Saturday, April 25, 2009

Son Thomas

YouTube - James Sonny Ford Thomas

Sometime back in the eighties I went to the Depot Restaurant and Lounge in Columbus Mississippi to see the blues man Son Thomas. This old man played two hours and never played the same song twice. During one of his breaks I went up on the little stage and talked with him. I don't remember what all we talked about, but I asked him about his sculptings. He said yes he gathered clay and made sculptings of George Washington and other presidents, I don't remember which ones. Son told me that he went to the barber shops and collected hair for the heads and got the teeth from a local dentist. A few months later I asked someone how he was doing. I was told that he had fallen and was burned on his wood stove at home. I don't think he ever fully recovered. One day I read in the paper where the blues man James Sonny Ford Thomas had died.

You can Google his work. I don't know what a piece would bring and probably don't want to know.

2 comments:

Lori said...

Loved the video! But real hair and real teeth? That's just gross.

Roger Howell said...

Yeah, now that I think about it , it is gross.
Just about all the old blues men are gone now. The Beatles, Stones and many many more listened to these old men for licks and inspiration.
I really enjoyed the short visit.