Here. Formed the basis of Canned Heat's Going Up the Country. Henry Thomas
Henry Thomas ('Ragtime Texas'), who was born in Big Sandy (TX) in 1874, was one of the oldest African American musicians to record for the phonograph companies in the late 1920s. With a repertoire of rags, minstrel, dance and folk tunes, he was more of a 'songster' than a bluesman. Thomas' BULL DOZE BLUES (Vocalion 1239), recorded in June 1928, is also notable in that the singer, in addition to the guitar, also accompanies himself on the quills (traditionally made of cut Southern Cane tubes), which are very rare in African American music. Easy to hear that Thomas' record was also the blueprint for Canned Heat's 'Going Up the Country', which was released 40 years later with altered lyrics. According to music experts like Prof. David Evans it is very likely that the street musician who appears in a short sequence at Maxwell Street Market in Heinrich Hauser's film 'Chicago. Weltstadt in Flegeljahren' (1931), is Henry Thomas. The people in the background are probably the protagonists of a medicine show.
