Skip James

With his head voice, his fragile appearance and his irregular guitar playing, an anthology of broken arpeggios, "Skip" James appears as one of the strangest stylists of the Delta blues. His dark, melancholy personality is reflected in such moving compositions as "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues", the best blues about the Depression of 1929. After a first attempt at a professional career in the '30s, artistically remarkable but not financially rewarding, "Skip" James pursued other trades until his rediscovery in 1964.
Despite the cancer eating away at him, he made striking appearances at major blues festivals in America and Europe, and recorded a number of powerful albums. His composition "I'm So Glad", covered by Eric Clapton, was a huge rock hit, and the royalties from it helped pay his hospital bills.