In my post about Steve Goodman, I also mentioned that Henry Thomas was one of the musicians that put me in a good mood.
I don’t know where I first heard Henry Thomas, but three possibilities are Canned Heat’s song “Going up the Country” which uses Thomas’ “Bull Doze Blues” as its blueprint, Taj Mahal’s “Fishing Blues,” which is a reworking of Thomas’ song of the same name, or maybe it was the Grateful Dead’s version of “Don’t Ease Me In”. Hearing those songs got me interested, but hearing the originals is what got me hooked.
Canned Heat - Going up the Country
Henry Thomas - Bull Doze Blues
Taj Mahal - Fishin Blues
Henry Thomas - Fishing Blues
Grateful Dead - Don't Ease Me In
Henry Thomas - Don't Ease Me In
Henry Thomas was an early blues musician. Actually that’s not entirely true. He was a “pre-blues” musician, what is often called a “songster.” A songster was a person who played a variety of genres of music, ranging from ballads, dance tunes, pop songs, ragtime and blues. You can see this in the nickname Henry Thomas is sometimes called, “Ragtime Texas.” Not much is known about Henry Thomas; he was born around 1874, but it is not known when he died. There are stories that he was seen performing on street corners into the 1950’s.
What we do know for a fact is that between 1924 and 1927, he recorded 23 songs that laid a cornerstone for future musicians, while at the same time showing how the form known as “the blues” came to be.
What is it about those 23 songs that put me in a good mood? Is it the incessant train-like rhythm, the sound of the quills, the way the lyrics from one song show up in another, the vocals? All I know is that when all of those ingredients are combined, it can’t help but put a smile on my face.
For some more information on Henry Thomas check these out
Bio
Quills
Guitar and Quill Technique
(Weenie Campbell has a lot of great information on country blues. I’ve been a long time lurker on that forum)
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