The tenth volume of the “Blues At Home” Collection, this CD features Leland, Mississippi, bluesman James “Son” Thomas (born 1926) along with his uncle Joe Cooper, both hailing from Yazoo County, Mississippi, and Leland blues artist Eddie Cusic. Thomas, Cooper, and Cusic were discovered in the late ‘60s by researcher Bill Ferris, and Thomas and his uncle’s music are featured in Ferris’s book Blues from The Delta. “Son” Thomas also appeared in several blues LP anthologies issued in the UK during the late ‘60s and in some documentary films produced by the Center For Southern Folklore. From the ‘80s until his death in 1995, James “Son” Thomas was in the folk music circuit, recording several albums and performing all over the world. He was also active as a sculptor, whose themes spanned from animal figures to abstract figurative clay heads, in some cases true multimedia works, as actual teeth were found by Thomas at a local dentist’s. Joe Cooper was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1914. In 1941, aged 25, he was living in Eden, Mississippi, and working in Yazoo City, Mississippi, for the Couch Construction Company. He also did farm work in the Jackson and Yazoo City areas during his youth. Apart from a few details, very little is known of his life except that he was James “Son” Thomas’s uncle and had taught him how to play the blues. He played with Henry Stuckey, considered one of the founders of the Bentonia blues style, from whom he probably got some songs then acquired by “Son” Thomas. He played at local house parties, getting in touch with Tommy McClennan and Elmore James, who probably influenced his music and “Son” Thomas’s as well. Worthy of mention is that Joe Cooper performed with his nephew in a verbal competition featuring double-entendre verses, transcribed in Ferris’s books. This is an important documentation of African-American culture, and it is very interesting to notice that the piece is actually an unexpurgated version of “Catfish Blues,” recorded later in 1982 by James “Son” Thomas at a concert in Germany. During the first session held at “Son” Thomas’s house in Leland in August 1976, Joe performed a few songs as accompanist on an electric guitar, using the bass strings only, and two vocal and guitar solos, both featured on this CD. Eddie Cusic was born in 1926 in Leland, Mississippi, and spent his childhood in the nearby Wilmont community, working in the fields with his family. In this area, Cusic started learning to play blues by watching older members of his community. Before using a standard six-string acoustic guitar in the ‘40s, he experienced the sound of the one-string hand-made instrument known as the diddley-bow. During the ‘50s, Cusic was active in juke joints of the Greenville-Leland area, also performing very often in several other Delta towns with Greenville musician “Little” Milton Campbell, with whom he started a small band called Rhythm Aces. In the 1960s he played regularly with James “Son” Thomas at social events in Leland and throughout Mississippi. He also worked outside music in a government quarry, cutting stone and quitting guitar playing for several years. In 1989, Cusic retired from the quarry work and, at age 72, came back to music, performing alone on acoustic guitar. As a solo performer, he appeared since 1989 in several blues festivals and cut a CD for Hightone Records in 1997. The 25-track collection featured on this CD presents some of Thomas’s most genuine music ever published on record, alone and with his partners, who also played some additional blues and boogies by themselves. The material was recorded during several informal sessions held in 1976, 1978, and 1982 at the artists’ private homes in Leland and Greenville, Mississippi. The 1982 interview is featured in volume 14 of the series. All tracks have been fully digitally remastered from the original tapes in 2013. —Giambattista Marcucci ALBUM CREDITS Phonographic copyright & © 2013 Giambattista Marcucci All rights of the producer and copyright owner reserved Recorded, edited, and produced by Giambattista Marcucci Image caption: James “Son” Thomas at home, Leland, Mississippi, 1978 Cover photograph © 1978-2013 by Giambattista Marcucci