“Down From The Mountain is a fantastic tour and I’m just lucky to be part of it,” said a modest Chris Thomas King. What he’s talking about is a colorful array of bluegrass and country musicians who are touring the country playing to sold out audiences across America. What they have in common is that they all participated in the wildly successful, Grammy winning “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’’ soundtrack. So here’s Chris, a young African-American progressive bluesman, on stage with people like Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Alison Kraus, Ralph Stanley, Jerry Douglas, and many other leading lights of the country/bluegrass genre. Chris shouldn’t be too modest though. After all, he’s the only artist on the soundtrack who also starred in the movie. Chris made his acting debut by playing the part of the legendary bluesman Tommy Johnson.
Chris has recorded numerous records in his musical career and some of his recent ones have been among the best blues recordings of this era. They include “Red Mud,” which was an acoustic nod to his New Orleans roots. “Me, My Guitar, And The Blues” was an eclectic mix that this magazine rated as the best blues album of 2000. Last year saw the release of “The Legend Of Tommy Johnson” inspired of course by the character he played in “Oh Brother.” Chris is an incredibly talented artist and on this CD he played all the instruments including mandolin, bass, guitar, harmonica, piano and drums. He also sang all the vocal parts. This month will see the release of his long awaited “Dirty South Hip Hop Blues.” In this recording he has opened the door to a new way of presenting Black music. It is a seamless blending of hip hop and blues in a way that hasn’t been done before. The disc will be issued on CTK’s new 21st Century Blues record label.
Of course there’s also the acting. Chris recently starred in the theater production of “Goodnight, Irene – The Legacy of Leadbelly.” He also served as the musical director as well, arranging all the music and writing new songs. He filmed a cable special down in Jackson, Mississippi with Morgan Freeman about how the south is losing the juke joints that were the spawning ground for blues artists. Chris’s father Tabby Thomas once owned such a place called Tabby’s Blues Box.
Chris is also involved in a project called “The Blues.” This is a six part mini series directed by Wim Wenders and produced by Martin Scorsece who may release it as a feature film. And finally there’s a film in the works by Billy Bob Thorton in which Chris has been offered the lead role.
It was a sweltering hot day on July 2nd when I talked with Chris in his brand new tour bus parked outside the Mohegan Sun Resort. The air conditioning was temporarily busted but it didn’t matter because we were both in a good mood. Chris was giddy from the success of the tour and it was my birthday.
BH – So how would Chris Thomas King define 21st century blues?
CTK- “Let me define it by defining hip hop for you, my definition of hip hop. Music is part of it but it really is a cultural thing where my generation of African-Americans decided to be different from their parents. Of course every generation kind of goes through that. Most people know about it with rock and roll in the sixties. So hip hop is really like a culture. It’s like not only just music, it’s clothing, it’s trying to redefine who you are, like a little renaissance or whatever in the culture. So, to me, that’s what hip hop is. And when I say hip hop blues, what that means is that, well, I’m redefining the blues. I’m trying to redefine the image of blues. You know, the way we see it, the images of it, and the way we hear it. And that goes with the dress code. You don’t always have to have the suit and the tie and the 1950’s haircut, playing the harmonica on a 1940’s amplifier in order to be playing the blues. The blues can be current. You can play an amp that was made in 2002 and it’s ok. Or you can use digital recording to record you music and it’s ok. To me there’s no wizard that you have to go to to get permission to do the blues. You just do what you feel in your heart and in your soul. And if you’re doing that and being true to yourself, true to the times that you live in, then you’re doing the music like it really should be done. You can pay tribute that’s one thing. But for people to pay tribute as a career, and think they’re going to make many, many albums as a tribute to some other artist or some other time, I think that’s one reason why the music business is as bad as it is. And I think that’s one of the reasons why the blues music business is even worse.”
BH – So is it accurate to say that you’re looking for a sound, as a blues artist, that a generation that has grown up with hip hop can identify with?
CTK – “The goal is not so much to reach the, what you would think as the typical blues record buyer, but those people who aren’t blues record buyers at all. They might be passionate about music in whatever form it comes in. So yeah, to make a long story short, my target audience is like 18 to say 45 or so. But really it’s for everyone, 1 to 99 obviously. But this is how I feel, I get more concerned if the 22 year old thinks the music isn’t cool as opposed to whether or not a guy 65 thinks it’s not cool. You know what I’m saying? So my target audience is a younger audience obviously, my generation and younger. But my music is for everyone. I would love the whole world to sing along and dance along to my music but our target is definitely an audience that other blues record companies are not targeting, which is a young person.”
BH – Yet at the same time you’re almost like blues historian, turning people on to old school blues with the Tommy Johnson character.
CTK – “The short answer is that I’m more here as an entertainer than I am as a historian. If people learn something from my entertainment, that’s fine. But I don’t have any Winston Marceles in me. My thing is not about telling kids don’t drink and don’t smoke dope, don’t dance and don’t listen to loud music. I’m not a teacher. But if people can learn something or feel something deeper in what I’m doing, that’s great. The good thing about ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’ is that it gives the mainstream audience a chance to see that my roots are deep. Meaning that when ‘Dirty South Hip Hop Blues’ comes out, I don’t have to prove that I’m authentic or that I’m somebody that can play old school blues. I know the tradition. I know where it came from. Some of the musicians on this tour are some of the best musicians in the world. And people of all genres really respect the artists of ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’, no matter if they’re anybody from Britney Spears to Kid Rock or whoever, they got to respect what we’re doing here, filling arenas without any flashy lights or anything, just with our guitars and songs. So it’s kind of nice that my roots are firm out there already. So the question is not whether my roots are deep and real. The question and the challenge really is can this new album find that younger listener that’s going to identify with it. So in a sense it’s a lucky break too. It would be great if I was playing in an arena doing ‘Dirty South Hip Hop Blues,’ I mean that would be the ideal situation for me. But actually it’s working kind of nice right now. People have discovered me through ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’ and that’s a good way to have discovered me. I don’t have to go back and explain my roots if they hear me rapping or something. No one will say ‘oh he’s rapping because he can’t sing the blues.’ Those questions are already being answered.”
BH – I thought the ‘Red Mud’ album was a return to your roots. Do you agree?
CTK – “Yeah, actually at that time a lot of people were doing these unplugged albums. Everybody from rock and roll people like Eric Clapton and Bon Jovi, whoever, was doing unplugged records. Instead of putting out a best of, they were revisiting a lot of their electric music in an acoustic setting. So following a trend, Black Top Records in New Orleans thought it would be a good idea for me to do an acoustic record and I thought it would be a good idea as well, and show people that my hip hop blues and stuff like this was no gimmick. That it can sound just as good unplugged in an acoustic setting as it did electric with samples and stuff. That record actually caught on and did quite well.”
BH – Tell me about ‘Me, My Guitar & The Blues.’
CTK – “That’s a good album. I hate to say though that that’s an album where I was treading water. By the time ‘Me, My Guitar & The Blues’ came out I knew I was going to be making a movie called ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’ I didn’t know it was going to be such a huge success. But I wanted to get that album and that material out knowing that I was coming back with ‘Dirty South Hip Hop Blues.’ So ‘Me, My Guitar & The Blues’ is really a bridge to where I’m at now. But when you hear the new album it really isn’t a bridge because the new album is the fully formed idea. It’s not compromised and I don’t think any of my records have gotten anybody ready for the new one.”
BH – How do you explain the success of the ‘Oh Brother’ soundtrack?CTK – “I get asked that a lot. I’m sure all the artists and everybody involved with it get asked that a lot. I can’t put my finger on it. You’d like to say because it’s a great album and it was a great movie and people responded to it. And that’s partly true. But why it sold like it has when you think maybe a million copies would make everybody happy and satisfied. But then you hear two million, three million, four million, and it won’t go away. They’re telling me now it’s going to sell at least ten million in the states. And I know other artists that are huge and they haven’t sold ten million copies of any albums, maybe combined you know. I mean it’s beyond belief. And the thing about it is a guy like me, I’m independent, and some of the other artists are independent as well. And we’re not the typical kind of artists that would be in this situation. On this tour there are about fourteen coaches so guys are doing pretty good.”
BH – Chris, where were you on September 11th?
CTK – “At home in New Orleans and like most people I saw it on CNN. I remember the building burning and they saying that a plane crashed in to it but nobody knew if it was an accident or something more to it. And when I saw the second one crash in to the building I knew that things would never be the same. I didn’t know how or whatever, but you just knew you were looking at something that had huge historical significance and it will be years before we really know what it meant and how it changed all of our lives.”
BH – Do you remember the next time you took the stage after that?
CTK – “We went on the ‘All Over’ tour that you saw me on. We started that tour toward the end of September. We didn’t go out and play that night or anything like that but I was recording my album at that time, the album that I’m releasing now. ‘Dirty South Hip Hop Blues’ was definitely in the works and I was in my studio that night and there is an interlude on the album called ‘9/11 Interlude’ which is the interlude to a song called ‘Gonna Take A Miracle.’ And the lyrics to ‘Gonna Take A Miracle’ I think speaks about where we are right now in light of 9/11 and I think it’s a message that the world needed to hear. No, I did not sit down that night and write that song. It would be great story if I said ‘oh yeah I went in and I wrote this song ‘Gonna Take A Miracle.’ It’s a melody and some lyrics that I already had, that I was already working with. And I was struggling with whether I should add it to this album or not because it’s a ballad that doesn’t say a whole lot about Delta blues or hip hop. But the message is so pure and it’s coming from the right place you know. And I was struggling with whether or not I should include it on the album and when I began my final stages of putting the album together there was no way that I could not include it because when I wrote it I thought it was a song that the world needed to hear and I’m sure of that now.”
BH – Let’s talk about acting. Tell me about the cable special you did with Morgan Freeman?
CTK – Yeah, right before I left I saw a clip of that and it talks about the juke joints that are lost. I had a chance to go to Jackson and talk a little bit about my dad’s juke joint. I got a chance to talk about him on the film. They were about to tear down a club in Jackson Mississippi, they call it progress when they decide to tear these places down. When they tore down Tabby’s Blues Box which was the only real authentic blues landmark that we have in Louisiana, and they just tore it down and now it’s a parking lot. They claimed that they were going to build a bridge and they needed that space because they were building a bridge or overpass over a train track. But they never got around to building that overpass over a train track.”
BH – Tell me about the mini series called ‘The Blues?’
CTK- “I star in a film as Blind Willie Johnson and I play him blind obviously with contacts in my eyes to exaggerate that fact even more. It was shot with these old hand held cameras. We shot in Mississippi but it was supposed to be looking like Texas. And there’s another actor who plays Skip James in the film, and some of this is cut in with black and white footage of the period like prohibition and all this other stuff. So it’s like ‘Oh Brother’ but it’s not a comedy or anything, it’s mostly music. Nobody sits around and talks about music in the film, it’s more acted out and dramatized. It’s not a documentary but it’s not a typical feature film. It’s a new way of telling a story and so what happens is that you hear Win Wenders narrating the story of Blind Willie Johnson and Skip James. We tell those stories dramatically and visually and then there are a few artists that perform a few songs of these artists before the film ends. And this film that I did, which I don’t have the title of right now, I saw an early version of it in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. It’s going to have a theater run in Europe and it’s going to play film festivals starting as early as January. It’s part of seven films by seven directors. Wim Wenders is my director and Martin Scorsece is the producer.”
BH – Did you always want to be an actor?
CTK – “Yeah I always thought I could be an actor ever since I was playing cowboys and Indians with my friends in the park as a kid. I always thought I had the ability to be an actor but I didn’t know if I’d ever get a real opportunity to do it because parts are so few and far between for people. And then the good roles, well you hear these stories all the time, especially for African-American actors, to get the good leading roles is even tougher.”
BH – What did you think of Halle Berry and Denzel Washington winning best actor Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards?
CKT – “Well I saw ‘Beautiful Mind’ win all these awards like director and picture and it just seemed to me like Russell Crowe should have won for his role because he played this guy from college years to being an old man. I mean this guy acted his ass off. He’s one of the best actors around these days but I don’t know the politics and all this stuff that goes on. I don’t have a clue as to how all this stuff works but it doesn’t mean that Denzel isn’t deserving as well. But the thing too, being an African-American actor, I know that Denzel Washington never would have gotten an opportunity to play that character. So yeah, maybe the role that Denzel played wasn’t as compelling or as fully formed as what Russell Crowe played but obviously Denzel could have played that role too. But him being an African-American actor and there not being that many roles for African-American actors, and if there are usually you have a gun in your hand. They don’t make those kinds of stories that often. I think he should have gotten an Oscar when he portrayed Malcolm X.”
BH – “What about Halle Berry?
CTK – “Now Halle Berry, I saw that movie at a little theater in L.A. Now I didn’t see the performances of the other women she was competing against but obviously Halle is a deserving actress and I’m happy that she won and happy that Denzel won. And I’m not trying to tarnish anybody’s Oscar but I am saying that people don’t realize that sometimes you have the ability to do something and the talent to do something but you don’t get the opportunity to do it because they just don’t tell enough stories. You know, it’s like once every ten years they make a story like ‘Ali’ where you do a story of an African-American person who had a rich life that they can show all these facets of their life through this character. And they don’t get made that often. I mean they made ‘Ali’ and they made ‘Malcolm X.’”
BH – Of course Halle starred with Billy Bob Thorton who I understand has offered you a part in a movie he’s involved in.
CTK – “I got the script here on the bus and it’s a great script. I got the script before they even chose a director because they wanted me to be the lead character. It takes place in Memphis in the sixties and I don’t think they’re even looking at anyone else for that role but myself. Billy Bob Thorton doesn’t want to direct it but they want him to direct it the film. His company is producing it. He doesn’t even want to be in Hollywood on a film set at all. But even though he is committed to producing it hopefully he’ll take on a role as one of the other characters. It’s a Miramax Film, it’s a big budget film. It’s not a ‘Superman’ type big budget but it’s a big budget and it’s a starring role for me. And this film is one of those films that well, who knows, I might be sitting at the Oscars one of these days. This film, if I let you read like the first three pages of it, it would knock you out. It’s called ‘Midnight Hour’ and they’re talking about shooting it either the end of this year or early spring.”
At this point Chris was told he had to get ready for the concert. That evening he sang “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” and “John Law Burned Down The Liquor Sto’.” While we talked he burned me a copy of “Dirty South Hip Hop Blues.” It is an amazing CD and the first review of it will appear in this issue of Sound Waves. Besides being an extraordinary musician Chris is also a genuinely nice person. I’d love to see him some day win an Oscar to go along with his Grammy Award. For more information on Chris check out his website at christhomasking.com.