Chris Thomas King: A performance and Oral History of New Orleans Blues
New Orleans Grammy award winning blues artist and songwriter Chris Thomas King performs at the New Orleans Jazz Museum on Thursday, May 3 at 8:00pm. Tickets are $21.00 and available at the door (cash) or online.
About Chris Thomas King:
Chris Thomas King is a celebrated actor from Oscar winning movies O Brother, Where Art Thou and Ray.
King’s major contributions to the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” phenomenon, along with its follow up album and tour, “Down From The Mountain,” has inspired a new generation of musicians such as, Hozier, Mumford & Sons, and the Lumineers. His songs “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” and “John Law Burned Down the Liqour Sto,’” to name a few, have been covered by numerous artists including legend Buddy Guy.
Thirty years after becoming the last major folk blues discovery of the 20th Century, Chris Thomas King, whose career is a coda for the folk blues revival of the ‘60s, is today, one of the most important artists in the world for having changed the way we think of blues.
In a newly written song King sings a remarkable refrain that goes, “The blues was born in, Louisiana, not Mississippi, or Texarkana,” about the ostensible fallacy that it orginated in the Delta. He then goes on to state unequivocally in the following verse, “Down in New Orleans” is “where the blues was born. You can still hear the sound of, Buddy Bolden’s horn.” Thankfully, also in New Orleans, we can still hear the enlightened art of Chris Thomas King.
“I’ve never shied away from being called a “blues artist.” Unfortunately, the public has, over the pass 100 years, forgotten its true meaning, how revolutionary it was at the turn of the 20th Century. The blues planted the seeds for America’s counter-culture, its quintessentially American music. I am proud to be its ambassador. ”