Skip James

Skip James ranks among the first and most pivotal Delta blues performers to commit material to record. He earned distinction as the foremost representative of the Bentonia school of blues musicians, a style that has drawn as much speculative scholarly attention as any regional variant. His initial sides paired an unconventional guitar tuning with haunting falsetto vocals, producing an effect capable of sending chills along the listener’s spine. Still more striking was the moment blues researchers located him once more in the 1960s and discovered that both his singing and instrumental command had stayed fully preserved. His reach extended from a young Robert Johnson, whose “Hellhound on My Trail” took shape from James’ “Devil Got My Woman,” to Eric Clapton, who cut James’ “I’m So Glad” for Cream’s debut album. Although grounded in a shared local tradition, his body of work retains an unmistakably personal character.