Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902 – October 3, 1969)[2] was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter.

AllMusic stated: "Coupling an oddball guitar tuning set against eerie, falsetto vocals, James' early recordings could make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

As a youth, James heard local musicians, such as Henry Stuckey, from whom he learned to play the guitar, and the brothers Charlie and Jesse Sims.

He later left Bentonia in 1919, and began working on road construction and levee-building crews in Mississippi in the early 1920s, and wrote what is perhaps his earliest song, "Illinois Blues", about his experiences as a laborer.

[6] James also operated a music school for would-be blues musicians in Jackson, giving lessons on guitar, piano, and even violin.

As was typical of his era, James recorded various styles of music – blues, spirituals, cover versions, and original compositions – frequently blurring the lines between genres and sources.

[10] In 1964, blues enthusiasts John Fahey, Bill Barth, and Henry Vestine found him in a hospital in Tunica, Mississippi.

[11] According to Calt, the "rediscovery" of both James and Son House at virtually the same time was the start of the blues revival in the United States.

The British post-rock band Hope of the States released a song partially about the life of James, entitled "Nehemiah", which reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart.

[15] In 2004, Wim Wenders directed the film The Soul of a Man (the second part of The Blues, a series produced by Martin Scorsese), focusing on the music of Blind Willie Johnson, J.B. Lenoir and James.

James' song "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" was featured in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

He reportedly learned this tuning from his musical mentor, the unrecorded bluesman Henry Stuckey,[24] who in turn was said to have acquired it from Bahamian soldiers during the First World War,[25] despite the fact that his service card shows he did not serve overseas.

"[2] James's classically informed fingerpicking style was fast and clean, using the entire register of the guitar, with heavy, hypnotic bass lines.

Calt asserts these writers failed to see that in the case of Bentonia bluesman Jack Owens, "the 'tradition' he bore primarily consisted of musical scraps from James' table".

"[26] Despite poor health, James recorded several LPs from 1964 to 1969, mostly revisiting his 1931 sides, traditional music, and spirituals, but also including a handful of newly written blues meditating on his illness and convalescence.

Previously unreleased performances continue to be found and released but have been left largely unexplained, sometimes hours' worth at a time.