Skip James: Im So Glad

Nehemiah Curtis James was born near Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1902. James was raised just south of the Mississippi Delta near Bentonia, on the Whitehead plantation, where his mother was the plantation cook. James’s friends named him “Skippy” due to his peculiar style of dancing. Skip’s father, a guitar-playing bootlegger, abandoned his family when Skip was a young boy. 

In 1931, after years of work as a labourer, bootlegger, and sometimes musician, James entered a singing competition at a store in Jackson, Mississippi. James had just begun to play his song, “Devil Got My Woman,” when he was awarded the prize—a train ticket to Grafton, Wisconsin, and a recording session with Paramount Records. 

Paramount was famous for the poor quality of its recordings, and sadly, many fine performances were poorly recorded by the label, including those by James. James recorded several songs with guitar during his first session, and eight piano songs during the second session. James recalls recording 26 sides in all, though only 18 have been found. Among the classic recordings he made at those sessions were “Devil Got My Woman,” “I’m So Glad,” “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” “22-20 Blues,” and “Special Rider Blues.” 

James was only paid 40 dollars for his efforts, and as the recordings were made during the height of the depression, only a few sides were ever released. Disillusioned with the music business, James quit and turned to religion. Little is known about his life during the 33 years between his Paramount recordings and his rediscovery in the mid-Sixties. 

James played his first show in 33 years at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. His performance was a brilliant one and it seemed that his powers were still completely intact despite his long layoff. Many believed that James' performance at the festival topped all others. 

Despite his huge popularity at Newport, James did not have a recording deal. When Cream recorded “I'm So Glad” on their Fresh Cream album, James, now ailing, used his royalties to get into a good hospital in Washington, DC, where he could have the surgery that extended his life by three years. 

Essential Album Review: Today! (1966)

Released two years after his triumphant rediscovery, "Today!" remains a towering achievement in the 1960s folk-blues revival era. Recorded under crystal-clear studio conditions, this LP allowed modern high-fidelity equipment to fully capture the haunting, ethereal beauty of James's complex D-minor cross-tuning guitar style and his chilling, piercing falsetto vocals. The record features definitive, mature reinterpretations of his bleak 1931 catalog alongside sweeping, spiritual performances. It stands as a vital masterpiece, showcasing an uncompromised master delivering rural acoustic blues with absolute authority to a new generation of listeners. 

• Released: 1966 
• Label: Vanguard Records 
• Producer: Maynard Solomon 
• Core Layout: Skip James (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano) 
• Key Tracks: "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues", "Cherry Ball Blues", "Special Rider Blues" 

Essential Album Review: Devil Got My Woman (1968)

Serving as his final complete studio album statement before his passing, the 1968 release "Devil Got My Woman" cements his legacy as an irreplaceable titan of the Bentonia blues tradition. This tracking captures James exploring an intense, intensely somber emotional space, backed by his masterful, intricate fingerpicking patterns and precise, rhythmic piano work. The title track, beautifully re-recorded here, possesses a stark, spine-chilling power that remains unmatched in acoustic media. It is an essential, deeply reverent document of an artist looking back across decades of hardship with stark, poetic clarity. 

• Released: 1968 
• Label: Vanguard Records 
• Producer: Vanguard Studios 
• Core Layout: Skip James (Solo Acoustic Performance) 
• Key Tracks: "Devil Got My Woman", "Sickbed Blues", "Lorenzo Blues" 

Essential Archural Collection: Complete 1931 Paramount Recordings

To fully comprehend how radically advanced James's style was compared to his contemporaries, his historic 1931 Paramount sessions are essential audio textbook items. While the original shellac pressings suffered heavily from the label's notoriously cheap, scratchy surface textures, modern digital restorations reveal a hauntingly brilliant architectural blueprint of acoustic blues. His technical speed on "I'm So Glad" and the distinct boogie-woogie structural foundation of "22-20 Blues" (which later inspired Robert Johnson's "32-20 Blues") remain foundational pillars of 20th-century American music theory. 

• Recording Era: February 1931 
• Label: Paramount Records (Grafton, WI) 
• Producer: Arthur Laibly 
• Key Historical Tracks: "Devil Got My Woman", "I'm So Glad", "22-20 Blues" 

James died in 1969 in Philadelphia, leaving behind an immortal musical legacy. 

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Booker T and the M.G.’s: Green Onions

Booker T and the M.G.’s was the house band for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and as such they appeared on virtually every single that Stax released during its heyday in the Sixties and early Seventies. The band can be heard backing Stax’s star vocalists on recordings by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas and others. 

As one of the most influential instrumental ensembles in American music, Booker T. and the M.G.’s pioneered the sparse, groove-heavy blueprint of the Southern soul sound. Operating out of the legendary Satellite studio in Memphis, this trailblazing, racially integrated quartet defined an era of cross-cultural musical collaboration during a time of intense social civil rights struggles. Their signature blend of interlocking rhythm patterns, driving bass lines, and piercing organ melodies became an indelible hallmark of twentieth-century popular culture. 

The band consisted of Booker T. Jones on organ/piano, Steve Cropper on guitar, Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass, and Al Jackson on drums. This versatile and talented ensemble was equally comfortable providing accompaniment for blues or ballads, rock, or R&B. In addition to providing Stax singers with a backing band, they released instrumental singles under their own name, including “Groovin,” Hip Hug Her,” “Time is Tight,” and their biggest hit, “Green Onions.” 

With the addition of the Memphis horns, the band also recorded instrumental tracks as the “Mar-Keys.” 

In the early eighties, the surviving members of the band, Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn, were members of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s Blues Brothers band and were featured in the movie “The Blues Brothers.” They returned with Ackroyd in “Blues Brothers 2000.” 

The band recorded several fine studio albums in the Sixties, including "Green Onions" (1962), "Soul Dressing" (1965), and "Hip Hug Her" (1967), but "The Best of Booker T and the M.G.'s" (1968) may be all you require. 

Essential Album Review: Green Onions (1962) 

This sensational debut studio album stands as a definitive cornerstone of instrumental rhythm and blues. Built around the spontaneous genius of its title track, the record perfectly showcases the band's tight, minimalist approach to rhythm. Jones’s Hammond M-3 organ work provides a swirling, gritty texture that pairs seamlessly with Cropper's sharp, economic guitar stabs. It remains a timeless audio masterclass in groove and constraint. 

• Released: October 1962 
• Label: Stax Records 
• Producer: Jim Stewart 
• Core Personnel: Booker T. Jones (Organ), Steve Cropper (Guitar), Lewie Steinberg (Bass), Al Jackson Jr. (Drums) 
• Key Tracks: "Green Onions", "Behave Yourself", "Mo' Onions" 

Essential Album Review: Hip Hug-Her (1967) 

Marking a crucial evolutionary point in the ensemble's discography, this mid-1960s release captures the definitive lineup operating at the absolute peak of their collaborative powers. With Donald "Duck" Dunn fully locked in on bass, the rhythm section achieves an unparalleled level of syncopation. The tracking features a brilliant mixture of tight original grooves and soulful, transformed interpretations of contemporary pop and R&B hits. 

• Released: June 1967 
• Label: Stax Records 
• Producer: Jim Stewart 
• Core Personnel: Booker T. Jones (Organ), Steve Cropper (Guitar), Donald "Duck" Dunn (Bass), Al Jackson Jr. (Drums) 
• Key Tracks: "Hip Hug-Her", "Groovin'", "Slim Jenkin's Place" 

Essential Compilation Review: The Best of Booker T. & the M.G.'s (1968) 

For listeners seeking a comprehensive gateway into the definitive architecture of the Memphis soul sound, this landmark 1968 compilation is unmatched. The collection neatly aggregates the band's most influential instrumental hits alongside essential tracks that shaped the Stax legacy. It serves as an indispensable historical audio capsule, preserving the timeless, rhythmically precise tracks that soundtracked a generation. 

• Released: 1968 
• Label: Atlantic Records / Stax Records 
• Producer: Jim Stewart, Staff 
• Core Personnel: Booker T. Jones (Organ), Steve Cropper (Guitar), Donald "Duck" Dunn (Bass), Al Jackson Jr. (Drums) 
• Key Tracks: "Time Is Tight", "Green Onions", "Boot-Leg" 

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