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James Bourne is taking his dream to the streets.
And he’s doing it with style.
Known professionally as Jimi Blacksheep, this New Bedford resident can regularly be found commuting to Boston, taking to the city’s sidewalks with his guitar, voice, and amplifier — entertaining pedestrians with his vast catalog of covers and original songs.
But Blacksheep doesn’t just want to sound good, he also wants to look good — he is usually adorned in his preferred purple outfits, often wearing clothes he has designed himself.
A Boston transplant who moved to New Bedford three years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, Blacksheep’s rock and roll fantasy got its beginnings at the age of 16, when he attended a Prince concert at the Providence Civic Center. The experience was so impressive and transformative that the next day Blacksheep told his mother he now knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life playing music and would be quitting high school.
Soon after, he bought his first guitar and launched his musical voyage.
Entirely self-taught, Blacksheep travels from the Whaling City to Beantown to sling his strings for onlookers three or four days a week. A given day can last at least two to four hours, depending on how lucrative spectators are feeling and how his bothersome shoulder is affecting him.
Blacksheep has recently been taking his talents to the streets and venues of New Bedford. This Fourth of July he performed on a Union Street sidewalk in downtown during the annual holiday fireworks. He has also played in local rooms such as Knucklehead’s, Doug’s House of Harmony and Ryan’s Sports Pub & Billiards. He sings and plays guitar to instrumental songs he has downloaded from YouTube. He performs only songs for which he feels his voice is suited.
Blacksheep is aware of the important role fashion can play in music and performance. Since a young age he has been designing his own clothes, and today his North End apartment includes a one-room recording studio with his nine guitars, bass, drum set and keyboards, as well as a second room overflowing with his sizable wardrobe, much of which he has put his own touches on.
In his mid-20s, Blacksheep had an early brush with fame. As the vocalist for the Boston-based band, The Beat Generation, he signed a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records, but due to issues with his management company the deal was voided.
But Blacksheep’s musical aspirations are still alive. At the age of 60, he is still writing and recording his own songs, which can be heard when he is performing publicly, while some versions can be heard on YouTube.
Blacksheep credits his mother and father for his creative interests. His mother would encourage him from a young age to watch and listen to musical performances by acts such as Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores, and James Brown. His father, Joseph Bourne, was a successful singer in the Netherlands, and released a number of albums.
The father of three children and grandfather of six, Blacksheep is also employed at a gym and a hotel, both located on the South Shore. He spoke with The Light about his inspirations to become a musician, how he began “busking” in Boston, good days and bad days, overcoming shyness, his guitar collection, and enjoying the New Bedford music scene.
New Bedford Light: How did you get into busking and performing publicly?
Jimi Blacksheep: I suffered a bad motorcycle injury and I had to regroup and rethink what I was going to have to do to get back to work, because my shoulder’s busted up really bad. I was doing a little carpentry, a lot of painting and stuff. So I wasn’t sure what to do. But meanwhile I got a job in downtown Boston as a security guard. I didn’t have much to do but sit in a jewelry store and keep an eye on things. But that was a little boring for me.
One day I got out of work and I saw a street performer out there playing his buckets, so I stood near him for a second and he was wrapping up his set and I noticed he had gotten a lot of tips, and I was like, “Wow, this guy’s just playing some buckets. I can play guitar and sing!” So I thought I should give it a shot.
I thought about it for a couple of weeks and then I went and purchased a portable, battery-powered amplifier for $75. For the first year I didn’t sing, I just played guitar just to try it out. It seemed to go pretty well, I kept getting a lot of compliments, a lot of love being shown, so it inspired me to keep coming back and keep coming back.
And then one day, after a year had gone by, my dad asked me how I was doing with it and he said, “You know, you should consider singing as well.” I said, “Oh, I’m doing good playing my guitar.” And he was like, “Just try out the singing too.” And when I tried the singing it got even better. People were amazed by my voice, the whole performance. Of course, everyone likes the colors that I portray, I use purple — purple guitars, purple sneakers, sometimes purple hats. It just draws people in. It mixes with the music and the sound of my vocals. Now I can’t stop, I’m always looking forward to it.
NBL: What’s a good day and what’s a not-so-good day when you’re busking?
JB: A not-so-good day is when my shoulder starts to bother me every now and then from the guitar strings leaning into it, because I stand the whole time and I dance around a little bit as well. So sometimes if that starts to bother me, and it starts to ache, it’s usually after two-and-a-half hours. If that happens, I’ll see what my tips look like and if I did OK I’ll wrap it up.
And some days I’ll just feel extra energy. I don’t feel any pain. Some days the sun is out and people are out there. I’ll keep it going for four hours. Again, I do drive all the way from New Bedford to Boston so I want to get as much out of it as I can.
NBL: How do you decide what songs you’re going to play each day?
JB: I just do what I like to do. I’m inviting people into my world. It’s kind of like the Jimi Blacksheep experience — you’re going to get what I give you. People come up and say, “Can you play this song or that song?” and I always tell them I have a set playlist. I want to feel comfortable being out there and the best way to do that is to do the songs that I like to do and that I’m comfortable doing. So that’s how that’s determined.
NBL: When did you get your first guitar and what did you think when you started playing?
JB: I think I was around 16 1/2 when I got my first guitar. I had a job as a teenager so when my income tax check came I ran out and got a guitar and I’ve been fiddling around with it ever since. Slowly but surely I started getting more guitars because I loved how they look, how they sound and I wanted to wake up every day and just look around my room and see guitars to stay inspired.
I’ve always felt like the more I touch the guitar the better off I’ll be. I want to be better and better and better, the best I can be. That’s why I try to have a guitar in every room.
NBL: Is it something you enjoyed from the start?
JB: It took time, but I was determined because I knew that that was what I wanted to do. A couple of my music friends said, “Why did you pick guitar? It’s kind of difficult. Why don’t you play the bass? It’s a lot easier.” I said, “No, I want to play guitar. I want to be able to go to the beach or the park and serenade my girl. You can’t do that with any other instrument.”
NBL: With your original songs, what genres do you write in?
JB: It’s so weird. I do a lot of alternative rock similar to Lenny Kravitz. A lot of people have said my music sounds similar to that. But my ballads are kind of R&B-ish, somewhat neo-soul.
NBL: What inspires you to write a song?
JB: Sometimes it’s the joy of having a great girlfriend, and then sometimes it’s the opposite. Troubles with a girlfriend. It’s mostly love songs. My ballads are about females, but my alternative songs are about whatever I can think of.
NBL: Besides Prince, who else do you get inspiration from?
JB: I get a lot of inspiration from George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, and when it comes to singing it’s Marvin Gaye and people of that nature. At the beginning I liked the guy Ray Parker Jr., because he was so smooth. He reminded me of my dad.
I started off standing in front of my mirror all the time with my hairbrush, making believe it was a microphone and just lip synching, going through the motions and making believe I was the entertainer. And before you know it some noises started to come out into that brush, and I turned those noises into notes and then into singing, and before you know it there I was. Somebody said, “You should think about singing, you sound pretty good.” I said, “OK, maybe I’ll do that.” I was shy for the longest time, but I knew this was what I wanted to do so I had to break that shyness.
NBL: How did you do it?
JB: Well, at some point I started wearing sunshades on stage and at different performances and for some reason it allowed me to become someone else. Like when a superhero puts on his costume — you become the superhero and then when the situation’s over you take off your costume and you’re a regular guy.
NBL: You have a lot of purple in your act. Why is that?
JB: I was first inspired by Jimi Hendrix with his purple velvet hat, his bandana and stuff like that. But when Prince came along and glorified it even more, he became one of my greatest idols. And then he passed away so I decided I’m going to glorify that color even more, and I’ve incorporated it into what I do now. And now it’s to the point where I couldn’t use any other color because everybody knows me for purple now.
NBL: You have nine guitars. How do you determine which one you’re going to play?
JB: Well, I have my street guitars, the two purple ones. I have a practice guitar in my bedroom, so when I wake up in bed I can grab it. The others are for gigs when I’m onstage — guitars that are more expensive and a little more high quality for high-profile gigs.
NBL: What are your thoughts on playing in the New Bedford area? Would you like to establish yourself in this area?
JB: Oh definitely. There’s a great fanbase of music lovers here. There always has been since Tavares and other entertainers that came from here. Years ago I was in a band and we would drive out here to do a couple of gigs and the audiences were just amazing, unbelievable. So now that I live here, I still see that when I go see other entertainers. I just want to be a part of that whole mix.
NBL: When you perform do you wear clothes that you’ve designed?
JB: Yes, there’s always a splash of something that I have designed. I was able to find some purple leather paint on Amazon, so I’ve been able to paint my boots, belts, some hats, you name it. They had all sorts of rhinestones and studs that I’ve put on myself.
NBL: How did you get into designing your own clothes?
JB: I started in my mid-teens. I was voted best dressed in the eighth grade and then I went on to win best dressed in high school, so it always inspired me to be different. I always wanted to look different from everybody else. So when I became a musician it all made sense, because everywhere I went people asked, “Are you a musician or something? You dress different.” I was like, “Yep.”
When it comes to fashion I was inspired by my mom. When I was a small child she had a small sewing room in the house and if I got bored and didn’t want to play or watch TV, I would make my way into the room she was in and watch her sew and make her own dresses, make her own stuff. So I was just watching her, keeping an eye on her, but I didn’t realize how much I was taking in. Now I have no problem sitting there, threading a needle or wanting to sew. People are like, “Wow, you sew?” And I say, “Yeah, by hand!”
My mother and father were the greatest influences on my fashion and my music.
Sean McCarthy is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Great story. Where in Boston does he play? Will he be playing locally in the near future? I’d like to be in the audience.