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

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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).

Steve James - American Primitive (1994)

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Back to the early roots of blues

The album's title, "American Primitive", announces what's on the menu : old times jug blues. James decided to devote a full record to a hundred years old style, when guitar had not yet totally taken advantage over banjo or to a lesser extent over mandolin. This voyage into the origins of country blues, and especially of the East-Coast Piedmont rag style famous for its complex guitar picking, is pure jubilation.

There's here a lot of things inherited from early rural folk tradition and even bluegrass. James' guitar is coupled to Danny Barnes' banjo and Rubin' stand-up bass reminds the times when a simple broomstick equiped with a single string attached to a washtub was used as a bass (remember the front cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Willy and the Poor Boys" ?). Primich' harmonica complete this 100% Texan line-up.

Steve James - Two Track Mind (1993) / Nathan James - I Don't Know It (2009)

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Double King James version
Here are two master guitar finger-pickers, both bearing the same name : the elder Steve, born in 1950 in New York, and the younger Nathan, born on the West Coast in the late 1970s near San Diego. Both not only share the same name but also the same passion for "old" acoustic blues and other kinds of roots music.