Tabby Thomas (1929-2014)

Even when my Dad was most ill, he still found a way to say something to put a smile on people's faces. His legacy is that he touched people with his music and his conversation.

                                                                                    Chris Thomas King

Blues legend Ernest “Tabby” Thomas died in a Baton Rouge, LA nursing home on New Year's Day, four days short of his 85^th birthday. He had been suffering from cancer.  In addition to being a singer, guitarist and pianist, he owned Tabby's Blues Box, a Baton Rouge night club, for 25 years. He sang and played in the New Orleans and Southern Louisiana style known as swamp blues. Blues singer Chris Thomas King is his son.

Ernest Joseph Thomas was born in Baton Rouge on January 5, 1929. Chris Thomas King has written an essay about his father's early life, up until 1953. He was a high school football quarterback, although he later came to regret it due to lingering injuries. His nickname, “Tabby the Cat,” came from his moves on the field. While in high school, he became a fan of jump blues, especially New Orleans R&B singer Roy Brown. His football prowess earned him a scholarship to Leland University, where he intended to study to become a minister, but he dropped out.

In 1949, he moved to Detroit, where he became an amateur boxer and took in the Hastings Street blues scene. Unable to find work, he joined the Air Force and served in Guam and Riverside, California. After his service commitment was ended, he remained in San Francisco and took a job in a shoe store. He won a talent show sponsored by radio station KSAN singing Roy Brown's “Long About Midnight.” Among the competitors he defeated were Etta James and Johnny Mathis. This led to his first recording, “Midnight is Calling” (1952) on the Recorded in Hollywood label.

When the record failed to catch on, he returned to Baton Rouge in 1953. Louis Armstrong heard him perform at the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans and put him in touch with the Eric Shaw booking agency. He soon found his way to J. D. Miller's recording studio in Crowley, LA, where swamp blues greats such as Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo, and Katie Webster got their starts, and where he recorded the songs that established his reputation. The first of these, released on Miller's own Feature label in 1954, was “Tomorrow.”

Most of Thomas's other recordings for Miller were leased to Excello Records in Nashville. He was usually accompanied on harmonica by either Lazy Lester or Whispering Smith. In 1961, he had a local hit with “Hoodoo Party,” a typical New Orleans-style rocker.

Thomas and his band, the Mellow, Mellow Men, were a leading Southern Louisiana attraction for decades. By day, he worked in a chemical plant, where he became a union steward. In the late '60s, he started his own record label, Blue Beat, where he released his recordings and those of fellow musicians from the area. In 1979, he opened Tabby's Blues Box, which featured swamp blues peers such as Raful Neal, Silas Hogan and Henry Gray, while providing a venue for younger performers like Raful's son Kenny Neal, Larry Garner, Tab Benoit and his own son Chris. The club was shut down by urban renewal in 2000, but he moved to another location. He also hosted a radio program in Baton Rouge.

He had a serious auto accident in 2002, and a stroke in 2004, which made him unable to play, but did not affect his singing. Here he is singing “The Thrill is Gone” with his son after his stroke.

He closed the club later that year, but continued to play at blues festivals until recently. In this undated clip, he is joined on stage at the Baton Rouge Blues Festival by Buddy Guy.

On January 7, a concert celebrating the life of Tabby Thomas was held at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge. Performers included Henry Gray, Kenny Neal, Tab Benoit and Chris Thomas King.

Eric “Guitar” Davis (1972-2013)

Singer-guitarist Eric “Guitar” Davis, 41, was murdered on the streets of Chicago on December 19. The son of drummer Bobby “Top Hat” Davis, he had released one CD, Trouble Makin' Man, available from CD Baby. He recently signed with Delmark and was considered to be an up-and-coming blues star. Here he is singing the title tune from his CD at the Chicago Blues Festival.

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