If you know local guitar wizard James Norton, you know he shreds with the best of them.
A blitzkrieg of fierce, gorgeous notes cascade from Norton's electric guitar when he picks it up and jams.
He's a musician's musician, someone who takes the craft of it and dedication to it seriously, so much so his talent landed him at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he finished up a guitar performance degree in roughly two and a half years.
But that's only part of the story for this young Texarkana man, who was recently lauded at the Scott Joplin Regional Music Celebration with a Young Musician Award.
The flipside with his talent is his dogged perseverance and steadfast belief in himself. He's faced obstacles that seem designed to break one's spirit, but his spirit remains remarkably resilient through it all.
At present, he's recovering from cancer surgery. Last year, Norton was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, which moved on to his lymph nodes. Despite chemo and radiation, a tumor was recently discovered under his tongue, which required reconstructive surgery to his mouth and throat.
He's improving each day, but there's a long road ahead.
"I've got to relearn how to eat and say certain words," he said during an interview, which we conducted through Facebook's messenger app. It allowed us to meet in person with questions asked aloud and answers typed.
Despite his medical maladies, Norton remains committed to his music, as in love with it as he's ever been, it seems. Cancer isn't the only hardship he's faced, either. Coming back from Berklee, a truly top educational experience, he struggled to find local venues where he could play his music.
"I couldn't get a gig here to save my life all through the end of high school and after my Berklee career," Norton recalled. "I started to figure out it didn't matter what I did. People were going to stay set in their ways, so if they wouldn't let me play I'd just go somewhere else that would let me."
He tried landing gigs at venues where other metal bands played, but it didn't happen for him. "I guess what I did was just too different," he said, noting he's into neoclassical metal and European hard rock. His influences range from Yngwie Malmsteen to Racer X, Uli Jon Roth to Christian Mnzner, Deep Purple to Queen.
"It's all really technical stuff with deep roots in classical music," Norton said.
He didn't allow the local reception to his music to stir up bitterness inside of him. He figured it was a waste of energy. "All I did was play all day, which is what I was doing anyways but it gave me a lot of direction and gave me a lot of resources that just weren't here," he said.
Ultimately, he had three local gigs, one at the Blues Iguana coffeeshop downtown and two at the Summerhill Road winery. He remembers jamming with local drummer George Buckner.
"It was nice to have a gig," he recalled, adding, "When I played at the winery, we packed the place with over 100 people on Texas-Arkansas night and we got people to come off the street and from across the street who thought it was a recording."
That must have felt satisfying for a young man who got started with the guitar at a young age for the very best of guitar god reasons.
"Like all delusional 8-year-olds, I thought it would make me cool," Norton said. "I was very wrong. And it doesn't get you girls."
With a laugh, he calls shredding a woman repellent. That said, he has a girlfriend, who's part of the strong support system he has pulling for him and helping him along in life. His friends adore him.
"At first, I just tried to know enough to impress girls and when it didn't work, I found out I really liked playing guitar and it just kind of stuck," Norton said. His first CD? Joe Satriani's "Surfing with the Alien." He became a fan of Green Day and Bowling for Soup.
Later, he found supportive teachers like Joe Stump and Hellen Sherrah-Davies at Berklee, where he started out as a provisional student because of past college grades. He earned a 3.98 GPA his very first Berklee semester, so he was asked to return to this cutthroat program. He worked hard and studied the next seven semesters back to back.
"My Berklee career was really wonderful," Norton said.
Norton was surprised to receive the Young Musician Award. At first he thought it was because he had cancer. Was this a joke, he wondered?
At the Joplin awards ceremony, Norton was unable to speak, having just recently come out of the hospital post-surgery. But his sister read a speech he wrote. The words may have ruffled some feathers, he thinks. He appreciates the award, but it also makes him recall how tough it is to be a musician here.
"Unfortunately, there is a certain amount of musical prejudice here in Texarkana that inhibits artists' creativity and keeps a lot of our music deep underground. For this reason, I was surprised that I was even chosen for this award, because I've only been able to get three gigs in Texarkana throughout my entire life," he wrote, adding, "Often times I've been called too rambunctious or radical, because of a negative stigma that follows my genre of music."
He encouraged people to adopt a more open mind about local music.
"Allowing musicians the space to express their true art form holds the power to open minds, build community, and generate a sense of of appreciation for music they might not have found acceptable beforehand," he said. "Music is not dying in Texarkana, it is very much alive, and there are young people here who are very talented. Change starts with us."
David Mallette of the Regional Music Heritage Center, which organized the Joplin celebration, said only one board person knew of Norton's fight with cancer and didn't even mention it until after they voted. Others heard him play at least once. Mallette heard him play an impromptu solo at the Summerhill winery.
"I don't know much about heavy metal, but I know incredible musicianship when I hear it. I have believed ever since that James is the only guitarist I've ever heard that could break even on stage with Jimi Hendrix," Mallette said.
Although Norton didn't feel warmly received when he returned home after Berklee, he didn't sit still. He moved to the Dallas area in 2016, first crashing with friends and working at the School of Rock. He played open mics and open jams, got a Starbucks job and continued to practice every day, working to land gigs and form a band. He took more lessons, too.
"I was also working on my own music. In May of 2017, I finally got my first gig in Deep Ellum opening for Helion Prime at Renos Chop Shop. I had been sending them my stuff for a year and I was trying to make a name for myself, but no one would give me a chance," Norton recalled.
Though physically he wasn't feeling well at the time, he appreciated the reception there and felt he was finally getting started and gaining a reputation as a top Dallas-area guitarist.
"I've been kicked down quite a bit," Norton remembers. "It was nice to have a little validation." He landed another gig at Wits End, but around this time he also got the diagnosis: cancer. He could feel the effects up on stage.
It was tough, but he had to return home to work on his health. "I felt like a failure having to come back," he admits. "It's a hard pill to swallow."
But don't think for a minute he's going to give up. He's working to realize his dreams. "I still want to get my first record finished and I still have some studying to do, but I want to try and push the limits of my genre and take it further. I really want to try and outdo my heroes," Norton said. He'd like to teach and help those who've dealt with the same setbacks he's had.
Having survived tough times, he's driven. He recalls waiting around at places where he played to eat unfinished meals. As he puts it, this is just what you do, along with sleeping on couches and in your truck.
It's about how badly you want what you're pursuing, he said, noting many people don't put aside their pride to get there. He's learned to take what he doesn't need and leave it behind him; this keeps him focused.
"Stay hungry," Norton says, mindful of his sense of integrity. "Satisfaction is the death of anything great. I'd rather be hungry and happy than satisfied and miserable."