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Henry Thomas

SUTC:Reverse Engineering
8 months ago

Henry Thomas, whose tune DMDM posted (Bull Doze Blues-1927) yesterday as a source for Canned Heat's Goin' Up The Country, was born in 1874. Thomas was from Texas and his style is closer to that of songsters who were popular before the 1900's, than it is to the recorded blues of the early 20th century. His guitar-as-banjo style and use of the quills(panpipes) were strictly for the dancefloor.F...

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SATURDAY MORNING BLUES 2 ...Goin' Up Country?....
8 months ago

Henry Thomas is another name on the list of true innovators/enigmas. He made about 25 or so recordings in the mid to late 1920's & diappeared from sight forever, lost in the foggy past. Bob Dylan covered (adapted) "Honey Won't You Give Me One More Chance" from Henry Thomas. And of course Canned Heat.......but. When he finally did reappear in the Eighties no one could believe that voice cou...

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Ragtime Texas "The Fox and the Hounds"
about 1 year ago

This is a little gem. I love the cane playing, the vocal phrasing, and the call & response between the two. Here are the lyrics as far as I can make them out. Oh Liza, I'm goin away, I'm goin away;Yes 'tis true, it ain't no use;Oh Henry what'll I do? God don't want, I don't want you, Goodbye, fare you well, Liza, Liza, Liza[on the second verse I'm stumped: I think it starts "Look down the road,...

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Get Your Hat, Get Your Coat, Get To Shakin On Down the Line
about 1 year ago

I am enamored of this little song. I like how the guy literally boxes himself in, then, after a burial at sea, finds his way out again, as if imagining himself as desirable whalebait and fish food suddenly boosts his self-confidence and his spirits. (Repeat each line three times except the last line which repeats only twice).I've got the worried blues, God I'm feelin bad.I've got no one to tell...

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Ragtime Texas
about 1 year ago
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This song has been posted before - - you can stream it here - - but I'm in love and cannot help it.Henry 'Ragtime Texas' Thomas was an itinerant musician and inveterate hobo and as such a train freak after my own heart. Thomas was born 1874 in Upshur County, Texas, one in a family of perhaps nine children to parents who had been slaves and who were "even as free people ...still pretty well trap...

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