Devil Information

Id Rather Be the Devil Skip James and the Blues

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars What A Read!
It would certainly be wise to take everything Calt says about James with a grain of salt. He seems to have very bitter memories of the Country Blues revival in general, and all of the so-called “white guitar nerds” who befriended and, as Calt states, cheated many of the original Blues musicians whose careers had been brought back to life. I don’t know for a fact if James killed one man or many men, or robbed a bank, or hated all women; all I know is that this is what Calt alleges. The book is still great to read, though, because of its vividness. Calt also puts forth a theory that the beginnings of the Blues lie in a hymn that was taught to slaves. This is also considered quite a questionable theory in the Blues world. In addition to this, Calt has also said some negative things about the great Dick Waterman, who did and is doing a great deal to help the original Country Bluesmen and their living family members, respectively. One thing Calt is well aware of is that James was a genius, at least at his 1931 sessions, and that he never got the fame nor the recognition that he rightfully deserved, with John Hurt being favored by Country Blues fans. This is an excellent read, though the accuracy of the material is questionable, and is really in stark contrast with Elijah Wald’s “Society Blues”, a biography on Josh White, which paints its main character as a wonderful, heroic, gentle human being.

5 Stars A real biography
It’s a crying shame this is out of print and so expensive. It’s one of the best books of any kind I’ve ever read. It made me feel uncomfortable at times, challenging as it does so many predisposed ideas about the blues, treatment of black people and the music business. Calt has strong opinions and obviously his own axe to grind. But his musical analysis of James’ work is masterly and incisive. It’s a timely reminder that a great musician does not necessarily a good person make. If you like your myths about the blues kept intact, avoid. If you are open-minded and crave a good read, seek this book out. But listen to the music first.

4 Stars An in-depth study, but watch for biases…
For those interested in James and his music this is probably the most thorough biography available. Stephen Calt tends to be vitriolic and is often none to kind in stating his opinions about James’ behavior or those of other blues musicians discussed in the book. That’s fine, such bluntness is refreshing from the candy-coated, politically correct “criticisms” often present in biographies.
However, Calt does have one habit that is, in my opinion, a reprehensible practice for a biographer. He tends too much towards conjecture. Instead of stating events, he often extrapolates what people are feeling, thinking, or might have done in a given situation. This kind of “completion” can get in the way of allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions.
All in all though, if you are interested in Skip James you would do well to read this book.

5 Stars No One Said It Was Going To Be Easy . . .
What we have here:1) The lengthy and always compelling transcribed oral-autobiography of Skip James, a brilliant, idiosyncratic (and none too nice) blues musician from Bentonia, Mississippi whose greatest work was done in the 20’s and 30’s. A cynical fascinating tale of violence and feigned redemption, petty compromise and amoral cultural brilliance in the Jim Crow South. 2) A tour-de-force critique of the early 60’s Folk Scene and the misguided, patronizing white college students who “rediscovered” blues musicians like Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Skip James. Told by a man (Stephen Calt) who, to his lingering shame and horror, played more than a bit part. A scathing dark comedy about race, art, America and ostensibly good intentions, which Tom Wolfe would’ve given a kidney to have penned.3) Pages upon pages of detailed technical musical analysis that, alas, is all too often prejudiced by the ambivalence and still festering rage of Calt. 4) A minor yet compelling intellectual memoir in which — twenty-five years after James’ death — Calt tries and fails miserably to reconcile all of the above.The end result is a deeply flawed, mashed together work of incendiary history, cruel insight and all manner of self-delusion. A messy harrowing work of great worth and constant interest.

3 Stars Five star story, two star delivery
No other comprehensive biographies of Skip James exist as of today, so Stephen Calt is your only choice if you want to learn about the man. The detail can be exhaustive at points and the information itself is well presented, but this book is a complete failure as a biography. For whatever reason, Calt adopts an extremely negative and nihilistic tone as narrator for the entire book and is unremittingly condescending to James and southern black culture in general. Calt regularly speaks in hyperbole and presents his own opinion or perception of a given incident as fact. Calt also loves to project himself into the story; this is permissible in first-person situations where he was actually present, but more often than not he wasn’t and is merely guessing at what he thinks happened. This is fine practice in a story, but not in a book touting itself a biography.

One other HUGE issue is Calt’s complete disregard for ethnocentric language. In one particularly heinous incident, on page 325, Calt asserts that an adult James “…was too much the plantation darkey…” to encourage white musicians to explore black music. This term should only be acceptable in a vignette recalling the roots of southern black culture and music; used in this context, it’s simply a racist and condescending judgment of a man for whom Calt seems to harbor a strange Freudian jealousy.

Weird book; weird author; weird musician. I guess it all fits. At least there are tabs for “Devil Got My Woman” in the appendix.

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Chasin That Devils Music Searching for the Blues Book CD Softcover

̥Chasin̥ That Devil Music РSearching for the Blues̥ is the fruit of research into the birth of the blues by a blues scholar who has researched the artists on old 78 RPM records to uncover their stories along with rare interviews and songs which are on the CD included with the book.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars The Delta Blues
Wardlow tells his researching story, so it is not a chronological history book of the Delta Blues, it is devided by research types, for instance a section about finding documents , and a section about interviews. Yet it gives finally good tools to know about the Delta Blues big picture.

Young Delta Blues fans who for instance are not aware that there were a question how many people by the name of Willie Brown were at the same place and time playing Delta Blues, it is not only good introduction of the question but also the possible answers.

I have this book about a year or two and I keep coming back. It is essential if you are really a Delta Blues fan who wants to extend the knowledge about the Delta Blues and it’s history, this is the first place. It can serve as appendix to any article or book about the Delta Blues, so when reading other stuff, coming back to this book is going to be a ritual for anyone having this book.

5 Stars The mystique of early rural blues
This book IS a reprint of previously published articles, not all of them written by Wardlow (for instance, an interview with Wardlow by other reporters is included), but apparently most of these articles have never appeared in book form. They are fascinating for a reader interested in learning more about how people like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson, long dead, are more celebrated today than would have been imaginable, let alone possible, in their own times. Wardlow was one of the early “investigators” who unearthed obscure recordings and salient information about the musicians who made them. This book is largely an account of that difficult process. Now, when it’s relatively easy to hear the complete recorded works of Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, et. al., it’s hard to imagine what blues fans had to go through to hear this music 40 years ago. Wardlow’s book is a revelation and an inspiration also. The “free” CD is wonderful, too, and worth the price of the book itself.

3 Stars “They forgott,but I know better”
Am I the only one who noticed that this is not a book about ancient blues masters but a monument to its author? Come on,folks,read between the lines – Wardlow talks to old blues musicians just to add his own (patronising) remarks how they forgott everything and he knows better.The argument about King Solomon Hill is nothing but one big ego-trip,he was frustrated for 18 years because his theory was ridiculed at the time,so now he can point that he was right the whole time.Wardlow never mentioned why he got hooked on blues music in the first place (except that he found that old 78 records were collectors items) but through the whole book (collection of articles) shows his white-boy-turns-blues-knows-it-all attitude,treating blues music with intellectualism typical for someone who collect recording dates and musician’s names,just so he can later point that he knows those dates and names better than old musicians who recorded them.True,if its not for Wardlow and people like him,many of these names would be completely forgotten,but I find his writting style annoying and CD is the best thing about the whole book.

3 Stars Definte, interesting, scholarship, good CD
Whatever you think of Wardlow’s own views, this is the kind of definite real scholarship someone who wants to become really knowledgeable about Mississippi blues and its economic and cultural milieu. Despite what various comments are, Wardlow’s writing is not overly intellectual, rather it is very factual. It is record collectors and blues lovers like Wardlow in the late 1950s and early 1960s that laid the basis for their being original Delta blues records (and their peers in old time “white” music)to be reissued and who “found” so many of the original blues stars. Wardlow provides a lot of good basic information about the recording practices for the music, and the situations of lots of blues players you may or may not have heard of. These are all articles where he announced his or others work making the discovery. \
One thing to read is his article that clearly illustrates that Robert Johnson never said, thought, or was rumored to have sold his soul to the devil. No one who knew Johnson ever said that. One informant took the story that Tommy Johnson told and told a credulous folk nik “blues expert” this in the 1960s, the rest has become a minor industry.
The CD provided is fun and provides some players most havent heard of. The Western Swing tune about selling the soul to the Devil has beocme part of my performance repertpor!

5 Stars A Valuable Piece for Blues Fans
I agree with Lampic’s review in that the author comes across as egocentric while compiling the history of the Mississippi Delta blues, offering some inappropriate and disrespectful comments while interviewing seventy-five-year-old bluesmen. Regardless, the content of this book is very important and valuable to anybody who is as passionate about the music from this era as me.

We are all familiar with Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Skip James, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, and Son House. These names give us the true definition of Mississippi Delta blues and have now obtained a well-deserved legendary status, becoming subjects of countless music compilations and biographies. But they weren’t the only blues singers from the Delta. The author recognizes this and gives us strikingly vivid and detailed accounts of the lives and contributions of the lesser-known bluesmen; namely, Ishmon Bracey, King Solomon Hill, and Tommy Johnson (although Tommy Johnson has recently been a subject of intrest after the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” phenomenon). These men have long been overlooked and their music was shadowed by that of Skip James and Robert Johnson during the blues revival of the 1960s.

One particularly interesting portion in this book is the re-examination of Robert Johnson’s death, which has been the subject of many-a-legend. Wardlow rehashes the search for Johnson’s death certificate and offers his own ideas, based on his own research and interview sessions, about how Johnson really died.

We also learn the fates of many of the other performers, which is often heartbreaking–these men are my heroes, and it’s so sad to learn that many were victims of alcoholism and extreme poverty.

The accompanying CD is an excellent item indeed. Not only do we have audios of Wardlow’s interviews, but many previously unreleased (or thought to have been lost) recordings from Skip James, Tommy Johnson, King Solomon Hill, and Ishmon Bracey (among others). What’s even more remarkable is that these came from Wardlow’s own private collection of blues 78s–I’d love to see this guy’s record library!

Wardlow also includes an extremely comprehensive discography for each bluesman, arranged by catalog number for Paramount and Yazoo. This list alone is worth the price of the book–I now have a basis for building my own collection (although I tend to stick to the cheaper and less fragile CD releases, rather than trying to track down the original 78s!)

If you look beyond the writing style and the occasional arrogance, this book is excellent for its historic information and accompanying music collection.

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