Henry Thomas (blues musician)

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Henry Thomas (1874-1950s?). Henry (Ragtime Texas) Thomas was a major pre-war country blues singer and musician. Thomas, born in Big Sandy, Texas, began his musical career as an itinerant songster (minstrel), and recorded twenty-three songs from 1927 to 1929. He accompanied himself with the guitar and the quills, a folk instrument made from cane reeds that sound similar to the quena used by musicians in Peru and Bolivia. Some of his songs are difficult to categorize — they sound more like precursors to blues than like what is now called "blues." They are, therefore, a rare testimony of the kind of music which preceded the establishment of the blues music in the 19th century. Maybe his best-known influence at present is the song "Bull Doze Blues", a version of which was recorded by Canned Heat as "Going Up The Country".

External links

[Henry Thomas] from the Handbook of Texas Online

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