Henry Thomas
we have looked at Henry Thomas before and I first heard of him through The Lovin’ Spoonful reference presumably via John Sebastian who knew his early roots and blues and I of course loved him by proxy ever since, the kind of blues I always related to, with that down home jug-band rural feel that always struck me!
Then over the weekend there is this beautiful video . . . . . .
"Henry Thomas ('Ragtime Texas'), who was born in Big Sandy (TX) in 1874, was one of the oldest African American musicians to record for the phonograph companies in the late 1920s.
With a repertoire of rags, minstrel, dance and folk tunes, he was more of a 'songster' than a bluesman.
Thomas' BULL DOZE BLUES (Vocalion 1239), recorded in June 1928, is also notable in that the singer, in addition to the guitar, also accompanies himself on the quills (traditionally made of cut Southern Cane tubes), which are very rare in African American music.
Easy to hear that Thomas' record was also the blueprint for Canned Heat's 'Going Up the Country', which was released 40 years later with altered lyrics.According to music experts like Prof. David Evans it is very likely that the street musician who appears in a short sequence at Maxwell Street Market in Heinrich Hauser's film 'Chicago. Weltstadt in Flegeljahren' (1931), is Henry Thomas. The people in the background are probably the protagonists of a medicine show. “
there is this from Dime Store Radio on Facebook!
Remembering Henry Thomas (1874–1930?) He was an American country blues singer, songster and musician. Although his recording career, in the late 1920s, was brief, Thomas influenced performers including Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Grateful Dead, and Canned Heat. Often billed as "Ragtime Texas", Thomas's style is an early example of what later became known as Texas blues guitar.
Thomas was born into a family of freed slaves in Big Sandy, Texas, in 1874. He began traveling the Texas railroad lines as a hobo after leaving home in his teens. He eventually earned his way as an itinerant songster, entertaining local populaces as well as railway employees.
He recorded 24 sides for Vocalion Records between 1927 and 1929, 23 of which were released. They include reels, gospel songs, minstrel songs, ragtime numbers, and blues. Besides guitar, Thomas accompanied himself on quills, a folk instrument fabricated from cane reeds whose sound is similar to the zampona played by musicians in Peru and Bolivia. His style of playing guitar was probably derived from banjo-picking styles.
His life and career after his last recordings in 1929 have not been chronicled. Although the blues researcher Mack McCormick stated that he saw a man in Houston in 1949 who met Thomas's description, most biographers indicate that Thomas died in 1930, when he would have been 55 or 56 years old.
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