Topic: Post-Rediscovery Additions to Skip James' Repertoire-The Vanguard Albums

[Johnm]

Hi all,
As has been alluded to in the "Skip James Lyrics" thread, at the time that Skip's Vanguard albums, "Skip James - Today" and "Devil Got My Woman", were released, there was some feeling expressed that they represented little more than some kind of musical afterthoughts to his Paramount recordings.  Listening to these Vanguard albums more recently, I've been struck by how much they added to Skip's recorded repertoire, and the extent to which they widened the scope of his sound as a singer and player.  I thought to take a look at the two albums' programs, and see the extent to which they consisted of re-recordings of songs he did for Paramount vs. previously unrecorded material for Skip.
Skip James - Today
1) Hard Time Killing Floor, cross-note, re-recorded
2) Crow Jane, E position, standard tuning, first time recording
3) Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues, cross-note, first time recording.  This is a fascinating 8-bar blues in the "Sitting On Top of the World" mold, with a haunting refrain--"He knew I was a good man, but I was a poor man, you can understand"
4) Special Rider Blues, spanish tuning, re-recorded
5) Drunken Spree, A position, standard tuning, re-recorded
6) Cherry Ball, cross-note, re-recorded
7) How Long, piano, re-recording of "How Long, Buck"
8 ) All Night Long, piano, re-recording of "If You Haven't Any Hay, Get On Down the Road".  In the course of the Vanguard rendition, Skip sings both "If you ain't got no hay, better be on your way" and "Get your habit in your hand, get on down the road".
9) Cypress Grove, cross-note, re-recorded
10) Look Down The Road, E position, standard tuning, first time recording.  Fascinating blues with short first line.
11) My Gal, E position, standard tuning, first time recording, Skip's re-working of Joe Pullum's "Black Gal"
12) I'm So Glad, cross-note, re-recorded

Skip James - Devil Got My Woman
1) Good Road Camp Blues, cross-note, first time recording
2) Little Cow, Little Calf Blues, piano, re-working of "Little Cow and Calf's Gonna Die Blues"
3) Devil Got My Woman, cross-note, re-recorded
4) Look At The People Standing At The Judgement, E position, standard tuning, first time recording of this very strong Gospel number
5) Worried Blues, E position, standard tuning, first time recording
6) 22.20 Blues, piano, re-recorded
7) Mistreating Child Blues, piano, first time recording
8 ) Sickbed Blues, cross-note, new but previously recorded live at the Newport Folk Festival
9) Catfish Blues, E position, standard tuning, first time recording, a sensational version of this standard
10) Lorenzo Blues, E position, standard tuning, first time recording of this beautiful slow blues
11) Careless Love, piano, first time recording of this standard, Skip plays it very sprightly
12) Illinois Blues, cross-note, re-recorded

Some of the songs I characterize as first-time recordings for Skip may have been on his first release after having been re-discovered, on the Melodeon label.  I will check and make any necessary corrections.  [NOTE:  The Melodeon album's program did include "Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues" and "Worried Blues", which it had as "Skip's Worried Blues".]  It is interesting to see how many new songs Skip did, though, on these records and also, how many were played in E position in standard tuning.  I've not heard the previously unreleased material that Vanguard has put out on CD, but judging from the titles, there is even more previously unrecorded material there, including a piano version of Hoagy Carmichael's "Lazybones".  I look forward to hearing those recordings as well.  It becomes apparent that Skip's music had a much wider range than might have been thought from only listening to his Paramount recordings.  It should be conceded, too, that he very well may have broadened that range in the intervening years between making those initial recordings and his rediscovery in 1964.  He was a fascinating musician, and I really recommend seeking out these Vanguard recordings if you've not heard them.
All best,
Johnm
 

[Slack]

Hi Johnm, I'm glad you reviewed these albums and could not agree with you more - they are great!  Not only because of the modern recording technology - so nice to have relatively clear recordings, but the new songs.  And I think Hospital Blues is my favorite - it is so strong.

I have not heard the unreleased Vanguard songs either but "Lazy Bones" is on youtube.

[Slack]

And Elijah Wald's comment on Amazon is well worth reading, as always.

http://www.amazon.com/Vanguard-Sessions-Blues-From-Delta/dp/B000009NLQ

[jpeters609]

Hi John,
Even earlier than these Vanguard sessions were the recordings made by Skip for Gene Rosenthal's  Adelphi label (which were not issued until the 1990's, on his Genes imprint). The Adelphi recordings were made in 1964, very soon after his rediscovery -- even predating (by several months) the Melodeon sessions.

There are two CD's worth of material. The first, "She Lyin'" (apparently a misapprehension of "See The Line" or perhaps "Sea Lion") is all guitar, and includes the following tracks:

1. All Night Long
2. Broke & Hungry
3. I'm So Glad
4. Bad Whiskey
5. Cypress Grove Blues
6. Catfish
7. Goin' Away to Stay
8. Crow Jane
9. Devil Got My Woman
10. She Lyin'
11. Drunken Spree
12. Black Gal
13. Illinois Blues
14. Worried Blues
15. Look Down the Road


The second, "Skip's Piano Blues," is just that (and it is this CD that includes "Lazy Bones" -- I don't believe the track actually appears on the Vanguard collection):

     1. All Night Long   
     2. Rock Island Blues   
     3. Little Boy, How Old Are You   
     4. Four O'clock Blues   
     5. Black Gal   
     6. Little Cow And Calf   
     7. How Long Blues   
     8. Vicksburg Blues
     9. Lazy Bones   
   10. Walking The Sea   
   11. 22-20 Blues
   12. Special Rider Blues

P.S. -- I believe it was the "She Lyin'" CD that Stephen Calt favored over the Vanguard releases, indicating that, essentially, Skip was still trying to play as he did in 1930 on these early Adelphi sessions but had given up and simplified his approach for the later Vanguard recordings. I may not have his critique exactly right, but I think that was the gist of his opinion.

[Johnm]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the track listings on the Gene's CDs.  According to the track listing at Amazon, Lazy Bones is on the "Studio Sessions--Rare and Unreleased" Vanguard release, along with a host of other cuts I'll retrieve and list here soon.  Have to work now.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Here is the track listing for the Vanguard CD of Skip James, "Studio Sessions--Rare and Unreleased".  As you can see, it is pretty much all stuff he did not record for Paramount.

1. Backwater Blues
2. Everybody Ought to Live Right
3. I Want to Be More Like Jesus
4. Jack of Diamonds
5. My Last Boogie
6. Lazy Bones
7. Let My Jesus Lead You
8. My Own Blues
9. Oh, Mary Don't You Weep
10. Omaha Blues
11. Bumble Bee
12. One Dime Was All I Had
13. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
14. Somebody Gonna Wish They Had Religion
15. Somebody Loves You
16. Sorry for to Leave You
17. Sporting Life Blues
18. They Are Waiting for Me
19. Walking the Sea

As a point of interest, here is the track listing for Skip's Melodeon album, which was the first recorded and released in his post-rediscovery period.

1. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
2. Sick Bed Blues
3. Washington HC Hospital Center Blues
4. Devil Got My Woman
5. Skip's Worried Blues
6. Illinois Blues
7. I Don't Want A Woman To Stay Up All Night Long
8. Cherry Ball Blues
9. All Night Long
10. Motherless & Fatherless

From this listing, we can see that the Vanguard albums were not the first recorded appearances of "Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues" or "Skip's Worried Blues" (called simply "Worried Blues" on the Vanguard release).  Since the Vanguard albums were released prior to the Gene's CDs, I think we would have to concede first appearance of many songs on both sets of recordings to Vanguard, because despite having been recorded after the Gene's CDs, they were released decades earlier.

John D., if you'd like to use the initial post for the front page, it's fine with me.  I'll make the note about the two cuts occurring on the Melodeon release, which is still available on vinyl from Amazon, by the way.

All best,
Johnm

[wreid75]

This is good stuff.  I wish someone else would write a Skip James book.  The Calt book had lots of facts but was caustic.  The man had to have his good points.  No one that could write music that good could be that horrible. 

[Stuart]

The two Vanguard LPs are some of my favorite music--been listening to them for 40+ years now. I also have a Biograph LP (12016) that was recorded in 1964. Here's Stefan's page:

http://www.wirz.de/music/jamesfrm.htm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Pan has brought to my attention that Cecil Gant's 1948 song, "I was A Good Man, But A Poor Man" used essentially the same refrain that Skip used for "Washington D. C. Hospital Center Blues", though in listening to Gant's recording, the effect was very different.  Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry used a very similar refrain in their 1958 recording of "I've Been Treated Wrong", too.  A case of "It ain't what you do, but how you do it.", I suppose.
All best,
Johnm

[Prof Scratchy]

Brownie did a lovely solo version of this song with piano accompaniment, available on his solo Xtra LP.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

[Bunker Hill]

Brownie did a lovely solo version of this song with piano accompaniment, available on his solo Xtra LP.

Prof I don't know how to tell you this but I?m A Good Man, But A Poor Man and So Long Mister Blues on that LP are sung and played by pianist Lee Roy Little.

This came to light when McGhee was in the UK in 1977. Those two songs on the Xtra LP were played to him from a cassette copy. He said it wasn't him but his one time pianist, Leroy Little (sic). Comparison of those two songs with Little's own recordings seemed to clinch it.

[Prof Scratchy]

I'm devastated BH! Will now have to reconstruct the past 45  years of my life! So how did they get on the Brownie solo LP? Still a great performance though IMO. I' m now away to track down the rest of Lee Roy's recordings!

By the way, since posting the above I've tracked down a version on Spotify of Lee Roy doing 'I'm a good man'. It sounds nothing like the version on the Brownie LP, either vocally or in respect of the piano style. Hmmmm?

Further addendum: Chris Smith writes: "Yes, Lee Roy Little it is. How? The content was licensed from Folkways; Moe Asch was, putting it mildly, not the world's most organised archivist, and evidently XTRA weren't bothered about checking what they'd received - and probably didn't have the knowledge with which to make such a check. There are also two tracks on the LP from the 'Sonny Terry's Washboard Band' session, at which McGhee was not present".

I must've bought that LP in 1967 or thereabouts. Must go back to the record shop and demand a refund!

[CF]

Wonderful John, I've always thought Skip's 1960s recordings were strong efforts. Calt's misguided critiques of this stuff seems to have coloured many others' opinions over the years, even the otherwise sound PENGUIN GUIDE TO BLUES RECORDINGS has Tony Russell rating the Vanguard releases very low (uniformly 2 stars out of a possible 5). Russell calls them '. . . uneven, and when set against earlier versions, technically flawed.'

[Bunker Hill]

This is good stuff.  I wish someone else would write a Skip James book.  The Calt book had lots of facts but was caustic.  The man had to have his good points.  No one that could write music that good could be that horrible. 

Here's the first published review of the James book from 1994.

http://www.kenficara.com/writing.php?article=skip

[Mr.OMuck]

Its been my heretical view for years that James' 60's work is actually superior to his earlier recordings. Other than athletics and dance, I don't know another field where people don't produce better, more interesting work as they get older. Well some people think theoretical physicists are all done by thirty..but painters, composers, writers mostly get deeper and more profound. I think that's what occurred with many of the early players who recorded again in the 60's.