One of my old pals Jacqui wrote to me via the show yesterday. She suggested we play some Henry Thomas. Pleasing Jacqui and playing Henry Thomas is pushing at an open door with me.
I met a guy many years ago who told me the story of Henry Thomas. It seems that, well after he’d recorded the 22 songs or so which made up his catalogue, he’d been forgotten about. (as so many of the delta blues men were) years later two guys had gone down to the delta to make a documentary about the blues and realised that the busker they’d heard in some southern town must have been Henry Thomas.
There are many such stories. I’m reading a few others like that in Robert Gordon’s book, ‘It Came from Memphis.’ It tells the stories which run parallel to the famous Memphis names. It illustrates how the desire to reacquaint the modern world with the music of the delta led to some of the great music which we now associate with that Tennessee city. One of the stories I like a lot is about the first country blues festival which was put on to showcase many of these old blues performers. The venue they chose had been used a week earlier to host a Klu Klux Klan rally but the significant part of the story was that there were more people there to see the music. From these tensions grew the music we now love so dearly.
Sometimes people will wonder why we play such a broad selection of stuff on the lounge. I, however, only see connections. One of the great things I learned recently – and this is self evident from the recent album by Solomon Burke called Nashville – is that many African American artists knew an enormous amount about country music. The reason? In the 40s and 50s black radio stations were closed over the weekend and everyone spent Saturday nights gathered round the radio. What did they listen to? ……The Grand Old Opry.
Oh, wish you could have joined us just after Katrina rocked the world in the Delta. Some 500 “refugees” were flown to Arizona to be temporarily housed in one of our sports arenas. I was with a group that welcomed them, tried to find lodging elsewhere for them and play with, entertain and provide a shoulder for the children and young people…..that was my favorite.
Music brought a lot of things out, and brought many people together, bolstered them. We wound up with the oldsters singing blues songs and we all cried, cause it was so necessary and so right. Then we laughed with songs from the Bayou and we learned music games that had been long forgotten. (I may have mentioned the heat factor, and that holds for August and September, so staying in the Air Conditioning is important, even it is a dry heat.) We had several muscians in that group of refugees, some professionals, but everybody in the same stressed out boat. We still hold fundraisers for New Orleans and it is going to take many more years of doing that, to pay back for all of the neglect and mistakes.
I was in London when Katrina hit. I remember one of the first stories to emerge, before people realised the full extent of the devastation, was that Fats Domino was mssing. I persuaded the pianist in The Savoy Hotel to play Blueberry Hill and was pleased those present were thinking about all the victims of the tragedy.
I like the way certain songs have a way of capturing a moment in history. The Texan band Deadman penned a song for the Katrina Disaster Relief Fund. Please check it out at http://www.myspace.com/deadman
Kind regards.
Henry Thomas… a name I knew solely from the song title until now, so thanks for the education and I’ll be sure to check out the book. I also have one of your live performances to thank, Ricky, for owning the complete works of Blind Alfred Reed.
On Katrina, one song that still moves me every time I hear it is Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Houston” (I submitted this in one of my “Two For You, Two For Me” requests alongside “Deportee” in fact). Mary Chapin has this knack of getting to the soul of such incidents in both lyrics and performance, and for someone just watching horrific scenes on the news from the other side of the Atlantic the very personal story she tells brought the disaster and its aftermath home. It’s a tragically beautiful song from the album “The Calling” — album of the year to date for me.
I meant to add too a resounding agreement about the connections to be found in music. I love exploring and learning about such connections, and often get told in turn that my extensive CD collection is remarkably eclectic in nature. (I think that’s often a polite way of saying a mixture of “good” and “bad” half the time, though!) To me, though, above all I just love songs that touch and connect with me, and this crosses all genres and eras.
Iain put together an exquisite collection of songs about New Orleans from across all musical genres which he played the day after Katrina. If you’re able to dig through the BBC archives while you’re there, look for the playlist – you’ll never forget it.
this is another deacon blue thing for me.
i was listening to what ever you say say nothing.
back in the early 90’s.
i heard the track last night i dreamed of henry thomas. i had never heard of the man who he was or what he did.
i guessed that the back round sample was a something to do with him.
after researching books etc. i got to know quite a bit.
i also managed to hear some stuff as well.
so once again thankyou for some inspirational insite.