Joshua Stanton profile picture

Joshua Stanton

Classical sitarist, dobro vina inventor, producer

About Me


Deep Singh, Jagjeet Sroay, and Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton is one of Canada’s most dynamic contemporary sitarists. Having studied with legendary ImdadKhani Gharana Ustad Irshad Khan, the nation’s preëminent sitar mæstro, he is also a multi-instrumental recording artist & producer; a fine artist, designer, and filmmaker. Stanton’s Chaplinesque alter-ego, the skiffle-singing tramp Poor Andy, has become a fixture at many Winnipeg events.

Joshua’s invention, the dobro vina, realizes Indian classical guitar for the lead guitarist, being a fretted, upright instrument rather than a lap-slider. He has constantly refined his self-constructed prototype since its origins in 1993. More than just a guitar with sympathetic strings, dobro vina includes the defining features of all classical vinas -- distinct melody, bass, and rhythm strings. Capably rendering the gayaki-ang (vocal style) with its scalloped frets; with chikaris, jawari, and unwound bronze jod and larja strings in counterpulse -- yet fretted and plucked like an electric guitar -- the dobro vina presents a true common point for Indian and Western instruments.

For a closer look, please see MyPics "Dobro Vina" album


the Dobro Vina

Mr. Stanton has had a long and varied career on the Winnipeg music scene, having played as a guest-soloist with progressive favourites Skingerbreadman, the Hummers, and Querkus; collaborated with the klezmer ensemble Finjan, ghazal-vocalist / producer Sudhir Narain, the Mini Mariachi, and cellist Yuri Hooker; sampled for Sunil "Ishq" Bector, played the bass for Guyanese legend Devindra Pooran, scored short films including Shannon Ottarson’s The Keys (starring the inimitable Ryan Black) and performed as a member of the Ragpickers / Element Sircus collective. He, along with "vintage" icon Kristen Andrews and video-artist Bryan Besant, is a founding member of the film-group triOOMPH Productions.

Joshua has maintained an extensive creative relationship with kathak legend Usha Sharma and Manohar Performing Arts of Canada, one of the country’s premiere Indian classical dance troupes (with whom he appeared in Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World), recently art-directing & co-producing, along with filmmakers Ambient Empire Inc., their groundbreaking dance-film Jewels.


Aarti Pole in Manohar’s Jewels · scenic art by Joshua Stanton

He has performed and recorded with tabla virtuoso Sharmela Parboji and the enigmatic ghazal-vocalist A. P. Nandkishore, and is a founding member of MUST which features such instrumental luminaries as Jagjeet Sroay, Deep Singh, and the Chana brothers. Joshua has represented the classical instrumental tradition at Folklorama’s India Pavilion since 1995.

Stanton’s efforts at reviving the seminal but largely-forgotten genres of British skiffle music and the Chaplinesque have produced the soon-to-be-released album Poor Andy’s Dog & Pony Show and the one-take silent comedies Better Bunk and The Wedding Ball (featured at the 2008 Toronto Images Festival), eking a place for these lost arts in the 21st Century.


"Y’mean ME?!?" · Poor Andy in The Wedding Ball

Mr. Stanton remains among the last of the classically-trained pen-and-ink typographer / illustrators, and ranks among his achievments Heartland Associates’ Dancing Backwards and his countless posters, ads, and graphics for Ragpickers Antifashion Emporium.

For a closer look, please see MyPics "Artworks" album


Wolfgang Mozart for Heartland Associates

For biography, songs, portfolio, CD orders, and contact / booking information, please visit joshuastanton.com -- your EXCLUSIVE SOURCE for Joshua Stanton CDs. Songs are also available as Podcasts at iTunes!

Poor Andy has a MySpace-page! Please visit myspace.com/poorandysdogandponyshow for all your skiffle favourites.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/29/2007
Band Website: joshuastanton.com
Band Members:

While his records have occasionally featured guests, Joshua is both player and producer for his micro-label VoidHouse Productions.

Joshua’s performances fall into 3 categories:

· CLASSICAL RECITAL
As a soloist on sitar and dobro vina, Joshua is typically accompanied by Jagjeet Sroay or Aman Chana on the tabla and often features a distinguished guest on tanpura.

· POOR ANDY’s Dog & Pony Show, Joshua’s skiffle act, features stories, songs, and Poor Andy’s trademark wry irony -- a classic burlesque entertainment!
The Dog & Pony Show features Shawn "the Dude" Dudar on electric guitar, "Gypsy" Jill Winzoski on vocals, viola & tambourine, and "Jug" Sroay on the dholki.

· MUST, the fusion group, features many guests & associated players in an ever-shifting instrumental/turntabular experience.

Mr. Stanton is a member of triOOMPH Productions, a Winnipeg filmmakers’ association he co-founded with Kristen Andrews and Bryan Besant. triOOMPH’s films include Get Me to the Church on Time, The Kingdom of Sargeant Scott, Better Bunk, Concrete Chrysanthemum, In Loving Memory, and The Wedding Ball.


triOOMPH Productions w/ Thomas Karsnicki


Influences:

Music:


Ustad Irshad Khan

Jack Bruce, the Ustads Irshad, Imrat, and Vilayat Khan; Lonnie Donegan, Lead Belly, George Harrison & the Beatles, Max Steiner, Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison & the Doors, John Fogerty, Blue Rodeo, Ginger Baker, Philip Glass, Robert Motycka, Jim Steinman & Meat Loaf, Janis Joplin, the Rose, Eric Clapton, Ozi Chaput, George Clinton, Sowmya & Shyamala Dakshinamurti, Usha Sharma, Django Reinhardt, Buddy Guy, Little Richard, Ust. Alla Rakha, Frank Zappa, Iggy Pop, Spinal Tap, KISS, Blondie, Ian Kilmister, Cronos, Rod Stewart & Ron Wood, the Clash, Donovan, Jeff Beck, Stuart Adamson & Big Country, Voïvod, Ashwin Batish, the Buggles, ABBA, Rush

Ethic/Æsthetic:

Adi Shankara, Huang Po, Nanak, Gobind Singh, T. E. Lawrence, Jeremy Stanton, Kristen Andrews, Dr. Janice Ingimundson; William H. & Patricia Stanton, Barry Hunt, Ron Osthus; Leonardo da Vinci, Gustav Klimt, Hans Osted, N. C. Wyeth, Margot Apple; William Faulkner, Joseph Conrad, Douglas Adams, H. P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, George T. Stanton, Jules Verne, Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck, Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells, Camille Paglia, Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.; Woody Allen, Charles Chaplin, Merian C. Cooper, Willis O’Brien, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Clint Eastwood, Billy Wilder, Mel Brooks, Erich von Stroheim, Werner Herzog, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Val Lewton, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, John Huston, Ishiro Honda, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Bogdanovitch, Ray Harryhausen; Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lon Chaney, Sr.; Bette Davis, Bettie Page, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Andy Kaufmann, the immortal Lugosi, Kristen Scott-Thomas, Edward G. Robinson, Vina Fay Wray

Definitive:

KING KONG (1933) & Steiner score, Imrat Khan w/ Kumar Bose Live in Munich, 4th May 1964; Chaplin’s Limelight, Conrad’s Lord Jim, Faulkner’s Light in August, Allen’s Interiors & Broadway Danny Rose, Manohar’s La Bayadere (the Temple Dancer), Walter Huston in Sierra Madre, Bette Midler as the Rose


Record Label: VoidHouse Productions
Type of Label: Indie