When James Howard plays, he takes his time, savoring each word in every lyric, stringing the notes along as he goes. He’s a compelling guitarist, composer, singer, producer, and artistic presence. On "Celebrate Life" his passionate electric blues guitar weaves in and out of an impressive variety of song styles. Howard wrote nine of the ten songs on “Celebrate Life” with the tenth song being an electric guitar blues instrumental of “Amazing Grace” done in the way that Stevie Ray Vaughn covers Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”.

The CD covers the ground of Santana’s Latin Rock in the title track, “Celebrate Life”, to the funky blues of “Path of the Mystic”, to the psychedelic rock of “Still Small Voice” to the Latin/Jazz/World sounds of “Lemuria” and “Eastern Sky” with James on the nylon string guitar. “Higher” has a feel good pop/.rock feel and “The Greatest Love” is an acoustic/singer/songwriter ballad.

Live, James and his band tear it up with a jam band improvisational approach to the music breathing new life in