i'm so glad...

 HEY LOCO FANS – Happy birthday to Bentonia Delta blues singer and guitarist "Skip" James!

His guitar playing is noted for its dark, minor-key sound. James first recorded for Paramount Records in 1931, but these recordings sold poorly, having been released during the Great Depression, and he drifted into obscurity. For the next thirty years, James made no known recordings and performed sporadically. He was virtually unknown to the general public until about 1960.

After a long absence from the public eye, James was rediscovered in 1964 by blues enthusiasts including John Fahey, helping further the blues and folk music revival of the 1950s and early 1960s. The "rediscovery" of both James and Son House at virtually the same time was the start of the blues revival.

During this period, James appeared at folk and blues festivals, gave concerts around the country, and recorded several albums for various record labels. His songs have influenced generations of musicians and have been adapted by numerous artists. He has been hailed as "one of the seminal figures of the blues". James recorded and performed at various engagements until his death from cancer in 1969.

James is sometimes associated with the Bentonia School, which is either a subgenre of blues music or a style of playing it. James often played guitar with an open D-minor tuning (D–A–D–F–A–D), resulting in the "deep" sound of the 1931 recordings. He reportedly learned this tuning from his musical mentor, the unrecorded bluesman Henry Stuckey, who in turn was said to have acquired it from Bahamian soldiers during the First World War.

Robert Johnson also recorded in this tuning, his "Hell Hound on My Trail" being based on James's "Devil Got My Woman." James's classically informed fingerpicking style was fast and clean, using the entire register of the guitar, with heavy, hypnotic bass lines.