Skip James | Artist

Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, born 1902 in Bentonia, Mississippi. He was noted for his haunting falsetto vocals and guitar playing with a dark minor-key sound, played in an open D-minor tuning with an intricate fingerpicking technique. James' father was a bootlegger who reformed and became a preacher. As a youth, James began playing the organ in his teens and learned to play the guitar. He worked on road construction and levee-building crews in Mississippi in the early 1920s and wrote his earliest song, "Illinois Blues", about his experiences as a labourer. James made some early recordings but gave up music as a result of The Great Depression and became the choir director in his father's church. For the next thirty years, James recorded nothing and performed sporadically. 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. The "rediscovery" of both James and Son House at virtually the same time is believed by many to be the start of the blues revival in the United States. The British band Cream recorded James' song "I'm So Glad", providing James with $10,000 in royalties, the only windfall of his career. Standout albums include The Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers (1965), Today! (1966) and Devil Got My Woman (1968). The 1968 collection of his early recordings King of the Delta Blues Singers: Early Blues Recordings-1931, is also highly recommended.

Artist Website: wikipedia/Skip_James

Featured Albums: Skip James

Related Artists: Son House, Bukka White, Jimmy Duck Holmes

Video Clips: Hard Time Killin Floor Blues, 1966 Newport Folk Festival, All Night Long