Originally released in 1966 on the famed Vanguard Records label, Today! is the third studio album by Delta blues man, Skip James.

Born in Bentonia, Mississippi in 1902 as Nehemiah James, “Skip” actually had two separate musical careers. He first made recordings for Paramount in the early 1930s, with a handful of 78’s that are fabled amongst blues collectors and archivists. But, against the backdrop of the great depression, the records sold poorly and James mostly disappeared into obscurity.

After thirty years in the wilderness, it was actually a trio of musician enthusiasts - John Fahey, Bill Barth and Henry Vestine - who rediscovered James and brought him to the 1964 Newport Jazz Festival. In an interview with Wire Magazine, John Fahey recalled his infamous first encounter with James at the Tunica County Hospital as the “strangest, most complex and bizarre of all blues artists”. The most common theory is that the nickname “Skippy” was bestowed by his schoolmates on account of his dancing style, however, it has also widely been noted that the fairly notorious bootlegger, pimp, gambler and gunslinger’s epithet of ‘Skippy’ had grown out of his frequent need to skip town when in trouble.
Post Newport and back in the public consciousness with the dual renaissances in folk and blues, Skip James found a new audience of traditionalist appreciators and recorded a four album run between 1964 and 1968. Today! Is the third of those albums and it is a work of high magic. As the back of the LP jacket explains, he was “accompanying himself on guitar and piano”, twelve blues cuts all written by and performed solely by James, with the exception of the Leroy Carr penned "How Long" that also features Russ Savakus on bass.

Besides his writing, the most notable feature of Skip James’ performance is his ghostly falsetto. He truly was unique among his contemporaries. On the opening "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (a truly amazing take that was made famous again twenty years ago in the Cohen brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?) he occupies the entire register, with his low tuned strings sparsely plucking and a world-beaten vocal howling “Hard times is here and everywhere you go…”. One of the albums stand up moments and a proper hairs-on-neck experience. Dark minor keys, choppy rhythms and lyrics that tell the tale of a hard life lived.

There is so much dynamism, the diversity is subtle across the twelve tracks, but well enough to keep it moving forwards.
There are many amusing stories about Skip the man and his cantankerous spirits. As part of his 60’s resurgence, Cream covered his “I'm So Glad”, leading to a royalty check that dwarfed any other financial remuneration in his career. But, on his deathbed he apparently lambasted it; “They got it ass backwards. They don’t have the harmony, the rhythm. I doubled up on it. It’s too good a song to mess up like that. Nobody will ever play it like me.”

Today! Is raw, simple and primitive, but the power of the songs is remarkable. He referred to himself often as ‘one of the best men who ever walked’, and Today! offers twelve hugely compelling arguments in his favour.

Photo of Skip James.(1965) by Bernard Gotfryd / Hulton Archive / Getty Images.