2006 UK TOUR
Grateful Fred's Formby United Kingdom
Kim's Pix - Little Church Concert
Recording Angels on the Backroads
UK Tour Spring 2005
Boomer Photos
Review by Pamela McRae
Review by Bobby J Smith
Review by Rheta Johnson
Review by David Kidney
Review by Lionel Ross
Concert Article by Rheta Johnson
Tippah County
Review Jed Pressgrove
Angels on the Backroads
Boomer Years
Mangum Speaking
Zeb and Sal
BLUES TOUR
Natchez Trace
Eddie and Frank Thomas
BLUES TOUR - Ridin' the Road
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Eddie and Frank Thomas Traveled the Blues Highway for Three Years, recording its story...
They traveled Highway 61, Memphis to New Orleans, from 1998 into 2001 recording their versions of 65 blues and jazz classics along the way at locations significant to each song's origin and placed them in a 4 CD box set they called Angels on the Backroads. River banks, box cars, barns, cathedrals, a barbershop, a pecan grove, street corners, a ballroom, the crossroads, cottonfields and a prison are some of the locations where Eddie played and Frank recorded.
Over the next few weeks and months, Eddie and Frank will condense their three year recording adventure into 30 minutes, posting a 30 second video at each of 61 locations.
When Eddie and Frank researched the Music for their box set back in the late 1990's, they traveled to the Blues Archive at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS. At the time, that was the only place they could listen to the vast amount of classic blues recordings from this region. Today, most of these songs and tunes are easily available on the internet. The brothers have looked up these original recordings Eddie used to learn the tunes. Links to these on Spotify will be included each time we put up a new video.
How this BLUES TOUR works... There are two columns below. The first column contains the stops with the video clips, and the second column contains the related songs. These two columns are numbered 1 - 61 and referencing all the stops and tunes along the way. Over the coming Weeks, as we complete one of the 30 second videos, we will make that stop an active link to the video along with a brief description. Those active links will Change color when you roll over them. We will make the related song in the second column active at the same time. If you have a Spotify account, (it's free) you can use this second column and listen to the original song that inspired the brothers to make and record at this stop on their Blues Tour.
To get the most out of this BLUES TOUR and stay engaged, JOIN OUR EMAIL list at the bottom of this page. You'll get an occasional email to let you know what we have added. We'll try to post 2 or 3 new stops every week, but won't send more than one email a week. And Oh Yes! You can easily remove your email address at anytime.
This is a two way street. We expect you to let us know what you think and to share this tour with your friends. We will need to keep folks engaged in order to make sure we get through this. 61 stops is going to be a chore to work through, so keep us going. Don't let us go to sleep on you.
If you get curious about this whole Angels on the Backroads thing (it's been almost 20 years since we did it), you might look around our website. We have a new album release 19 Angels and a book 61 Down the Highway as both physical products and digital downloads. Check them out. Also, a GREAT PLACE TO START might be listening to the 17 minute NPR Interview.
One last note here in...
,,, This may be burying the lead, but the only place you can hear all of the 65 songs Eddie recorded for Angels on the Backroads is by purchasing one of the few remaining (less than 10) box sets that include 80 pages of liner notes ( check our STORE ). You can also purchase individual CDs (all of them except for CD number 2). We recently released 19 Angels which contains a selection of 19 songs from the series as both a physical CD and Digital Download. These 19 tunes are the only ones available on Spotify. Just thought I should point this out if you got this far in reading THE SCOOP.
Thanks for your interest. We hope you enjoy our BLUES TOUR.
Need a good Journey of Discovery; Want to see The Delta; Like to hear and see what Alan Lomax called 'the land where the blues began'?
Try Ridin' the Road with Eddie and Frank. Sixty-one, 30 second clips work hand in hand with the Thomas brothers' new, 240 page memoir, 61 Down the Highway.
10. Big Road Blues (Memphis)
Tommy Johnson recorded Big Road Blues in Memphis in 1928. For this stop in the 61 Down the Highway Blues Tour, Eddie and Frank recorded their version of Big Road Blues underneath a magnolia tree in Desoto Park in Memphis. The Mississippi River lay behind them. A train rattled along tracks just out of sight. Highway 61 beckoned from a block or so away. Eddie, Frank, river, road and rails were all headed south.
Watch the Clip (above) - Choose Your Stop and Listen (below)
CHOOSE YOUR STOP
(below)
Mississippi Blues (Memphis)
St. Louis Blues (Memphis)
Memphis Blues (Memphis)
Downtown Blues (Memphis)
Mississippi Bottom Blues (Peabody Hotel, Memphis)
Rocket 88 (Memphis)
Memphis Jug Blues (Memphis)
Downhearted Blues (Orpheum Theater)
That's No Way (Central Station, Memphis)
Big Road Blues (Memphis)
When the Levee (Walls)
Kansas City (The Levee)
61 Highway (Lake Cormorant)
Shetland Pony (Clack's Store)
Future Blues (Robinsonville)
Sweet Home (Robinsonville)
Cross Road Blues
Hollywood Rag (Hollywood)
Born Blind
M & O Blues (Coahoma)
Country Blues (Stovall Farms)
Ham Hound Crave (Mattson)
Depot Blues (Mattson)
Bull Frog Blues (Dublin Break)
Poor Boy (Tutwiler, MS)
Special Streamline (Swan Lake)
Little Red Rooster (Swan Lake)
Pea Vine Blues (Dockery Farms)
Avalon Blues (the Valley Store)
Mule Ridin' Man (Scott, MS)
High Water (Mounds Landing)
Catfish Blues (Greenwood)
Yellow Dog Blues (Moorhead)
Bright Lights (Dunleith)
Nelson Street (Greenville)
Vacation Blues (Hollandale)
Mean Old 'Frisco (Midnight)
Baby Please Don't Go (Rolling Fork)
Kassie Jones (Vaughan)
Cypress Grove Blues (Bentonia)
Saturday Blues (Jackson)
Sitting on Top (Jackson)
Dust My Broom (Richland)
Old Devil (Bolton)
Vicksburg Blues (Vicksburg)
You Can't Judge a Book (Vicksburg)
New Someday Baby (Port Gibson)
Mississippi River Blues (Natchez)
Pres Returns (Woodville)
Juke (Marksville, Louisiana)
Midnight Special (Angola)
Jolie Blonde (Sunshine)
Buddy Bolden's Blues (New Orleans)
Bamboula (New Orleans)
Mamie's Blues (New Orleans)
Mr. Jelly Lord (New Orleans)
Wolverine Blues (New Orleans)
Basin Street (New Orleans)
Hotter Than That (New Orleans)
Tomorrow Night (New Orleans)
Sweet Hour of Prayer
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