Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James (1902-1969). His personality and beliefs were as intricate and complex as his superb guitar-playing. While many sharecroppers were illiterate, James graduated from high school. He worked in the 20s as a laborer building roads and levees and wrote his first song, “Illinois Blues” about his experiences. He later became a sharecropper on the Woodbine Plantation in the Bentonia area of Mississippi where he excelled at bootlegging. All the tenant farmers at Woodbine agreed that James made the best moonshine they had ever consumed. Bluesmen were a varied lot in personality—some were very friendly and others very hostile. James, while not precisely hostile, had a caustic personality. He griped a lot about everything and took no real pleasure in much besides seeing the bad side of things. Once while riding in a car past a marriage, James laughed bitterly and said, “Let’s see how happy they are when they get divorced in two years.” He once ran a blues school but referred to his students as “a bunch of dummies” and said, “They didn’t learn nothin’ cuz I didn’t want ‘em to!” While James is known for his innovative, complex guitar work, the organ was his first instrument (his father was a clergyman), took up guitar at 8 and he later taught himself piano.
He was discovered by H. C. Speir who signed him to Paramount and sent him to Grafton, Wisconsin to record. Unfortunately for James, the Depression hit and his records didn’t sell. No doubt this left him embittered. He was aloof and didn’t hang with many other bluesmen except for Mississippi John Hurt whose niece he married. Although called a misogynist because he stated he had little use for women beyond sex, James remained married to her for life. He was re-discovered in 1964 virtually at the same time as Son House and this is what kicked off the blues revival although James, now in chronic ill health, detested the folk scene and thought his new audience was just a bunch of empty-headed idiots who’d clap for anything. His song “I’m So Glad” was covered by Cream. Clapton’s guitar is far less complex than James’s 1931 version. When James heard Cream’s version, he laughed at it and said he knew that it would never measure up to his. Typical of James, his version of “I’m So Glad” was based on an older song called “I’m So Tired (of Living Alone)” done by Gene Austin and turned it into a man who was glad to be living alone because he was sick to death of that wretched woman and her ways—glad she’s gone and don’t come back. Speir said James went on a religious bender and refused to play blues anymore. Speir thought that Charlie Patton was the best singer he ever recorded but stated, “But you know James, Skippy James, was real tough. Catch Skippy on the right day—the right day, mind you—and he was as good as Patton…” an odd comparison since James sang in a mournful falsetto and Patton bellowed as gruff as an enraged bear. Skip James lived in a house in Philadelphia bought for him by Eric Clapton and died there of cancer in 1969 but has become a cult figure since that time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byZXD-AHg3g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SgS6OZZ_KU
Skip James on piano. Maria Muldaur covered this one.