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Skip James

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For the baseball player, see Skip James (baseball).

Skip James
The only known photograph of James in his youth
The only known photograph of James in his youth
Background information
Birth nameNehemiah Curtis James
Born(1902-06-09)June 9, 1902
Bentonia, Mississippi, United States
DiedOctober 3, 1969(1969-10-03) (aged 67)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
GenresDelta blues
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter, preacher
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active1931
1964–1969
LabelsParamount, Vanguard, Biograph, Adelphi, Document, Snapper Music Group, Universe, Body & Soul, Yazoo, Genes

Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9,[1] 1902 – October 3, 1969)[2] was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. He was born in Bentonia, Mississippi, and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He learned to play guitar from another bluesman from the area, Henry Stuckey. His guitar playing is noted for its dark, minor sound, played in an open D-minor tuning with an intricate fingerpicking technique. James first recorded for Paramount Records in 1931, but these recordings sold poorly, having been released during the Great Depression, and he drifted into obscurity. After a long absence from the public eye, James was "rediscovered" in 1964 by three blues enthusiasts, helping further the blues and folk music revival of the 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, James appeared at several folk and blues festivals, gave concerts around the country and recorded several albums for various record labels.

His songs have influenced several generations of musicians, having been adapted or covered by Kansas Joe McCoy, Robert Johnson, Alan Wilson, Cream, Deep Purple, Chris Thomas King, Alvin Youngblood Hart, the Derek Trucks Band, Beck, Big Sugar, Eric Clapton, John Martyn, Lucinda Williams and Rory Block. He has been hailed as "one of the seminal figures of the blues."[3]

Biography

Early years

James was born near Bentonia, Mississippi.[2] His father was a converted bootlegger turned preacher.[4] As a youth, James heard local musicians such as Henry Stuckey and brothers Charlie and Jesse Sims and began playing the organ in his teens. He worked on road construction and levee-building crews in his native Mississippi in the early 1920s and wrote what is perhaps his earliest song, "Illinois Blues", about his experiences as a laborer.

He began playing guitar in open D-minor tuning[5]

1920s and 1930s

In early 1931, James auditioned for record shop owner and talent scout H. C. Speir in Jackson, Mississippi. Speir placed blues performers with various record labels, including Paramount Records.[4] On the strength of this audition, James traveled to Grafton, Wisconsin, to record for Paramount.[4] James's 1931 work is considered idiosyncratic among pre-war blues recordings and formed the basis of his reputation as a musician.

As is typical of his era, James recorded a variety of material – blues, spirituals, cover versions and original compositions – frequently blurring the lines between genres and sources. For example, "I'm So Glad" was derived from a 1927 song, "So Tired", by Art Sizemore and George A. Little, recorded in 1928 by both Gene Austin and Lonnie Johnson (the latter under the title "I'm So Tired of Livin' All Alone"). Biographer Stephen Calt, echoing the opinion of several critics, considered the finished product totally original, "one of the most extraordinary examples of fingerpicking found in guitar music".[6]

Several of the Grafton recordings, such as "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues", "Devil Got My Woman", "Jesus Is a Mighty Good Leader", and "22-20 Blues" (the basis for Robert Johnson's better-known "32-20 Blues" and for the name for the English group 22-20s), have been similarly influential. Very few original copies of James's Paramount 78-RPM records have survived.

The Great Depression struck just as James's recordings were hitting the market. Sales were poor as a result, and James gave up performing the blues to become the choir director in his father's church.[4] James himself was later ordained as a minister in both the Baptist and Methodist denominations, but the extent of his involvement in religious activities is unknown.[4]

Disappearance, rediscovery, and legacy

For the next thirty years, James recorded nothing and drifted in and out of music. He was virtually unknown to listeners until about 1960. In 1964 blues enthusiasts John Fahey, Bill Barth, and Henry Vestine found him in a hospital in Tunica, Mississippi. According to Calt, the "rediscovery" of both James and of Son House at virtually the same moment was the start of the blues revival in the US.[6] In July 1964 James, along with other rediscovered performers, appeared at the Newport Folk Festival.[4] Several photographs by blues promoter Dick Waterman captured this performance, James's first in over 30 years. Throughout the remainder of the decade, he recorded for Takoma Records, Melodeon Records, and Vanguard Records and played various engagements, until his death in 1969.[4][7]

Since his death, James's music has become more available than during his lifetime. His 1931 recordings and several rediscovery recordings and concerts have been reissued on numerous compact discs, in and out of print.

James was not initially covered as frequently as other rediscovered musicians. The British rock band Cream recorded "I'm So Glad"[3] (a studio version and a live version), providing James with the only windfall of his career.[2] Deep Purple also covered "I'm So Glad," on Shades of Deep Purple. John Martyn covered "Devil Got My Woman", retitled "I'd Rather Be the Devil", on his album Solid Air and played it live throughout his career. The English blues rock band 22-20s was named after "22-20 Blues."[8] His influence is still felt among contemporary bluesmen. Gregg Allman recorded "Devil Got My Woman" on his 2011 album Low Country Blues.

The British post-rock band Hope of the States released a song partially about the life of James entitled "Nehemiah", which reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart.[9] "He's a Mighty Good Leader" was also covered by Beck on his 1994 album One Foot in the Grave.

James also left a mark on Hollywood. Chris Thomas King's cover of "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" was used in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and the 1931 "Devil Got My Woman" was featured in the plot and soundtrack of Ghost World.

In 2004, Wim Wenders directed the film The Soul of a Man (the second part of The Blues, a series produced by Martin Scorsese), focusing on the music of Blind Willie Johnson, J.B. Lenoir and Skip James.[10] James was not filmed before the 1960s. Keith B. Brown played the part of the young James iin the documentary. Wenders used many songs from James, some performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Beck, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, James 'Blood' Ulmer, T-Bone Burnett, Eagle Eye Cherry, Shemekia Copeland, Garland Jeffreys, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Los Lobos, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, Marc Ribot, Lucinda Williams, and Cassandra Wilson.[11]

In 2016, scenarist Maël Rannou and cartoonist Jean Bourguignon published the first graphic novel dedicated to Skip James (Paris,BDMusic, coll. BDBlues).

Personality

James was known to be aloof and moody.[12] "Skip James, you never knew. Skip could be sunshine, or thunder and lightning depending on his whim of the moment," commented Dick Spottswood.[12]

Musical style

James as guitarist

James often played guitar with an open D-minor tuning (D-A-D-F-A-D), resulting in the "deep" sound of the 1931 recordings. He purportedly learned this tuning from his musical mentor, the unrecorded bluesman Henry Stuckey. [citation needed] Stuckey in turn was said to have acquired it from Bahamian soldiers during the First World War,[citation needed] despite the fact that his service card shows he didn't serve overseas. Robert Johnson also recorded in this tuning, his "Hell Hound on My Trail" being based on James' "Devil Got My Woman."[2] James's classically informed finger-picking style was fast and clean, using the entire register of the guitar with heavy, hypnotic bass lines.[citation needed] His style of playing had more in common with the Piedmont blues of the East Coast than with the Delta blues of his native Mississippi.[citation needed]

The "Bentonia School"

James is sometimes associated with the Bentonia School, which is either a subgenre of blues music or a style of playing it.[2] Calt, in his 1994 biography of James, I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues, maintained that no style of blues originated in Bentonia and that the "Bentonia School" is simply a notion of later blues writers who overestimated the provinciality of Mississippi during the early 20th century, when railways linked small towns, and who failed to see that in the case of Jack Owens, "the 'tradition' he bore primarily consisted of musical scraps from James' table". Owens and other musicians who may have been contemporaries of James were not recorded until the 1960s revival of interest in blues music. Whether the work of these musicians constituted a "school" and whether James originated it or was a member of it remain open questions.[2]

Discography

Paramount 78s: 1931

A-side B-side
"Cherry Ball Blues" "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"
"22-20 Blues" "If You Haven't Any Hay Get on Down the Road"
"Illinois Blues" "Yola My Blues Away"
"How Long 'Buck'" "Little Cow and Calf Is Gonna Die Blues"
"Devil Got My Woman" "Cypress Grove Blues"
"I'm So Glad" "Special Rider Blues"
"Four O'Clock Blues" "Hard Luck Child"
"Jesus Is a Mighty Good Leader" "Be Ready When He Comes"
"Drunken Spree" "What Am I to Do"

Rediscovery: 1964–1969

Despite poor health, James recorded several LPs from 1964 to 1969, mostly revisiting his 1931 sides, traditional music, and spirituals, but also including a handful of newly written blues meditating on his illness and convalescence. These five prolific years have not been thoroughly documented: recordings, outtakes, and interviews not released on James's LPs (which have been repeatedly cannibalized and reissued) are scattered among many compilations released by small labels. Previously unreleased performances continue to be found and released but have been left largely unexplained—sometimes hours' worth at a time. Original recordings and reissues are listed below.

  • Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers (Melodeon, Biograph, 1964)
  • She Lyin' Adelphi, 1964 (first released by Genes, 1996)
  • Today! (Vanguard, 1966)
  • Devil Got My Woman (Vanguard, 1968)
  • I'm So Glad (Vanguard, 1978)
  • Live: Boston, 1964 & Philadelphia, 1966 (Document, 1994)
  • Skip's Piano Blues, 1964 (Genes, 1998)
  • Blues from the Delta, with two previously unreleased recordings (Vanguard, 1998)
  • The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James – 1930 (Yazoo 2009, 1994)
  • The Complete Bloomington, Indiana Concert – March 30, 1968 (Document, 1999)
  • Skip's Guitar Blues, 1964(?), (Genes, 1999)
  • Studio Sessions: Rare and Unreleased, 1967 (Vanguard, 2003)
  • Hard Time Killing Floor Blues (Biograph DK 30169, 2003†)
  • Heroes of the Blues: The Very Best of Skip James (Shout!, 2003)
  • Hard Time (Universe, 2003†)
  • Cypress Grove Blues (2004)
  • Hard Time Killin' Floor (Yazoo 2075, 2005)

References

  1. ^ "RootsWeb: Database Index". Ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cub Koda. "Skip James | Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "TELEVISION; 'Blues' out of rhythm; Infinitely rich subject matter suffers from a lack of a thematic line in the hands of seven directors – though Wim Wenders gets it right". Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. September 28, 2003. Retrieved December 30, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 123. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  5. ^ Calt, Stephen (2008). I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 88. ISBN 9781569769980. The product of this desire, he said, was his basic guitar tuning, open D minor...
  6. ^ a b Calt, Stephen (1994). I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80579-0.
  7. ^ Doc Rock. "The 1960s". The Dead Rock Stars Club. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
  8. ^ [1][dead link]
  9. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records. p. 259. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  10. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Soul of a Man". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  11. ^ "The Soul of a Man". IMDb.com. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Dahl, Bill. Liner notes to D.C. Blues: The Library of Congress Recordings, Vol. 1. Fuel 2000 Records, CD, 1997.
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