Chris Thomas King

History

Chris Thomas King was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, to blues musician Tabby Thomas. He first recorded under the name Chris Thomas.

His career includes winning Album of the Year at both the Grammy Awards and the Country Music Awards, and selling more than 10 million records in the U.S. King played Tommy Johnson in the Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? and appears on the Down from the Mountain and More Music from Ray soundtracks. In June 2021, his book The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music And Culture was published by Chicago Review Press. The book argues that blues and related genres derive from the urban and urbane Creole culture of New Orleans, and that the received narrative of blues' genesis in the Mississippi Delta is incorrect and stems from erasure of New Orleans Creole accomplishments.

Artistic career

King is a pioneer of rap/blues fusion. In the early 1990s, he wrote and produced the first all-rap/blues album for RCA Records, titled 21st Century Blues… from da Hood. He took control of his master recordings in the early 1990s, forming 21st Century Blues Records, and established a publishing company, Young Blues Rebel, LLC. In 2003, 21st Century Records signed the New Orleans Ninth Ward rap/blues duo the 21C-B-Boyz and the London, England-based NuBlues.

As an actor, King played band leader and blues guitar player Lowell Fulson in the Oscar-winning film Ray, collaborating with Ray Charles on the score. In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, he portrays a skilled blues guitarist who claims he sold his soul to the devil, based on Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson. King also accompanied 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.

He starred as Blind Willie Johnson in Wim Wenders's The Soul of a Man and as Detective Storm in Kill Switch with Steven Seagal.