SKIP JAMES – "Live" Boston 1964 & Philadelphia 1966 | DOCD-5149 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

These recordings, made in coffee houses during the folk boom and James' comeback after 30 years of obscurity, find him still in remarkable control of his talents. His guitar and piano playing are agile and sensitive and his high tenor still sends a shiver down the spine. The sound is very good (save for the occasional drop out), but more importantly the performances are first rate, and with a little imagination you can put yourself right there in the room with this enormous talent. Tim Sheridan

” The years 1964-1967 were the sum total of the second coming of Skip James. He had blazed out of the south for a brief instant in 1931, and had even left a few artefacts to prove that it wasn’t all a dream – and then he returned, a talent like a periodic comet of blazing intensity. I saw him play in Boston – it must have been him, and so it must have been around November, 1964.
At that time, there were coffee houses offering all manner of unusual musicians. Guitar Nubbit would be in town – so, let’s go see him. Jim Kweskin And His Jug Band, The Charles River Valley Boys, Gary Davis doing a show on Boston Common – why, let’s take the little children, they’ll enjoy Pete Seeger. “Where do you get your material from,”  I asked the Holy Modal Rounders. Well, get a copy of the Folkways Anthology and you’ll get a good start. These are the ways a person can get bent around by the blues. But you have to remember, they were magical times. If you didn’t see Mississippi John Hurt at one place, say Newport one year, why you could just catch him again later at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. And if you liked their stuff, you could just get the studio LP’s that were being released.

By the 1970’s, people began to realize that we had witnessed something special. You could still see Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry , maybe catch Roosevelt Sykes here or there, have a few drinks with Robert Pete Williams after a set but time was taking its toll.
I was performing Sacred Harp music in Toronto when one of the others asked if I’d like a tape of Skip James that he had. Skip had haunted me for years – but it was taking me a couple of years practice to learn any of songs. So, I blithely agreed. I had it laying around for ten years or so be before I sent it to Document Records to see if anyone else would like to hear it. Considering how haphazard all this is, I would have thought that other “live” tapes of Skip James would have appeared since, but at the time of writing this seems to have been the only one. I’ve  found that my own tapes have been deteriorating, so kindred souls might well consider making the music available to those whose circumstances didn’t make it quite so easy to see these remarkable artists in person. I know there are other tapes out there somewhere, so now it’s time to DO THE RIGHT THING. The bottom line to all this is that these live tapes are as elusive as the original 78’s, and that a concerted effort must be made to make sure they don’t disappear or get lost inadvertently. Share the music, share the memories, and help preserve the blues tradition.” DOCD-5149
Tracklist :
        Boston 1964    
1        Illinois Blues    3:33
2        How Long Blues    3:08
3        Drunken Spree    3:28
4        Four 'O Clock Blues    3:08
        Philadelphia 1966    
5        Hard Luck Child    0:54
6        I Don't Want A Woman To Stay Out All Night Long    4:35
7        Loretta Blues    4:18
8        Special Lover Blues    2:54
9        Cherry Ball Blues    4:46
10        Washington, D. C. Hospital Center Blues    5:30
11        Hard Luck Child (No. 2)    4:44
12        Look At The People 5:01
Vocals – Mrs. Lorenzo James
13        Mary Don't You Weep    2:18
14        Someday You Gotta Die    2:20
15        I'm So Glad    0:35
Credits :
Guitar – Skip James (tracks: 1, 3, 5 to 15)
Liner Notes – Roger Misiewicz
Piano – Skip James (tracks: 2, 4)
Vocals – Skip James

SKIP JAMES — Complete 1931 Recordings in Chronological Order | DOCD-5005 (1994) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

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  
Tracklist:
1 Devil Got My Woman 3:01
Skip James
2 Cypress Grove Blues 3:12
Skip James
3 Cherry Ball Blues 2:51
Skip James
4 Illinois Blues 3:05
Skip James
5 Four O'Clock Blues 2:52
Skip James
6 Hard Luck Child 3:04
Skip James
7 Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues 2:51
Skip James
8 Yola My Blues Away 3:13
Skip James
9 Jesus Is a Mighty Good Leader 3:00
Traditional
10 Be Ready When He Comes 2:56
Nehemiah James / Skip James
11 Drunken Spree 2:39
Skip James
12 I'm So Glad 2:55
Skip James
13 Special Rider Blues 3:09
Skip James
14 How Long Blues 2:55
Leroy Carr / J. Mayo Williams
15 Little Cow and Calf Is Gonna Die Blues 2:53
Skip James
16 What Am I to Do Blues 3:04
Skip James
17 22-20 Blues 2:52
Skip James / Robert Johnson
18 If You Haven't Any Hay Get on Down the Road 2:53
Skip James