The book discusses how the so-called 'Bentonia sound' - like the term 'country blues' - was an invention of white blues collector types. No one who actually played that stuff described their music this way.
The book discusses where Skip stole a lot of his stuff, namely from an unrecorded dude called Henry Stuckey. He also stole from old ragtime and pop hits (like his "I'm So Glad," which is a pretty direct rip off, melodically and lyrically speaking, despite it being one of the most amazing songs ever recorded).
For modern Bentonia sound, though, Jimmy Duck Holmes (on Fat Possum) is said to be carrying the torch. There's also this white dude I like called Mississippi Gabe Carter, though some of you more purist types may not dig him much (there's as much Black Keys in his sound as there is Skippy James - but he's plenty spooky).
IMO the Skip James 'comeback' material is largely dispensable.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:37 (twelve years ago) link
and second amateurist's recommendation - that album rules
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:38 (twelve years ago) link
well, yeah, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a style peculiar to the area around bentonia--just that folks living there hadn't named it.
― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 29 June 2011 12:59 (twelve years ago) link
True - I always thought the so-called 'Bentonia sound' was just open Em (or, the same tuned down a whole step, which would mean arby's is spot on with his tuning), making it more forlorn sounding than standard blues of the period.
Anyway, read the book, everybody! It's definitely worth it.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
Anyone read this? Looking for something to follow up the Calt book...
http://www.amazon.com/Preachin-Blues-Life-Times-House/dp/0195395573/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309364658&sr=1-1
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
skip James just digging into his now - guess you only really need the 1931 recordings they sure sound spooky
― clouds (peanutbuttereverysingleday), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 08:02 (six years ago) link
I knew Steve Calt and I interviewed Jack Owens for the James book. If there is a "Bentonia style," it's simply Skip James' style, which Owens copped--by the time I talked to Owens in the '90s, plenty of white people had gone down to that part of Mississippi and wanted the real info on the blues and so forth. The way Skip played on the 1931 records is entirely a function of how he tuned his guitar and his use of big open fifths, etc. Bentonia is not large enough to have a style associated with it. I've come to enjoy Skip's '60s stuff--as Steve said, Skip had lost some of his guitar facility and his originality (after all, Skip had been laid up in a hospital with cancer when the blues acolytes found him), but not as much as Calt claimed. I think Calt's book is cantankerous, of course, but he's right about the basics.
― eddhurt, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 05:02 (six years ago) link
some of skip's 60s stuff is pretty great — definitely not as dazzling as the 30s recordings, but some deep performances for sure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGgTySgA4I
― tylerw, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 15:41 (six years ago) link
Yeah, I think Calt way overstates the decline in Skip's playing in the '60s. I think he still had it, and his singing was always incredible.
― eddhurt, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 17:08 (six years ago) link
The Insect Trust's version of "Special Rider Blues" on their '68 album is choice, one of my favorite covers of a blues tune ever.
― eddhurt, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 17:11 (six years ago) link
His Today album from is from '66 is pretty great imo, it has a really booming Hard Times Killing Floor Blues on there.
― calzino, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 17:16 (six years ago) link
The Insect Trust's version of "Special Rider Blues" on their '68 album is choice, one of my favorite covers of a blues tune ever.― eddhurt, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 1:11 PM
― eddhurt, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 1:11 PM
― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 April 2020 18:43 (four years ago) link
Amen. My blogged comment in 2004: "People driftin', from door to door." On the soundtrackofWim Wenders's THE SOUL OF A MAN, Lucinda Williams drifts the line, but thenshe's slapping the rest of Skip James' "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues"flat onthe bar, like there's more where that came from. (She knows there better be.)...Turns out Skip James really DIDN'T miss (his falsetto's appropriatedghost of)"Crow Jane" 'til she was gone (how could he?). Now he's fascinatedbythis feeling, this windfall. And "you can't take her place, can't take her,"but "someday you got to die." Looking forward? He's not looking away.In "Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues," Skip (channeled by thealmost-as-elusive Garland Jeffreys) is admitted, because (he coaches staff), "you'sa good man, you's a po' man, we can understand." He gets better, and promisesto make his doctor "a wealthy man," luring me past Bible-searching BlindWillie, who finds "nothin' but a burnin' light." And so on (Wenders' doc was in Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues---A Musical Journey, well worth checking out:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blues_(film_series))Of course you can miss someone before they're gone, but (alibi) Skip can make your mind go skippin' in the vibe.
― dow, Sunday, 12 April 2020 19:49 (four years ago) link
That Insect Trust album is sick as hell
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Sunday, 12 April 2020 21:38 (four years ago) link
have never heard insect trust before today, it’s great. never put it together that hawkwind’s “hurry on sundown” is a cover of the same s james tune. in fact the arrangements are so similar, i can’t help but wonder if dave brock nicked it from the IT
― budo jeru, Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:15 (four years ago) link
^^^^
Skip is one of the greatest
― où sont les threads d'antan? (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:25 (four years ago) link
The Insect Trust (1968) is dope, but or and Hoboken Saturday Night(1970) is even betterhttps://img.discogs.com/G-CeHaHKCBSSsdxOzh4CP2oliaM=/fit-in/600x587/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2209852-1495553931-8171.mpo.jpg
― dow, Monday, 13 April 2020 01:15 (four years ago) link
Also, I always heard Al "Blind Owl" Wilson of Canned Heat as a Skip disciple, with that voice in there between a blues harp and a slide guitar (*sort of* like Neil Young without the warble)---there's a collection I still need to check, Blind Owl.
― dow, Monday, 13 April 2020 01:23 (four years ago) link
wilson def made clear that his falsetto was an homage to skip
― budo jeru, Monday, 13 April 2020 01:27 (four years ago) link
I bought the Blind Owl collection on Mississippi Records and absolutely love it.https://www.discogs.com/Blind-Owl-Wilson-Blind-Owl-Wilson/release/9244952 Makes sense that his voice is a homage.Never heard of Insect Trust, but sounds cool on first listen, and pretty cool they got Bernard Purdie and Elvin Jones to play drums on their records.
― mizzell, Monday, 13 April 2020 18:32 (four years ago) link