Background
Thomas was born in Logansport, Louisiana, one of nine children in his family.
Thomas was born in Logansport, Louisiana, one of nine children in his family.
He was the brother of another blues musician, Jesse Thomas. Thomas is best remembered for his slide guitar playing and for several pieces recorded in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Blues scholars seem undecided if Thomas"s nickname referred to his style of playing or to his itinerant nature.
Thomas relocated to Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas, in the late 1920s and was influenced by the playing of Lonnie Johnson.
He performed in San Antonio, Oklahoma and possibly Saint Louis, Missouri, in his subsequent travels. He recorded in Dallas and Chicago between 1928 and 1932, for Paramount Records and Victor Records.
Thomas reportedly died of tuberculosis in 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee. Document Records is amongst the record labels to have released retrospective compilations of his work on Civil Defense (previously there were LP issues on Heritage, Biograph, and Matchbox Records).