Blues / Rediscovery & the folk-blues revival · 1966
Today!
Skip James
Why listen
Mostly solo performances reveal substantial differences of instrumental role and duration, resisting the idea that a blues album must sustain one uniform mood.
Listen and read
Tracks · previews
English editorial edition
Album story
Skip James’s Today! shows that small performing forces need not produce small differences. Although one musician carries most of the programme, a track lasting over six minutes sits beside a finale shorter than two. Following what repeats, and for how long, reveals different musical scales within the shared description of blues.
The Vanguard album appeared in 1966. The linked twelve-track Craft edition is a 2024 remaster, not a new performance or a collection of his 1931 recordings. It is also distinct from Mississippi John Hurt’s album with the same title. Craft identifies James as performing solo except on How Long, where Russ Savakus adds bass. Describing every track as just one guitar and a voice would erase that distinction.
Duration changes the effect of repetition
The opening Hard Time Killing Floor Blues and the fourth track, Special Rider Blues, occupy different spans. Instead of looking for a single common mood, compare how long each musical idea remains in play. Repetition does not necessarily create the same effect in every song. A small change can feel prominent in a compact performance, while a longer piece builds its duration through continuing variations. Titles alone cannot explain those differences.
Hear the exception in the middle
How Long is a Leroy Carr composition and the programme’s documented exception to solo performance. Listen between Cherryball and All Night Long to hear its position as well as its personnel. Follow the lower register and consider how supporting roles are distributed. Identifying an additional player should sharpen attention to the actual performance, rather than encourage an equally simplistic account of everything surrounding it.
An extended piece leads to a short ending
My Gal lasts approximately six minutes seven seconds; I’m So Glad follows in under two minutes. The sequence does not keep expanding towards a grand finale. Compare the change in musical scale without classifying the songs only by emotions suggested by their titles. Their adjacent positions resist hearing the entire album as one slow monologue. Varied durations and instrumental roles give the modest performing forces a substantial album shape.
The album through its tracks
Hear the personnel exception on How Long, then compare the extended My Gal with the short final I’m So Glad.
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
The approximately three-minute-twenty-five-second opener is presented in a 2024 remaster of the performance on the 1966 album. A shared title does not make it identical to an earlier recording. Follow the accompaniment through the beginning and end of a vocal phrase, building a reference for later tracks. Rather than deciding on a fixed atmosphere from the hardship suggested by the title, attend to the pace and recurrence of musical ideas. Does a returning phrase stop the movement, or redirect it slightly? Continue into Crow Jane before returning to the opener. Even within these compact performances, the way a song unfolds need not be uniform.
Reference · Craft official Bandcamp: complete 2024 remaster titles and durationsHow Long
Leroy Carr wrote this approximately two-minute-fifty-nine-second seventh track, and Russ Savakus contributes bass. It is a specific exception to an account of the album as entirely solo performance. Once the credit is established, use it to listen for musical function: how does the lower register support the singing and stabilise recurring movement? An additional musician need not create the effect of a large band. Distribution of roles matters more than headcount alone. Hear it between Cherryball and All Night Long to consider its place in the programme. The song offers a route into both collaboration and the process of making another writer’s material part of a personal repertoire.
Reference · Craft Recordings: Today original programme and personnel
Listen next
Compare Mississippi John Hurt’s Today!, keeping their individual performing approaches distinct despite the shared title and release year.
Today! ↗References & editorial note
Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.