James Anthony Burke

James is a musician and writer with six albums. He busked the roads of Europe with a mandola and a walking stick, and now writes from an island in the Pacific. He calls himself a bard: in the old order a bard was musician, poet, historian, satirist, and counsel to kings.

Rather than the usual press kit, the site is built as a journey. It opens on a shut green door in a stone wall, and you scroll through it onto the road.

The door opens onto a painting of a road at dusk with five lit waypoints: the Cairn, the River, the Crossroads, the Campfire, and the Fair. Each holds a part of his working life, his field notes at the Cairn, his songs at the River, his performance reels at the Crossroads, and his consults at the Fair.

Step off the road and there is a line drawing of James in candle glow, and his poem Beloved read aloud in his own voice. The copy across the site is written in his register, from the waypoint names to the sign-off.

It all came from one conversation and a close read of his writing.