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Rating: Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was born in 1902 near Bentonia, Mississippi. In 1931, after auditioning for the label Paramount Records, which he won, he took a train to Grafton, Wisconsin, to record his first songs. Upon arriving at the recording studio, actually the attic of a chair factory, he saw that there was also a piano and in the following days decided to use it instead of the guitar in some tracks (he had learned to play it as a child, as well as the organ).
In these recordings, you can hear "Skip's" unique style, which, unlike his place of origin, is closer to the east coast blues rather than the delta, starting with the use of fingerpicking and the combination and fusion of genres such as spiritual, country, and folk blues.
His guitar is always in a minor key, in order to emphasize the sadness that lingers in most of his songs, particularly in the way he uses chords and bass lines, arpeggiating very quickly thanks to the use of three fingers. He often uses his voice in falsetto to give a special fragility and gloom to his interpretations and to underscore the drama of his six-string and the lyrics, all these peculiarities make "Skip" a unique bluesman for his time.
All 18 recordings from those February days in Grafton are collected in this ""Special Rider Blues - Early Recordings 1931"" (the remastering is excellent). The CD opens with the classic ""Cypress Grove Blues"", leaving aside the misogynistic lyrics, one gets caught up in the so dramatic and spectral musical atmosphere.
Whereas in ""If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down The Road"", which sees "Skip" at the piano, it has a completely different mood, the rhythm is irresistible and contagious, also underlined by his unrestrained foot stomping.
Another classic is the splendid and truly dark ""Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues"", a song where the guitar arpeggiates in a deliberately essential manner to highlight the emotionality of James' voice singing with great expressive intensity about the depression that hit America in the '30s.
Another sexist lyric is that of ""Devil Got My Woman"", here James makes everything really unsettling thanks to his disdainful falsetto and a surprising rhythmic approach on the guitar, moreover this song influenced Robert Johnson for his ""Hell Hound On My Trail"" and also ""22-20 Blues"", one of the songs where James is seated at the piano, which will later be covered by Johnson himself becoming ""32-20 Blues".
The only song that achieved great fame with James still alive, thanks to the beautiful cover by Cream, is ""I'm So Glad"", which in turn was a completely overhauled reinterpretation of a '27 track called ""So Tired"", James turns it into a high-level piece, where the guitar line seems to trace a different trajectory from the singing thus giving the song a completely unique atmosphere.
In ""Jesus Is A Mighty Good Leader"", you can hear a sort of crossover between the voice, which belongs to the spirituals tradition, and the guitar which is instead strongly anchored to rural blues.
""How Long Buck"", again on the piano, is bright, and it seems he uses the 88-key instrument to give a lighter interpretative touch compared to the pieces played with guitar.
Other tracks I particularly love are his first written song ""Illinois Blues"" and the classic ""Special Rider Blues".
When he completed these seminal blues recordings, "Skip" was paid a pittance, but he was nevertheless thrilled, thinking that a career as a professional musician was finally on the horizon, yet the Great Depression did not spare the recording world, and James disappeared from the music scene, only to return in splendid form in the '60s, but that's another story.
Tracklist and Lyrics
14 Devil Got My Woman (03:05)
Must have been the devil, believe that woman has gone mad
Must have been the devil, believe that woman has gone mad
Nothin' but the devil change my baby's mind
Nothin' but the devil change my baby's mind
Laid there last night, laid there last night, tried to take my rest
My mind got to ramblin' like wild geese from the west
Must have been the devil, believe that woman has gone mad
Must have been the devil, believe that woman has gone mad
Woman I love, woman I love took off with my best friend
Woman I love took off with my best friend
15 I'm So Glad (02:55)
Note: hyphen= word/words unsung
Eee, an I'm so glad
Yes sir, I'm glad
Until I just don't know
What to do
An I am tired a-weeping
I'm so tired a-moanin'
I'm so tired of groanin' for you
(guitar)
Eee, an I am so -
Yes, I am mighty glad
Until I just don't know what -
Would you be my little darlin'?
Would you be my dear?
Would you be my darlin'
Be my dear?
Then I would be mighty -
I would be mighty glad
Then I just wouldn't know
What to do
When I say, 'Coo-coo-coo'
Just like a little baby, do
I would love to have
A lovely kiss from you
Then I would be mighty -
Then I would be so -
Until I just wouldn't know -
You know, I'm tired a-weeping
I'm so tired of a-moanin'
I'm so tired of groanin' for you
(guitar)
Eee, an I am so glad
Yes, I'm so glad
Until I just don't know
What to do-ooo-woo-ooo-ooo.
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