Bird's Eye View continued to rock. Then the brothers began to play in other bands, as James played in some pyschedelic rock, grunge, alternative rock bands and orchestras. Though James wrote a lot of the songs in Bird's Eye View as it was, he began to write solo songs on acoustic guitar. Quickly filling up 100 page notebook after 100 page notebook, James began to write some quality tunes. He went back to Chris. They recorded more. And more. And after spending some time with Chris in the studio, life made it hard to record more. Maturing, maturing, maturing. Musically and otherwise. Then, in May of 2006, James received a phone call from Chris. "Hey James, we're moving into a new house and I'd like to build a recording studio in my three-car garage. Would you like to help build it, and then be the first to record an album in it?" Did it have to be asked? Of course James would want to! So they went to work. Well, mainly Chris. But James helped as much as he could. A few weeks later, a studio was in place. James got to work. He had already been writing songs prolificly around the time Chris called, but the call charged him with purpose. He enlisted Kenny, a friend and drummer from school, to lay down drums for songs on the album. Levi Lais played some mandolin, and Jessica (Chris' daughter) sang a bit. "The process was the best part," says James, "getting to hear songs progress from just me and a guitar to a full-fledged, kick butt tune was amazing. Ironically, there were also songs that stayed just me and a guitar. And I love both types. I hope people do too, but really I did this album because I loved making it." All the songs were composed by James. He played acoustic guitars, electric guitars, dulcimer, viola, shakers, tuning forks, pianos, keyboards, ukulele, percussion and bass. Oh yeah and all the vocals, besides Jessica's part. Topically the album ranges from dreamlike romantic, to poignantly grief-stricken, to jump-out-the-window "I'm free!" back to dreamy poetic. Some songs are down to earth, others are in hot air balloons floating to meet the horizon. It's weird, but it works. James musical vision is as accessible and modern as it is unique and haunting. As James wrote on the inside cover, "For me, the map in hand is sometimes crinkled, sometimes lost between the seats or between the seasons. But the map I hold is full of scribbled epiphanies by people I admire. This album is not meant to be a map in itself, but with it I hope you will search for your answers and revel in the questions."