Skip James

Nehemiah Curtis " Skip" James ( born June 21, 1902 in Yazoo City, Mississippi, † October 3, 1969 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ) was an American blues musician.

Nehemiah Curtis James grew up on the Woodbine plantation to near Bentonia. As a child, he was nicknamed " Skippy ," which was to " Skip" shortened only on the occasion of his first recordings in 1931. He first studied piano and organ in the Sunday School, and later guitar with Henry Stuckey, whom he later stated as an important influence on his music. By 1918 he began in Memphis (Tennessee ) to work as a musician.

In 1931, he took for Paramount ( according to his own memory ) to 26 pieces, of which only 18 were published.

With the economic crisis ended his musical career. In 1932 he became a Baptist lay preacher.

During the folk revival he is in 1964 by John Fahey, Bill Barth (later one of the founders of The Insect Trust) and Henry Vestine been (later member of the band Canned Heat ) "rediscovered" in Tunica County Hospital ( Mississippi) and entered in the same year with Mississippi John Hurt on at the Newport Folk Festival. It was followed by numerous concerts and several LPs with new recordings and compilations of his pre-war recordings.

Skip James died in 1969 from cancer.

Standout style means was his unusual falsetto voice and delicate fingerpicking. He used various open tunings ( E minor, D minor, A- flat major ) and thus achieved extraordinary timbres.

The best known are probably his pieces I'm so glad that was in the version of Cream to hit and the Hard Time Killin ' Floor Blues, who in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? the Coen brothers Chris Thomas King was presented. Other cover versions recorded, among others, Johnny Winter.

In the documentary Soul of a man by Wim Wenders, James was one of the three musicians portrayed personalities (next to JB Lenoir and Blind Willie Johnson).

A key role is played by James Devil Got My Woman in the film Ghost World by Terry Zwigoff.

Plates ( selection)

New admissions

• Greatest Of The Delta Blues Singers ( Melodeon, 1964)
• A Tribute To Skip James - Volume One ( Biograph, 1964)
• Today! ( Vanguard, 1966)
• Devil Got My Woman ( Vanguard, 1968)

Reissues the 1931er Session

• King Of The Delta Blues Singers ( Biograph, 1968)
• The Complete 1931 Session ( Yazoo, 1986)

Sources and References

• Stephen Calt: I'd Rather be the Devil - Skip James The Blues - Da Capo Press, New York 1994.

• Blues musicians
• Baptist minister ( 20th century)
• Blues Hall of Fame
• American musician
• Born in 1902
• Died in 1969
• Man