I'd Rather Be the Devil - by Stephen Calt (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Skip James (1902-1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of transcendent greatness in a life haunted by failure. And in doing so, Calt offers new insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.

From the Back Cover

This probing study uncovers much of the life and personality of one of the most talented, but disturbed, of bluesmen, Skip James. In documenting the singer's decline during the period of his greatest exposure, Stephen Calt challenges the values of blues enthusiasts and calls into question widely accepted beliefs about the blues genre, its history and its exponents.

Review Quotes

"[Calt] writes with a knowledge and intelligence that make even his most extreme statements interesting . . . His greatest virtue is his insistence on painting James as a real, albeit infuriating, person ." --Boston Globe

"A fascinating and disturbing book, containing a lot of truth, a lot of interesting historical research, and a lot of food for thought." --Living Blues

"An extraordinary work devoted to blues, and more specifically, to one of the true enigmas of country blues." --Lawrence Cohn, editor, Nothing But the Blues

"Entertaining and on the mark . . . Calt's narrative is always interesting and often spellbinding . . . Fascinating reading." --Acoustic Guitar

"Intimate, learned, trenchant, chilling, and true . . . This work surpasses its task with comprehensive research and insight suggestive of far, uncharted travels." --Alan Greenberg, author, Love in Vain

"Penetrating and idiosyncratic . . . A remarkable book." --Minneapolis City Pages

"The appearance of a book on Skip James and his worlds as thorough, clearheaded, and insightful as Calt's should be considered a gift of fate. To say I'd Rather Be the Devil is the best book on the subject of 'country blues' for the layperson would be an understatement on the order of 'Air is good for your body.'" --Village Voice

"This is the real thing. I drink up every word. This and Calt's life of Charlie Patton are the best books ever written on the subject of old-time blues." --R. Crumb, author, R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country

About the Author

Stephen Calt is the author of King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton and the coauthor of R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country. He died in October 2010.