Anthology of American Folk Music
Volume 2: Social Music, Track 35
OLD COUNTRY STOMP
Henry Thomas 
Recorded Chicago: June 13, 1928
Henry Thomas, vocal, guitar, and quills
Originally released on Vocalion 1230
Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas (1874-1950s?) was middle aged when he recorded for Vocalion Records between 1927 and 1929. The uniqueness of his musical style continues to intriegue modern listeners. His age enabled him to become an outlet for one of the few examples of archaic 19th Century African-American music styles to ever be recorded. A blues singer and songster, one of the more impressive facets of his playing was his use of the quills (a form of pan-pipe made from cane). The quill solos along with his backup guitar gave his songs an other-worldly quality.
Thomas himself was a rather shadowy character. He was born and raised in the Big Sandy area of Texas. He played the streets of Dallas and various country dances. Interviews with living relatives in later years paint the picture of a hobo and a wanderer who was often able to travel by train as entertainment for the other passengers (Mac McCormick in the notes to Yazoo 1080/1). Folklorist, McCormick had a chance meeting with Thomas on the streets of Houston in 1949 and described him as a big man, perhaps 6"3" dressed as a hobo (McCormick in the notes to Herwin 209). People occasionally claimed to have seen someone who might have been Ragtime Thomas. The date of his death remains a mystery, but if McCormick is correct, he was still alive at the end of the 1940s.
The spirited feel of Thomas' music found many fans during the folksong revival and versions of his songs cropped up even with those who may have had very little inkling of the man himself. In the notes to his recording, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," Dylan recalled that the song "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance" came from a "now dead Texas blues singer" and that he could only remember that "his name was Henry." Thomas' quill solo in the song "Bull Doze Blues" became the basis for the famous introduction in the rock group Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country." "Fishing Blues" was another song which made it into many repertoires (see Track 84). The 1960s group the Lovin' Spoonful recorded a tribute to him as "Henry Thomas," replacing the quills with a kazoo.
FOR ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS of Thomas see:
Ragtime Texas, His Complete Works 1927-1929 (HER 209a); Texas Worried Blues (YZ 1081c); Henry Thomas Sings the Texas Blues (OJL 3a); and the collections Smithsonian Collection of Classic Blues Singers (SI 101c); Tex-Arkana-Louisiana Country (YZ 1004c); Going Away Blues, 1926-1935 (YZ 1018c); Country Bottleneck Guitar Classics, 1926-1937 (YZ 1026c); Voice of the Blues (YZ 1046c); Roots of Rock (YZ 1063c); Roots of Robert Johnson (YZ 1073c); The Music Never Stopped; The Roots of the Grateful Dead (SH 6014c); Before the Blues, Vol. 1 (YZ 2015c); and Before the Blues, Vol. 3 (YZ 2017c).
