onurblues: Steve James – Live, Vol. I, Austin TX & Berkeley CA (2016)

January 19, 2023

Steve James – Live, Vol. I, Austin TX & Berkeley CA (2016) - Blues And Folk Songs, Vol. 1 (2018)

► Get the album at the usual place...

Departure of an acoustic roots blues goldsmith

Last January 6th was a sad day for acoustic roots blues lovers. That day guitar virtuoso Steven James Wright, better known as Steve James, put his instrument down, definitely, struck down by a lightning brain tumor. A great loss for blues. He was picking flat-top guitar or sliding on steel resonator guitar (aka dobro), mandolin and banjo, and singing with a powerful but at the same time fragile voice.

Born in New York City in 1950, he first discovered blues listening to his father's old 78-rpm discs from Leadbelly, Josh White or Meade "Lux" Lewis. Later, in Tennessee, he met and learned from great finger picking guitarist Sam McGee (1894-1975) and B.B. King's supposed cousin Furry Lewis (1893 or 1899-1981).

Sam McGee

In 1977, he moved to San Antonio, Texas, and his musical horizons widened when he had the opportunity to play with visiting musicians : saxophone legend Clifford Scott, rock & roll musician Bo Diddley, blues player John P. Hammond Jr. and Greenwich Village charismatic folk-blues songster Dave Van Ronk, a close friend of Bob Dylan.

He didn't release his debut album, “Two Track Mind” (available on BD, as well as many others), before 1993 though. Altogether he left us with a dozen albums, among which two double-acts with Del Rey with whom he toured several years, and guested on albums by Gary Primich, Cindy Cashdollar, Angela Strehli, Ana Egge, James McMurtry…

This busy blues connoisseur also released several instructional books and videos, including about mandolin playing, and was writing in “Acoustic Guitar Magazine”. Among his influences, he used to mention Rev. Gary Davis, Skip James, Son House, Lightnin' Hopkins, Doc Watson…

→ “Live Vol. I, Austin TX & Berkeley CA” gives a good idea of a live concert by James solo on stage. If you expect your classic acoustic blues, you might be surprised : the man doesn't just sing songs, his own or revisited covers, he's telling stories like an actor, pushing his voice up to underline some verses, or lowering it to an intimate level as if he was unveiling a secret. Sometimes, he doesn't even really sing, doing some talking blues (“Huggin' And Chalkin'”).

Also, one of the appealing aspects of his live performance is humor, in the songs he chose as well as in the banters introducing almost each number while tuning his guitar : there again he's a gifted story-teller, almost a stand-up artist, when he talks about Charlie Poole (1892-1931) or Amos Easton aka Bumble Bee Slim (1905-1968), or even himself (“I Love My Guitar”). This kind of things are hard to do on a studio recording but perfectly efficient on a live one, especially in a small venue where the artist performs very close to the audience.

James instrumental adaptation of his repertoire, mainly devoted to Piedmont rag style, is just amazing. Who would guess the first track, “The Down Bound Train”, with its unique slide riff, was the mix of a traditional with a…. Chuck Berry song from 1955 !

James is showing his skilled mandolin technique on the Big Joe Williams number “Juanita Stomp”, but it is on guitar (regular flat-top but most of all resonator played in slide mode), that he is the most impressive, like on the instrumental “Guitar Rag”.

His adaptations of Bumble Bee Slim, “Greasy Greens” and “Wetter Clothes Blues”, are great moments, especially the first title. The talking blues “Huggin' And Chalkin'” is delivered with an irresistible humor, while “Railroad Blues” is a homage to his early mentor Sam McGee. As for his own material (“Talco Girl”, “I Love My Guitar”, “Birmingham Steel”), it doesn't really sound below level when compared to the old songs he revisits back to life.

Steve James belonged to this generation of acoustic roots musicians that emerged during the folk & blues revival of the 1960s, a generation that counts artists like Roy Book Binder, Doug MacLeod, Toby Walker…

→ “Blues And Folk Songs, Vol. 1” was recorded in studio and this can be heard from the opening “Seattle Blues” : the sound (guitar and voice) is crystal clear compared to the 2016 live recording, and even if lacking the energetic spontaneity of a live performance, it is a fine collection of old vintage blues but also more recent material (Jesse Colin Young, Johnny Winter).

Except for a couple of his own originals, “Seattle Blues” and the instrumental “Copeland's Fancy”, and for revisited popular traditionals like “Stewball” and “Stack Lee's Blues”, James has picked up some good oldies from relatively obscure (except for learned specialists) blues pioneers.

From Texas musicians, he covers “Bulldoze Blues” from Henry Thomas (1874-possibly 1930), one of the early players of what became known later as Texas blues guitar style, and “Lucy Mae” from Frankie Lee Sims (probably 1917-1970), and not Frank Robinson as mistakenly mentioned in the presentation text from Acoustic Guitar Magazine ( !).

Henri Thomas

The outstanding sorrowful “All In Down and Out Blues” is from Tennessee born country-folk banjo player Uncle Dave Macon (1870-1952) generally considered as “the grand-father of country music", and “Yo Yo Blues” was written by Georgia native Piedmont blues musician Barbecue Bob (1902-1931).

If Big Bill Broonzy (1893 or 1903-1958) is more renowned, his song “(Snake Doctor) How Do You Want It Done?” from the early 1930s is not his most famous one. James is playing it on mandolin, which enhances the definite oldie atmosphere of the song.

James revisit of one of the most covered traditionals of popular American music, “Stack Lee's Blues”, is different from the Mississippi John Hurt's version : the story is told from Lee's point of view, showing James skills as a talented story-teller.

Jesse Colin Young

Finally, James covers songs from two contemporaries : “Sugar Babe”, written by ex-Youngbloods Jesse Colin Young (real name Perry Miller, born in 1941) and released on his 1975 album “Songbird”, to which James gives a unique ragtime touch on guitar, and the late Texas guitar-slinger Johnny Winter (1944-2014) with the subtle boogie “Mean Town Blues” first recorded by Winter in 1969.

The whole album is a treat for the ears of acoustic guitar fans : live or in studio, James was a hell of a guitar (and mandolin) player ! His output was always tasty, his covers full of creativity, his singing highly expressive. We'll miss him but let's be consoled : at least he joined all those old bluesmen he covered, avoiding they fall definitely into obscurity. ■

► Live videos... are better than long speeches
- Many links to videos of Steve James live were already published in the following pages :
→ https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/07/steve-james-two-track-mind-1993-nathan.html
→ https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/08/steve-james-american-primitive-1994.html

- Here is some new ones
● Guitar Workshop, August 5, 2022 : https://youtu.be/b0exySjM7Vs

- Songs from the albums reviewed above :
● "Guitar Rag" :
→ With Del Rey, 2007 : https://youtu.be/02D0mbUtAf0
→ Solo, 2013 : https://youtu.be/jIOnkGlwNzU
● "Huggin' and Chalkin'" with Cindy Cashdollar, Austin, TX, 2010 : https://youtu.be/fUkEpjhUSgM

● “Milwaukee Blues” :
→ Ireland, 2011 : https://youtu.be/wX1kom2fPVM
→ With The Atomic Duo, Austin, TX, 2012 : https://youtu.be/flHdxLlfH8o
● “Railroad Blues”, 2013 : https://youtu.be/zvoDpBbNV24
● “The Latex Road (variations)”, 2013 : https://youtu.be/ilUR2o9kTWE
● “Birmingham Steel”, Tampere, Finland, 2014 : https://youtu.be/KH1GcvdZEt8
● “Wet Clothes Blues”/“Greasy Greens”, Tampere, Finland, 2014 : https://youtu.be/RZU0JuFS9V0
● "Copeland’s Fancy", Acoustic Guitar Magazine, 2019 : https://youtu.be/FMnUvlJr9L0
● “Seattle Blues”, Tampere, Finland, 2019 : https://youtu.be/i4Fn_4-7tFk
● “Down Bound Train”, Tampere, Finland, 2022 : https://youtu.be/gmlg2VjLxHs