Gravedigger’s Blues

Delta guitarist James Son Thomas performs a blues he wrote during the 1940s in Leland, Mississippi his hometown. He talks of the isolating of small Southern towns and the many great musicians who never had an opportunity to make records.

James Son Thomas was a musician and sculptor whose medium was un-fired clay dug from the banks of the Yazoo River. His most famous sculpted images were skulls which encompassed the use of actual human teeth. A gravedigger by trade he would often reiterate the philosophy “we all end up in the clay.” He did not record until 1968 although he had been a musically active in Mississippi since he was young. His sculpted works were showcased at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 1985 where he was introduced to then First Lady, Nancy Reagan.

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