The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James (CD - 1994)

Personnel includes: Skip James (vocals, guitar, piano).

Includes liner notes by Steve Calt.

Personnel: Skip James (vocals, guitar, piano).

Recording information: 02/1931.

THE COMPLETE EARLY RECORDINGS by Skip James is one of the most essential blues albums in existence. With a voice that sounds like wind carving away rock (he sings in a high, quavering falsetto ringed with knowledge and pain), James laid down some of the most chilling acoustic blues ever set to wax.

"Devil Got My Woman," which opens this collection, is a case in point: a snaking siren song that leads down to the root of loss and mortal dread (if that description sounds like an exaggeration, listen to the track). James's deft, fingerpicking is everywhere in evidence, especially on the uncharacteristically ebullient "I'm So Glad." The surface noise of these old 78s is a distraction, but even that can't dilute the unbelievable power of these performances.

Document's Complete Recorded Works (1931) collects the 18 Skip James performances known to exist from his Paramount recordings of 1931, including career highlights like "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues," "I'm So Glad," and "Devil Got My Woman." Though it's been supplanted by compilations with better notes and emphasis on archival sound quality (including Yazoo's Complete Early Recordings), it's still an excellent collection of performances by one of the best blues artists of all time. ~ Thom Owens

With his high, eerie falsetto and haunting guitar tunings, Skip James sounds like no other country blues player. Although his lyrics were generally drawn from the floating bag of clichés that showed up in countless blues songs, his atmospheric recordings, done in 1931 for Paramount, gave James' songs the appearance of poignancy, and his sad, lonely vocal style made them all seem heartfelt. When he was rediscovered in the mid-'60s, his skills were still intact, and he made several solid recordings for Vanguard and other labels, but his reputation really rests on the 18 tracks from the 1930s presented here. "Devil Got My Woman," "Cypress Grove Blues," and "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" are all one of a kind classics, as are "I'm So Glad" (later covered by Cream) and "Illinois Blues," both of which contain kinetic acoustic guitar breaks that simply explode out of the verses. James was also a pretty interesting piano player, and his playing on "If You Haven't Any Hay Get on Down the Road" sounds again like no other country blues pianist. This collection duplicates what is found on both the Document and Yazoo releases, and it matters little which one you pick up. All three come from the same sources, and all have the same amount of snaps, cracks, and hailstone hiss in all the same places. Don't let that stop you, though, because these are beautiful and maverick performances, and essential for a good blues collection. ~ Steve Leggett

The Complete Early Recordings CD showcases a true guitar virtuoso who was no slouch on the piano either. His break on "Illinois Blues" is almost off-putting in the nonchalance with which he twists the notes around, and "How Long 'Buck'" features him giving forth some funky piano in an almost playful manner. This is a remastered edition of an earlier Yazoo collection, and features the same 18 songs that appeared on Document's Complete Recorded Works, but the sound quality is still a problem at times. High-quality sources for "What Am I to Do Blues," "4 O'Clock Blues," and several other of the numbers here are simply not known to exist, but these are the best-known editions of the songs until better 78 discs happen to turn up (if ever). Regardless of the surface noise, it is a delight listening to James' rippling guitar run on "4 O'Clock Blues" or his piano improvising (and improvising the percussion by pounding away with his feet) on "20-20 Blues." And his fiercely intense original rendition of "I'm So Glad" makes the repopularized version by Eric Clapton and Cream from the 1960s seem like easygoing pop. Actually, James' vocals tend to suffer under the weight of the surface defects far more than his playing -- the source discs distort on high-volume passages, which mostly occurs with his singing rather than his playing. Therefore, fans of blues guitar or piano need have no hesitation in picking this disc up. The Complete Early Recordings ought to be heard by anyone who claims an interest in the blues. ~ Bruce Eder minimize