First thing that you recognise is James' falsetto singing. The high-pitched vocals give his songs an eerie, almot otherwordly athmosphere, while his lyrics mix the often heard blues cliches of bad luck and broken hearts with autobiographical tales of his illness. But he can also be playful, as proved by the famous "I'm So Glad".
Wikipedia describes his guitar playing aptly: "James often played his guitar with an open D-minor tuning (D-A-D-F-A-D) ... Robert Johnson also recorded in this tuning, his "Hell Hound On My Trail" being based on James' "Devil Got My Woman." James' classically-informed, finger-picking style was fast and clean, using the entire register of the guitar with heavy, hypnotic bass lines. 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."
A few songs are played on piano. His technique on the ivories may not be as intricate as on the strings, but his style of playing is just as idiosyncratic. It seems James chose the piano for the livelier tunes. As such they serve as a welcome change of pace in an album full of slow guitar-led tunes.
James recorded some material in 1931 but the records sold poorly and original copies have become extremely rare nowadays. Fortunately some blues enthusiasts (John Fahey among them) found James in a hospital in 1964 and arranged for him to appear on the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. James had only five more years to live but recorded several albums for different labels.
Today, recorded for Vanguard, is generally considered one of the strongest sets James did. Since much of his material has been re-issued and re-packed many times, often without any discographical information, Today is also one of the few cohesive albums available from James.
Skip James: Today!
Vanguard VSD 79219
US, 1965
A1 Hard Times Killing Floor Blues 3:21
A2 Crow Jane 2:57
A3 Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues 4:10
A4 Special Rider Blues 5:08
A5 Drunken Spree 2:47
A6 Cherryball 4:24
B1 How Long (Leroy Carr) 2:55
B2 All Night Long 5:00
B3 Cypress Grove 4:18
B4 Look Down The Road 3:14
B5 My Gal 6:05
B6 I'm So Glad 1:54
All tracks written by Skip James except as indicated.
Skip James (voc, g, p) Russ Savakus (b on B1)
4 comments:
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I have this one in FLAC already but it is a really unique and memorable album. I can see where some might be put off a tad by those high vocals but that's part of what makes this album unforgettable. His guitar playing is quite good too and he has that innate sense of how to give a song a proper presentation that feels authoritative.
Thanks LPR
I had the vinyl way back - So great to hear this again - Still sounds as good to me - And your usual high quality rip
Cheers
It was the falsetto singing that draw me in when i heard this the first time.
But yes, it may put of some people.
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