Skip James

Skip James
The only photograph of James in his youth.
Background information
Birth name	Nehemiah Curtis James
Born	June 9, 1902(1902-06-09) Bentonia, Mississippi, United States
Died	October 3, 1969(1969-10-03) (aged 67) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres	Delta blues
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, preacher
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1931 1964–1969
Labels	Paramount, 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, born in Bentonia, Mississippi, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He first 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 due to 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 60s. During this period, James appeared at several folk and blues festivals and gave live concerts around the county, also recording several albums for various record labels.

His songs have influenced several generations of musicians, being adapted by Kansas Joe McCoy, Robert Johnson, Cream, Deep Purple, Chris Thomas King, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Beck, Big Sugar, and Rory Block.

Biography

Early years

James was born near Bentonia, Mississippi.^[2] His father was a converted bootlegger turned preacher.^[3] 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.

Later in the '20s he sharecropped and made bootleg whiskey in the Bentonia area. He began playing guitar in open D-minor tuning and developed the three-finger picking technique heard in his recordings. In addition, he began to practice piano-playing, drawing inspiration from the Mississippi blues pianist Little Brother Montgomery.

1920s and 1930s

In early 1931, James auditioned for Jackson, Mississippi record shop owner and talent scout H. C. Speir, who placed blues performers with a variety of record labels including Paramount Records.^[3] On the strength of this audition, James traveled to Grafton, Wisconsin to record for Paramount.^[3] 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 and 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 by Art Sizemore and George A. Little entitled "So Tired", which had been 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".^[4]

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 the band name for the English group 22-20s), have proven similarly influential. Very few original copies of James's Paramount 78 RPMs have survived.

The Great Depression struck just as James' 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.^[3] 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.^[3]

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.^[4] In July 1964 James, along with other rediscovered performers, appeared at the Newport Folk Festival.^[3] Several photographs by Dick Waterman captured this first performance in over 30 years. Throughout the remainder of the decade, he recorded for the Takoma, Melodeon, and Vanguard labels and played various engagements until his death in Philadelphia from cancer in 1969.^[3][5]

Although James was not initially covered as frequently as other rediscovered musicians, the British rock band, Cream, recorded two versions of "I'm So Glad" (a studio version and a live version), providing James with the only windfall of his career.^[2] Despite the band's well-known musicianship, Cream based their version on James's simplified 1960s recording, instead of the faster, more intricate 1931 original. Deep Purple covered "I'm So Glad" on their first album, Shades of Deep Purple. English blues rock band 22-20s (initially active between 2002 and 2005 and reformed in 2008) named themselves after "22-20 Blues".^[6] Singer Dion DiMucci released an album in November 2007 titled Son of Skip James.

Since his death, James's music has become more available and prevalent than during his lifetime — his 1931 recordings, along with several rediscovery recordings and concerts, have found their way on to numerous compact discs, drifting in and out of print. His influence is still felt among contemporary bluesmen.^{[citation needed]} James also left a mark on Hollywood, as well, with Chris Thomas King's cover of "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and the 1931 "Devil Got My Woman" featured in the plot and soundtrack of Ghost World. In recent times, British post-rock band Hope of the States released a song partially focused on the life of Skip James entitled "Nehemiah", which charted at number 30 in the UK Singles Chart.^[7] "He's a Mighty Good Leader" was also covered by Beck on his 1994 album One Foot in the Grave.

Personality

James was known to be an aloof and moody person.^[8] "Skip James, you never knew. Skip could be sunshine, or thunder and lightning depending on his whim of the moment" commented Dick Spottswood on James's personality.^[8] He seldom socialized with other bluesmen and fans.^{[citation needed]} Like John Fahey, James loathed the so-called "folkie" scene of the 1960s.^{[citation needed]} He held a high regard for his own work and was reluctant to share musical ideas with other performers.^{[citation needed]} Though the lyrical content of some of his songs led to the characterization of James as a misogynist, he remained with his wife Lorenzo (niece of Mississippi John Hurt) until his death. He is buried with his wife at a private cemetery (Merion Memorial Park) just outside of Philadelphia in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Musical style

James as guitarist

James often played his guitar with an open D-minor tuning (DADFAD), resulting in the "deep" sound of the 1931 recordings. James 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 Bahamanian 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' classically-informed, finger-picking style was fast and clean, using the entire register of the guitar with heavy, hypnotic bass lines.^{[citation needed]} James' 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 sub-genre of blues music or a style of playing it. Calt, in his 1994 biography of James, I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues, maintains that there was indeed no style of blues that originated in Bentonia, and that this 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 60s revival period. As such, the extent to which the work of said musicians is indicative of any "school", and whether James originated it or was simply a "member", remains an open question.

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

James, despite poor health, recorded several LPs worth of music, mostly revisiting his 1931 sides, traditional music, and spirituals; but along with these, he sang a handful of newly-penned blues meditating on his illness and convalescence. Unfortunately, these five prolific years have not been thoroughly documented: recordings, outtakes, and interviews not released on James's few proper LPs (which, themselves, have been endlessly cannibalized and reissued) are scattered among many small label compilations. Previously unreleased performances continue to be found, released, and left largely unexplained — sometimes hours' worth at a time. CD releases comprising entirely previously available material are denoted below.

• Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers Melodeon, Biograph, 1964
• She Lyin' Adelphi, 1964 (first released: 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 Vanguard, 1998 (two unreleased recordings)
• 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, 2003†
• Heroes of the Blues: The Very Best of Skip James Shout!, 2003
• Hard Time Universe, 2003†

References

1. ^ Social Security Death Index
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "Biography by Cub Koda". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p389. Retrieved May 30, 2009. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. pp. 123. ISBN 1-85868-255-X. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Calt, Stephen (1994). I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the blues. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-3068-0579-0. 
5. ^ Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed December 2009
6. ^ rock-city.co.uk
7. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 259. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Dahl, Bill. Liner notes to D. C. Blues: The Library of Congress Recordings, Vol. 1. Fuel 2000 Records, CD, 1997

External links

• Illustrated Skip James discography
• Interview with Skip James' surviving cousin
• bentoniablues.com – Mission Statement: “Anything Bentonia Blues.” To foster communication among those who love and appreciate the Bentonia School of Delta Blues.
• A biography by Roi Geyari, a fan from Israel
• Can't Find No Heaven: The Mysteries of Skip James by Matt R. Lohr, a speculative study of Skip James' personality
• Works by or about Skip James in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Persondata
Name	James, Skip
Alternative names	James, Nehemiah Curtis
Short description	American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter
Date of birth	June 9, 1902
Place of birth	Bentonia, Mississippi, United States
Date of death	October 3, 1969
Place of death	>Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States