Nehemiah “Skip” James earned a reputation as one of the great early Mississippi bluesmen for the haunting quality of his music. Born in 1902 on the Woodbine Plantation, he grew up there, learned guitar and piano as a youth, and was influenced by fellow Bentonia guitarist Henry Stuckey. The distinctive Bentonia style, also associated with musicians such as Stuckey and Jack Owens, was known for ethereal sounds, open minor guitar tunings, gloomy themes, falsetto vocals, and songs about the work of the devil. After working on construction and logging projects across the mid-South and playing piano in work camp barrelhouses, James returned to Bentonia in 1924, where he made a living as a sharecropper, gambler, and bootlegger while also performing locally with Stuckey. In 1931 he traveled to Grafton, Wisconsin, for a Paramount Records session in which he recorded eighteen songs, including “Devil Got My Woman,” “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” and “22-20 Blues.” His records sold poorly, and later that year he moved to Dallas, where he became a minister and led a gospel group. He later lived in Birmingham, Hattiesburg, Meridian, Memphis, and Tunica County, occasionally returning to Bentonia, and in 1948 sometimes played for locals at the newly opened Blue Front Cafe without earning his living as a musician. Located in 1964 by blues enthusiasts, he resumed performing, moved to Washington, D. C., and then Philadelphia, recorded several albums, and gained renewed renown after Cream’s 1966 cover of “I'm So Glad,” though his somber style and artistic standards limited his broader popular appeal. He died in Philadelphia in 1969 and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1992.