With first-take fervor, Richard James follows his influences : GoMemphis.com

Raised in Queens, N.Y., and on Long Island, Richard James would seem to have grown up far away from the "old, weird America" of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, the seminal 1950s compilation of obscure early blues and country recordings that served as the folk music gateway for Bob Dylan and generations of musicians after him.

But as a child, James was enthralled by the sounds on the TV as he sat with his father and watched programs like "The Johnny Cash Show" and "Hee Haw," and as an adult he set off after them and eventually landed in Memphis.

"All the records that I really like always seem to come from this area," James says from a booth in the Buccaneer, the Midtown bar where he sometimes works and plays. "I remember the first time I drove into the city, like the first time I drove into New Orleans, like the first time you drive into New York, all of a sudden your back goes straight and its like, OK, I've got to watch myself here because this place has something going on, and it could be dangerous."

Tonight James stakes out his own plot of "old, weird America" with the release of Haints In My Past, his new disc with his band, the Special Riders. The group will commemorate the release of the limited-run disc, featuring handmade art work from James himself, with a show at the Beauty Shop featuring guest appearances by Jake and Toby Vest of the bands Bulletproof Vests and the Third Man, and an opening performance from Special Riders bassist and James' wife, Anne Schorr.

James recorded Haints at High/Low Recording, the makeshift studio recently featured in "$5 Cover," with his current lineup of Schorr and drummer Marcus Battle, as well as a guest appearance by Jake Vest on guitar and keyboards from producer Tim Regan of Snowglobe. Emulating many of the artists he admires, James cut Haints quickly with very little second-guessing.

"We actually only went to cut a few songs, and we ended up doing the basic tracks for all 10 songs in under an hour," James says of the initial session upon which the record is built. "I think we played one song twice, but everything else was first cut. That's the way they used to do it. One of my favorite recordings ever is something Howlin' Wolf did at (Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service) called 'Moanin' At Midnight,' and it's him, Willie Johnson on guitar, and Willie Steel on drums. It's not blues. It's just a weird groove. It's an amazing song, and that was just cut that way."

Haints is likewise charged with that kind of otherworldly energy. The record brims with the influences James has accumulated over the years, influences like rockabilly pioneer Charlie Feathers and his disciples, the '70s psychobilly greats the Cramps that always seem to point back to Memphis.

James was a long time getting here himself, however. After graduating from high school in Long Island, he joined the Army, where he befriended another soldier who introduced him to a whole world of punk and postpunk bands, including Public Image and Joy Division. Stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., James left the military in the late 1990s and moved to nearby Nashville, a music center that seemed as good a place as any to begin a music career. But almost from the get-go, he realized he was out of step with the Nashville establishment.

"At that time it actually had a pretty good music scene; I've seen the Exploited there. I've seen the Gun Club, the Minutemen, the Violent Femmes," says James, outright rejecting the country music establishment that earned Nashville its nickname of "Music City, U.S.A." "Nashville's a strange place. There's a lot of great music there, but the business side just kind of pollutes it. There's a lot of great stuff there, but Memphis is just like its own planet."

While in Nashville, James formed the earliest versions of the Special Riders and, through friendships with bands like Hedgecreep, began paying regular visits to Memphis. It did not take long for the singer and guitarist to recognize a vibe in the city that Nashville lacked.

"Memphis made me think of New York in the '70s," James says. "It just has a certain gritty vibe. It's kind of on the edge."

Richard James & the Special Riders CD Release Party

11 p.m. today at the Beauty Shop, 966 S. Cooper. Admission: $5.