Skip James – "I’m So Glad" Album Review: Soul, Darkness, and Inspiration

Artist: Skip James
Genre: Blues
Style: Delta Blues

Album: I'm So Glad, 1978 – Vanguard – VPD 20001

One of the first vinyl albums I ever purchased back in 1979 was this masterpiece by Skip James.  A master of Blues Guitar known for his intricate picking in Open D-Minor. James's fingerpicking style was fast and clean, with heavy, hypnotic bass lines.

Songs were originally recorded in and around 1931, but after a long hiatus and he was rediscovered by John Fahey and other blues and folk guitarists in the early mid 60s.

In 1964 he re-entered the studio and re-recorded all his masterpieces and took them to a new level of pure brilliance.

Why Skip James album I'm So Glad inspired me

When I first listened to Skip James’ album I’m So Glad, I felt like I had stepped into another world.....A world of pain, darkness and misery.  His voice—high, trembling, almost fragile in its eerie falsetto—cuts through the silence like a prayer and a cry at the same time. It’s not just blues; it’s something darker, something haunting, something that lingers and etches into your soul.

Favourite tracks on the album:
1. “Crow Jane”, which for sure influenced Johnny Cash' Delia's Gone, just read the lyrics and see what you think:

"Crow Jane, Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Don't you hold your head high
Someday, baby, you know
You got to die
You got to lay down an --
You got to die, you got to --

You know, I wanna buy me a pistol
Wants me forty rounds of ball
Shoot Crow Jane, just to see her fall
She got to fall, she got to --
She got to fall, she got to—"

2. "Devil Got My Woman"
Which is said to have inspired Robert Johnson's "Hell Hound on My Trail".

3. “Drunken Spree”

4. “Look Down The Road”

5. “I'm So Glad”
For those wondering who sang “I’m So Glad”, it was Skip James himself. He first wrote and recorded the song back in 1931. It has since become one of the most famous tracks in Delta blues history, covered later by Cream, Deep Purple and many others—but NOTHING compares to the original.

What inspires me most about this album is the raw emotion along with his masterful guitar. The combination of Skip James’ soulful falsetto and his dark, emotional lyrics creates a space where pain and beauty live side by side. Listening to it, I feel both heavy and lifted, as if the sadness itself carries me.

​I’m So Glad is more than just a blues record—it’s a piece of history, a reminder of how music can tell truths we can’t always say. For me, it’s inspiring because it shows how vulnerability and sorrow can be turned into art. That’s why I keep coming back to Skip James, again and again.