Customer Reviews

I'm So Glad: The Complete 1931 Paramount Recordings

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Early Skip James music is paradigmatic: it was made by a unique artist with his own unique character who was not playing by the numbers or emulating someone else. He is one of the cornerstones of the blues. Listen to it carefully and you'll hear colors that no other blues musician used. Essential.

Skip James' music is as eerie and satisfying as Robert Johnson's...they both borrowed freely from each other...and both form part of the basis for much of the Blues, Folk, and Rock music which evolved after them. From Cypress Grove to I'm So Glad all performing Blues musicians (and all Rockers as well), owe Skip James a heavy debt. The recording quality reflects the period and conditions under which it was engineered. Still, some cuts are remarkably well crafted and the very worst are still worth listening to and studying. Your Blues library is incomplete without it, regardless of who you are...I have been a working musician for over 35 years and wouldn't be caught dead or alive without Skip James.

My low rating of this product has nothing to do with the artist's abilities or his material. Infact, Skip James was a master of Bentonia/Delta Blues. My problem is not with the seller either; the problem is with the manufacturer (Document Records). My case inserts say Skip James and the printing on the CD does too. However, the artist on the CD is not Skip James. It's actually a female blues artist named Georgia White. James and Georgia came from the same time period and both sang the blues, but that about all they had in common. So I got a factory defect - I'm not totally dissapointed though because Georgia White is an awesome artist that I wasn't aware of until this happy accident happened.