Learning From James 'Son' Thomas - Leland, MS

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All I knew about James 'Son' Thomas (besides being a great blues musician) was that he lived somewhere in Leland MS. After I arrived in Leland I literally went up to the first person I saw and asked if they ever heard of Thomas. The man I asked was carrying a small boy up on his shoulders. He turned to me, slowly put the boy down and leaned into my car window.


"Yeah, I know Son. He's hanging out at the chicken joint up that road. Just go to the intersection and you'll see it."


Wow, what luck. I drove up to the intersection and immediately spied a KFC. Back then it was called 'Kentucky Fried Chicken. By this time I was pretty excited. It had been a long trip and I was anxious to meet 'Son' for the first time. But I was not that fortunate.


I walked in and pretty much saw what one would expect in a KFC - a bunch of families sitting at tables eating their food. On this side of the street though all of them where white. There surely wasn't a single old black blues musician amongst them. 

I walked up to the cashier and asked if she knew a man names James 'Son' Thomas. I explained that he was in his late sixties and played the guitar. She just furrowed her brow and told me that there was no such man around here.

Then manager appeared and I asked him the same question. After giving it about a minutes thought he yelled out "Emma, can you come out here for a minute." A woman, who couldn't have been more than 20 years old emerged from the kitchen.

"Emma, what is your boyfriend's name?" he asked this young lady. "My boyfriend's name is James." she replied with a delightful smile.

"Oh no, I interjected. That can't be the same person. James has got to be in his late sixties."

"Yep, Emma replied... that's my boyfriend!!"

"Where is he?" the manager asked.

"He's over at the chicken joint across the street." she said.

Now I'm thinking to myself there's only one chicken store around here, at least from what I could make out from the street. At this point the manager points to the building (depicted below) and says "That's the place over there."

As you can see from the picture, there's no way anyone could tell what kind of a place it is. Turns out the name of this 'chicken joint' was called Dubbs Cafe.

So I walked across the street and entered the building. Inside were about a half a dozen tables with old, mix and match chairs. Behind the counter was a man wearing an apron who looked at me with a bit of suspicion. Sitting at on of the tables were two farmers who also gave me the once over. As everyone in this place was black I had hopes that perhaps I was getting closer to finding James.

I walked over the to that man behind the counter and asked if he ever heard of James 'Son' Thomas, the guitar player. 

"Sure, I know Son. You play guitar? He's a mighty good guitar player himself. Son's over at his house, just up the block. Make a left when you get to the water tower. There's a big white Cadillac parked out front of his house. You can't miss it."

"James drives a white Cadillac" I asked?

"Oh, my no. That car hasn't run in years" the he replied. But he's home and loves visitors" the cook said with a smile.

So I got in my car and dutifully followed the directions until I got to the home of James 'Son' Thomas.

I walked up his steps, opened up the porch door, and then knocked on his front door. The next thing I heard was this deep, insidious growling coming from behind that door.

“Who is it” I heard James yell out from deep inside the house.

“Uh, my name’s Toby Walker.  I was wondering if I could speak with you for a few minutes.’ That growling now grew much louder.

I heard someone walking up to the door. Before I knew it the door flew open and in a split second this huge, white dog lurched forward, knocked me down, stood over me and was showing me his teeth a few inches from my face. All of a sudden, without any warning, that dog started licking my nose.

“That’s my dog Snowball,” James said. “He usually doesn’t like white folks. I see you made friends with him.”


Born in Eden MS in 1926, Son learned how to play the guitar from his uncle and grandfather. He didn't really start playing seriously until he was in his fifties. During this time one of the ways he made a living was by digging graves. 'I worked as a gravedigger with a man who only had one arm. He was so good at it that he could beat me diggin, just with that one arm.'


Within minutes of my arrival James broke out 2 guitars, one for him and the other for me. We spent the better part of the day jamming on his front porch.

James had a, well, unique way of playing. For those of you that are familiar with the Blues I'm sure you'll hear this right away. For one thing James made his chord changes when HE wanted to, which was not necessarily where another musician might expect them to be. If you're going to 'second him' - meaning to accompany him - you have to listen very carefully so as to not mess up. 

The following songs were recorded right there on the porch that very day!

The first recording is of me telling Son that I would try to follow him. The next four are Son playing his acoustic and me backing him on his electric.

The next two recordings are Son playing solo acoustic through his amp.

By the way... I also teach 'Beefsteak When I'm Hungry' in a Homespun Tapes Direct Download Lesson. The following is a description about that lesson.

As his many fans and students have learned, Toby Walker has a solid command of all aspects of blues fingerpicking - and he knows how to teach it, too. In this lesson he explores a song that he learned personally from the Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer James "Son" Thomas.

"Beefsteak When I'm Hungry" is a funky blues in the key of E. As always, Toby shows the bare bones of the tune, then adds the touches that make this rendition of the song unique. He includes a "choking" right hand strum, an unusual B7 chord, bass walk-ups, a cool ending and a variety of licks. Intermediate guitarists will have fun learning this great blues tune, along with techniques that you can incorporate into any blues tune you play.

Below is a shot of me that was taken on my first visit.

This shot is of James and his son Pat, who is now a fine blues musician, carrying on his father's music. You can read more about him here: The Country Blues

Besides from being an excellent musician, James was a talented maker of clay sculptures. He would get the clay from the banks of the Mississippi river. On one of my visits I noticed a large mound of red clay sitting in his front yard. This was his supply. Inside his front porch was a table laden with cans of spray paint, cotton swabs and sculptures in various stages of development. He would the apply spray paint once a piece was hardened with one of those Q-tips. Here you'll see this process. 

James would start out by shaping his clay into the form he wanted. Here he's cut out a rectangle and is adding some details using a wooden stick. Can you guess what he's making?

I did mention that James worked as a gravedigger.

Next, James would use cans of spray paint to color the sculpture. He used aluminum foil to mask other parts that he would later color differently. 

On subsequent visits I made some video recordings of James playing his music. He was one of the nicest folks I met and spent hours teaching me and whoever I brought along with me his music. I'll forever be in his debt.

Here's a shot of me video taping James in front of his house. I'm on the far left holding the video camera, then there's Pat, Son and over on the far right is one of my former guitar students... Dean.