Consumer Guide Album

Skip James: The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James [Yazoo, 1994]
Never mind Charley Patton, John Hurt, Robert Johnson himself--I long ago concluded that this eccentric misanthrope from the south end of the Delta is the Mississippi bluesman aging blues boys feel deepest, especially on these tracks. Recorded in 1931 in Paramount Records' notoriously lo-fi Wisconsin digs, these 18 legendary tracks include five on a piano equipped with a board over its pedals for extra oomph as well as the James theme song "Devil Got My Woman" and Cream's debut-album highlight "I'm So Glad." Almost 30 when he cut this music, James sounds rougher and more beaten up here than on the two 1966 albums he did for Vanguard, where despite his congenital ill temper and the cancer that was creeping up on him he seems proud to display the vocal and instrumental chops of a guitar-wielding folkie legend who can also play him some piano. But I agree with his cult--the early recordings are more primal and compelling. That said, though, the abrupt, percussive, harmonically disorienting piano does remind me a little of the then 13-year-old Monk. Wonder whether they ever heard each other--might have. A