Sold Date: August 31, 2016
Start Date: August 21, 2016
Final Price: $304.00 (USD)
Bid Count: 8
Seller Feedback: 463
Buyer Feedback: 53

HENRY THOMAS 'Ragtime Texas"

-A:  John Henry: "voice whistling and guitar" (note there is no whistling- he plays the very rare southern                                                                                                                     pan-pipe instrument the quills- very intriguing sound)                                                                                                                                

-B: Cottonfield Blues: vocal with guitar

Vocalion 1094          

Condition:   VG++   

Record has a lot of light surface scuffing that does not penetrate to the recorded surface. Record plays like an E  condition record. Excellent sound quality. There are a lot of  surface scuff marks and lite scratches that do not affect play except on the John Henry side there are three minor clicks due to a small sand pit about an inch before the end of the song.

On the Cottonfield side the surface noise is a little higher for the first half inch and then it settles in  to be barely noticeable. 

We are looking at a record that plays really well but that was not well looked after and was not sleeved for many years. Labels are bright and clean. 

from Wikipedia:

Henry Thomas (1874–1930) was an   singer,  and musician, who enjoyed a brief recording career in the late 1920s which has latterly been influential. He was often billed as "Ragtime Texas". His style was an early example of what later became known as  guitar.

Thomas was born into a family of freed slaves in  in 1874. He began traveling the Texas railroad lines as a  after leaving home in his teens. He eventually earned his way as an itinerant , entertaining local populaces as well as railway employees.

He recorded 24 sides for  between 1927 and 1929, 23 of which were released. They include , , ,  numbers, and . Besides guitar, Thomas accompanied himself on , a folk instrument fabricated from  reeds whose sound is similar to the  played by musicians in Peru and Bolivia. His style of playing guitar was probably derived from -picking styles

Thomas' legacy has been sustained by his songs, which were revived by musicians beginning in the  of the early 1960s. Among the first of these was "Honey Won't You Allow Me One More Chance", which was re-interpreted by  on  in 1963 under the title "". Dylan may have been introduced to Thomas through 's 1952 compilation , which includes two of Thomas' songs, "Old Country Stomp" and "Fishing Blues". Dylan may have heard Thomas' song on the 1962 album Henry Thomas Sings the Texas Blues.:43 Although Dylan re-worked the melody and almost totally re-wrote the lyrics, he credited Thomas as co-writer on Freewheelin'.

Thomas' song "" was recorded by US  group  in 1965, appearing on their hit debut album . The song was recorded three years later, in 1968, by blues musician  for one of his first albums, De Old Folks at Home and has since been released on many of Taj Mahal's greatest hits compilations. The  also covered the song on their album  in 2002.

"Bull-Doze Blues", another of Thomas' Vocalion recordings, was reworked by pianist Johnny Miller in 1927 who re-wrote the words and gave it to who recorded two versions titled "Up the Country" in December 1927 on Columbia and September 1930 on Champion Records. Except in jazz circles, it remained an obscure blues number until it was picked up by the  group , as the basis for the song "". Though re-arranged, the Canned Heat song is musically the same, down to a faithful rendition of Thomas' quill solos by . Fellow band member re-wrote the lyrics entirely and received credit on the song's original release in 1968 on Canned Heat's third album, Living the Blues. The next year, the group played at the . Their live performance of "Going Up the Country" was featured in the   and appeared as the second cut on the .

I know how to pack 78's so that they arrive safe and unbroken

Record can be returned for full refund if you feel that I have misrepresented the condition.

Shipping: I charge the actual  cost for me to ship you the item, not including materials which are free. 

>>>>>>Please wait for me to send you an invoice as shipping is NOT $4.00.

Please do not pay right away as I would have to send you a supplementary invoice for the rest of the shipping...

Shipping to the US is $6.00 via Media Mail mailed from the US.   Shipping to Canada is  around $12.00 

Shipping to the rest of the world is around $22.00- Please wait for the invoice.  

Buy more than one- I will calculate combined shipping based on the weight- way less for the second record...