Skip James CD recommendations

[paul secor]

This will probably be of no help to anybody, but my favorite latter-day Skip James is from this never-reissued Verve Folkways LP, Living Legends. Mr. James does "I'm So Glad" and "Devil Got My Woman" in 1966 at the Cafe-Au-Go-Go. To my ears, his performance is on another level from those by his record-mates Son House, Bukka White, and Big Joe Williams.

I have that record and remember Son House's performance as having a lot of power in it. I'll have to listen again. Thanks for the reminder.

[jeffcrom]

I need to clarify - I don't like the way I worded that. Everyone's in excellent form on that record - I just thought Skip James was exceptional.

[AllenLowe]

I will join in the ant-Calt chorus; it's a disgusting book, he libels more than one person (some of whom I know), and I don't think that even his musical judgments are particularly good. And I would love to have a copy of that LP Living Legends.

[Head Man]

And I would love to have a copy of that LP Living Legends.

There seem to be plenty of copies about at ebay, Discogs etc.

Strange that none of the music is available for download at Smithsonian/Folkways. It seems to have been issued jointly by Verve/Folkways so I wonder who has the rights to it.

[jeffcrom]

And I would love to have a copy of that LP Living Legends.

There seem to be plenty of copies about at ebay, Discogs etc.

Strange that none of the music is available for download at Smithsonian/Folkways. It seems to have been issued jointly by Verve/Folkways so I wonder who has the rights to it.

Not that Folkways. Verve issued some blues stuff in a series called Verve Folkways. The slash I inserted was probably confusing and unnecessary.

[paul secor]

According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verve_Forecast_Records, there was an initial connection between Verve and Folkways.

A number of Folkways connected artists recorded for Verve Folkways. The label name changed to Verve Forecast when things got more commercial.

It would be interesting to know who controls the rights to the Living Legends album.

[jeffcrom]

Wow - I stand corrected. Did not know of that connection.

[Head Man]

So, now I AM confused.

Was there no tie-up between Verve-Folkways & the Folkways label itself?

Looking at the Verve-Folkways catalogue here: http://www.jazzdisco.org/verve-records/catalog-verve-folkways-verve-forecast-series/album-index/, it looks to me like most of the artists shown also have releases on Folkways.

BTW have ANY of the Verve-Folkways albums been re-issued on CD?

Edit:

Sorry, I must have been composing this at the same time as Paul was posting above.

However, looking at the discography again I see that there ARE some albums that have been re-issued on CD eg The J.D. Short & Son House album that has been re-issued by Smithsonian-Folkways. On the other hand there are several there that I've never even heard of, such as the ones by Mark Spoelstra and Patrick Sky, that I'd love to hear. Like Paul, I wonder who has the rights to these?

Edited February 20, 2014 by Head Man

[paul secor]

This will probably be of no help to anybody, but my favorite latter-day Skip James is from this never-reissued Verve Folkways LP, Living Legends. Mr. James does "I'm So Glad" and "Devil Got My Woman" in 1966 at the Cafe-Au-Go-Go. To my ears, his performance is on another level from those by his record-mates Son House, Bukka White, and Big Joe Williams.

Listened to this again today and Son House still hit me the hardest. However, Skip James' performances are wonderful and I can understand if they made the biggest impression on you.