The truth about James Blunt

Because he will be in town for a Big Dome show on May 19 and because I had been listening to his second album All the Lost Souls, I thought I’d better read up on James Blunt. And look at what I found. The guy is a publicist’s dream come true. You know how it is when your job is to promote music artists. You try to make them and their lives more interesting than they really are. You embellish, pare down, decorate, hide, reveal or whatever. Worse comes to worse, you might even resort to lying.

But not in the case of Blunt. This guy’s biography is loaded. You need a book to get everything about him and all of his experiences on print. The usual artist bio does not suffice. And it is not just the music. In fact his being a pop star is almost like an afterthought, or let us say a new book to add to the first which is already about a life well-lived. Now, take a look at who Blunt was before he made a huge hit out of You’re Beautiful.

Blunt’s real name is Blount and he comes from a family with several generations of career military officers who served in Her Majesty’s army. That means Queen Elizabeth II of the UK. Blunt studied in Sandhurst, where sons of the nobility are usually sent for training and he got his pilot’s license when he was only 16 years old. He got his first commission as a second  lieutenant in the Life Guards.

He served with the UN peacekeeping force in Bosnia as a captain. He led the advance party to Pristina in Kosovo and was the first British officer to enter the city of Kosovar. He next joined the Royal Armoured Corps and because he got stationed in Switzerland, he mastered the slopes and became a champion skier. When he left the service in 2002 he was with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and was one of the honor guards while the Queen Mother Elizabeth was lying in state.

He now lives in Ibiza, Spain and is known for squiring beauties like model Petra Nemcova around. But before you start thinking that he has adopted the easy life and forgotten what it is like to fight for good and what he believes in, take note that Blunt plants trees and promotes films like An Inconvenient Truth. Best of all, he is very active with the Humanitarian Aid Group Doctors Without Borders.

Whew! Before I forget, you might also want to add to all these the fact that Blunt is a looker and probably cut a dashing figure while he was wearing his uniform.

Then after all that Blunt turned to his music, for which like most kids of the uppercrust, he had also received training. He started to write songs based on his experiences, completed an album and started performing in the UK. Of course, it was not easy at the beginning. Blunt suffered rejection because unlike most aspiring musicians, he had an uppity accent. But talent eventually triumphed and Blunt became a star.

The first album was the ballad heavy Back to Bedlam where one of the songs No Bravery, was inspired by his stint in Bosnia. The CD included the phenomenal You’re Beautiful which became an international hit. It earned him five Grammy nominations and earned him the Brit and Ivor Novello awards. An excellent rock vocalist, he was acknowledged the most important discovery of 2005.

The second album All the Lost Souls came two years later. Recorded with a live band, it is heartfelt and soaring with epic rock sounds. The well-made CD reinforces his reputation as a singer/songwriter to reckon with. It is a smooth ride with one elegant cut coming after another and shows a soulful vibe that is now more American than British. 1973 comes close but there is no track that equals the commercial appeal of You’re Beautiful. Still, the contents live up to his favorite adjective. Carry You Home, I Can’t Hear the Music, I Really Want You and Same Mistakes are truly, in every way beautiful.

Let us now wait and see what he has to offer as a performer in his Araneta concert.