Chris Thomas King

King was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. He is the son of blues musician Tabby Thomas. His early recordings were released under the name Chris Thomas. He has won awards including "Album of the Year" for both Grammy Award and Country Music Awards. King has sold more than 10 million records in the United States. He is featured playing the part of Tommy Johnson in the Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. He is also featured in Down from the Mountain and More Music from Ray soundtracks.

In June 2021, King's book The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music And Culture was published by Chicago Review Press. The book posits that the blues and related genres derive from the urban and urbane Creole culture of New Orleans. He further argues that the received narrative of blues' genesis in the Mississippi Delta is both incorrect and that the narrative derives from erasure of New Orleans Creole accomplishments.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

King is a pioneer of rap/blues fusion.{{cite web|title=Silky's Sunday Blues: Chris Thomas King Edition|author=Silky Johnson|date=February 11, 2011|accessdate=2013-01-14|url=http://thisiswhyitsucks.com/2011/02/20/silkys-sunday-blues-chris-thomas-king-edition/|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219210245/http://thisiswhyitsucks.com/2011/02/20/silkys-sunday-blues-chris-thomas-king-edition/|archivedate=December 19, 2013|df=mdy-all}} He conceived the first sample-based blues concept album in the early 1990s by writing and producing the first all-rap/blues album for RCA Records titled 21st Century Blues… from da Hood.

As an entrepreneur King took control of his master recordings in the early 1990s, forming 21st Century Blues Records. He also established a publishing company, Young Blues Rebel, LLC. 21st Century Records signed the New Orleans Ninth Ward rap/blues duo the 21C-B-Boyz and the London, England-based NuBlues, to 21st Century Blues Records in 2003.

King's acting career includes prominent roles in several films, including two music-related films. In the Oscar-winning film Ray he plays band leader and blues guitar player Lowell Fulson. During production he collaborated with Ray Charles in scoring the film.{{cite web|title=Biography for Chris Thomas King|author=Joan Turner|publisher=IMDB|accessdate=2013-01-14|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0454584/bio}} In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, he portrays a skilled blues guitarist who claims he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his skill on guitar. The character is based on blues musicians Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson, both of whom have been linked to selling their soul to the devil at a rural Mississippi crossroads.{{cite magazine | last=Orshoski | first=Wes | title=Chris King builds on 'O Brother' | magazine=Billboard | date=September 22, 2001 | page=11}}{{cite web|title=Robert Johnson Gravesite – Greenwood|publisher=Mississippi Blues Trail|accessdate=2013-02-13|url=http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/robert-johnson-gravesite}} King also accompanies the film's band the Soggy Bottom Boys on guitar; his rendition of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" was recorded live during filming and included on the film's Grammy Award-winning soundtrack.

King also starred in the Wim Wenders art house film The Soul of a Man, as Blind Willie Johnson and Kill Switch as Detective Storm with Steven Seagal.

• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), as Tommy Johnson
• The Soul of a Man (2003), as Blind Willie Johnson
• Ray (2004), as Lowell Fulson
• Kill Switch (2008) as detective Storm Anderson
• Imagination Movers (2010) as T-Bone Crosby
• Treme (2011) HBO series.
• Quarry (2016) as Blues Musician

• Last of the Mississippi Jukes (2003)
• Lightning in a Bottle (2004)
• The Soul of a Man (2003)
• 22nd Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards (2001)
• Down from the Mountain (2000)
• Inside Look: Down from the Mountain (2000)

• Blue Beat (1984) as Chris Thomas
• The Beginning (1986) as Chris Thomas
• Cry of the Prophets (1990) as Chris Thomas
• Help Us, Somebody single (1993) as Chris Thomas (also on Just Say Da compilation)
• Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson (1990)Chris Thomas and Tabby Thomas, singing "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)", originally recorded by the 13th Floor Elevators on their Easter Everywhere album (1967).
• Simple (1993) as Chris Thomas
• 21st Century Blues... from da Hood (1994) as Chris Thomas
• Chris Thomas King (1997)
• Red Mud (1998)
• Whole Lotta Blues: The Songs of Led Zeppelin (1999)
• Me, My Guitar and the Blues (2000)
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack (2000)
• Down from the Mountain (2001)
• The Legend of Tommy Johnson, Act 1: Genesis 1900s-1990s (2001)
• It's a Cold Ass World: The Beginning (2001)
• Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues (2002)
• A Young Man's Blues (2002)
• The Roots (2003)
• Along the Blues Highway (2003) with Blind Mississippi Morris
• Johnny's Blues: A Tribute to Johnny Cash (2003)King contributes his version of "Rock Island Line".
• Why My Guitar Screams & Moans (2004)
• Ray soundtrack (2004)
• Rise (2006)As described by King's own record label, 21st Century Blues Records, "New Orleans musician Chris Thomas King lost both a home and a recording studio when Hurricane Katrina had landfall at the close of summer in 2005, and it's hardly startling that his album Rise takes Katrina and the devastating aftermath of the storm as a central theme." [http://www.indiekazoo.com/ctk_store/333 Description of Rise] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100203120633/http://www.indiekazoo.com/ctk_store/333 |date=February 3, 2010 }}; www.indiekazoo.com.
• Live on Beale Street (2008)
• Antebellum Postcards (2011)
• Bona Fide (2012)
• Hotel Voodoo (2017)
• ANGOLA (2020)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.christhomasking.com Chris Thomas King's website]
• {{IMDb name|id=0454584|name=Chris Thomas King}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110524102525/http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/musician+chris+thomas+king+on+the+business+of+music Information and video] Chris Thomas King speaks in an interview on the business pitfalls of music and how to avoid them.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080320095521/http://www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp Listen or watch Woodsongs archived show 404] Chris Thomas King on his tragic experience with hurricane Katrina by performance and in interviews with Michael Johnathon before a live audience on July 17, 2006; video is 87 minutes.
• [http://artistconnectionpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-012-chris-thomas-king Artist Connection Podcast interview with Chris Thomas King]

{{Grammy Award for Album of the Year 2000s}}

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Category:1962 births

Category:McKinley Senior High School alumni

Category:American male actors

Category:American blues guitarists

Category:American male guitarists

Category:American blues singers

Category:Black Top Records artists

Category:Grammy Award winners

Category:Living people

Category:Musicians from Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Category:Progressive soul musicians

Category:American slide guitarists

Category:Singers from Louisiana

Category:Private Music artists

Category:Guitarists from Louisiana

Category:20th-century American guitarists

Category:Scotti Brothers Records artists

Category:African-American guitarists

Category:20th-century African-American male singers

Category:20th-century American male singers

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:21st-century African-American male singers

Category:21st-century American male singers