Today
The tone, spirit, and feeling of Nehemiah "Skip" James's country blues evokes an aura of haunting augustness. After decades of self-willed obscurity, the Mississippian resurfaced for the 1964 Newport Folk Festival and a few recording sessions, the most invocatory of which were done for Vanguard. The songs on the marvelous Today! find a self-respecting and sensitive black American being completely true to himself, using a feyly tuned guitar and a heart-stopping high tenor to give emotional cogency to his lyrics on life in an unforgiving, merciless prewar Mississippi. Two numbers have him spiritedly playing a piano with characteristic eccentricity.-- © Frank John Hadley 1993--From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD