James McCartney

Born on September 12, 1977, British singer-songwriter James McCartney developed a melodic style that incorporated subtle indie-folk touches, though he moved gradually toward a professional career. As the son of Paul and Linda McCartney, he experienced an early immersion in music, traveling with Wings during his first years before leading a more conventional childhood through most of the 1980s. When Paul resumed touring at the end of that decade, James joined him on the road, and by the 1990s he had begun to treat music with greater seriousness. He contributed to his father’s 1997 album Flaming Pie and later appeared on his mother’s posthumous release Wide Prairie in 1998.

Following Linda’s death that same year, James paused his activities before focusing more intently on songwriting in the latter half of the 2000s. His first onstage appearance came in 2009 under the name Light at David Lynch’s Iowa-based Weekend for World Peace and Meditation. The following year he resumed performing as James McCartney and issued the EP Available Light, produced by Paul McCartney and David Kahne. After a short tour in support of that record, he released a second EP, Close at Hand, in 2011; the two were later compiled as The Complete EP Collection that same year. His debut full-length album, Me, arrived in June 2013, followed by the 2016 release The Blackberry Train.