Blunt comes from a long line of men who have served in one kind of army of another since 995 A.D., “a long line of warriors,” according to Blunt’s official web site. Blunt, like all the men in his family before him, served his country. But unlike his career colonel father and grandfather, Blunt dropped out of the army after completing his necessary four years to become a musician. Music had always been his passion, but his appreciation for it was not considered admirable by his father, according to his official web site.

“My dad was really practical, and saw music as just noise. The only CD player was in the car, and we had just three CDs - ‘American Pie,’ and a couple of Beach Boys ones,” Blunt said, according to his official web site.

While in school, Blunt learned to play the piano, and at 14 first played his friend’s guitar. He wrote his first song after listening to Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” according to his web site.

“His voice is unique from other people who are in the same genre as him,” said Amy Mendelson, a 7th-semester urban studies and journalism major. “His experiences give him an edge, something different to sing about. I like his lyrics.”

“His songs are both uplifting and powerfully tragic with a personal touch and heartbreaking melodies,” according to www.femalefirst.co.uk.

Blunt was born in an army hospital in England. He attended boarding school at the age of seven, where he excelled in both science and mathematics. He got his pilot’s license at age 16 and attended Bristol University. He then joined the army, where he eventually made captain, and was the first British officer into Pristina, with a column of 30,000 peacekeeping troops under his control.

One minute he is an ordinary college student in England, the next “he was in Kosovo with a gun and a guitar strapped to the side of a tank, wondering who he could possibly sleep with to get out of this war,” according to www.jamesblunt.com.

“No Bravery” was written in Kosovo in 1999, while James was a reconnaissance officer in the British army. On patrol around Pristina, he kept his guitar bolted to the outside of his tank. But in quieter moments, it came out, as he wrote about life as a 22-year-old peacekeeper in the aftermath of one of the decade’s bloodiest civil wars. The rest of his unit ordered him to keep the noise down as he wrote and sang in the post-midnight stillness. He didn’t keep the noise down. `No Bravery’ is the only complete song I wrote in Kosovo,” Blunt said. “I wrote it lying by my tank in my sleeping bag with my boots on. You had to sleep with your boots on. The song is pretty fatalistic. The rest of the album is fatalistic.”

With only a few demos on hand, Blunt left the army in 2002 to pursue a career as a professional musician. He performed at South by Southwest in 2003, where he met Linda Perry, songwriter-producer of Pink and Christina Aguilera. Perry offered Blunt a deal with her label Custard Records. Blunt is currently signed to Custard Records, Atlantic Records and EMI Music Publishing, according to his web site.

Although Blunt does not usually discuss the meanings behind his songs, he told his inspirations to “So Long, Jimmy” in an interview with Sara Williams of www.femalefirst.co.uk.

“It’s really a tribute to him [Jim Morrison] and [Jimi] Hendrix. I wrote it with my friend Jimmy Hogarth and I get called Jimmy occasionally. It was the last song I wrote before heading off to LA so it was like saying goodbye to Jimmy, my song-writing partner, you can obviously hear the nod at the end to “Riders on the Storm” by the Doors. I was enjoying making all those associations.”

Blunt is still enlisted in the army. He told Williams he does not think he will be called back to duty, but will go if called. He said his experiences in the army have made him an independent person, which allowed him to become a solo artist.

“I have performed in front of soldiers who have given me all sorts of abuse so I can face any crowd now, it’s much easier in comparison,” he told www.femalefirst.co.uk

Blunt is currently on tour in England until mid-March, according to vh1.com.

Source: By: Melissa Bruen | The Daily Campus