Tabby’s Blues Box is crowded on Thursday nights, with its live blues music and 25-cent draft beer. Stick around long enough, though, and a local celebrity may take the stage.
Chris Thomas King, son of Baton Rouge’s own Tabby Thomas who owns the Blues Box, has accomplished more in his career than many of the blues artists before him.
Perhaps known best for his role as Tommy Johnson in the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” he picked up album of the year at the 2001 Grammy Awards for the soundtrack to the popular Coen Brothers’ hit.
King’s sound is unique, with a blend of hip-hop and R&B that sounds more modern than traditional blues.
“They call my style 21st century blues, some people call it hip-hop blues, I just call it the blues, really,” King said. “It’s kind of more what I grew up with, more my generation, than say my dad. Even though blues has been around 100 years, it’s still evolving.”
King’s most recent album, “The Soul of Chris Thomas King: The Roots,” is more of an acoustic tribute to 2003 being “The year of the blues.”
King also appeared in a PBS documentary directed by Martin Scorsese which commemorated the “year of the blues.” The next film appearance for King is in “Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story” starring Jaime Foxx, which will be out next fall, King said.
The album that King is currently promoting is called “Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues.”
“I think it’s probably the best album that I’ve done, and I’ve done probably at least a dozen of them,” King said. “I think it’s my best work to date. It features a song by my dad called ‘Da Thrill is Gone From Here.’ I rap the lead lyrics and he sings the hook. We got the chance to perform that song in Central Park in New York [City] this summer on Summer Stage, and he flew up and did the Summer Stage Central Park concert with me, and that just knocked them dead when he walked on stage with the microphone.”
When King performs at the Blues Box, however, he does not perform the songs on his albums. Although he began performing at places around Baton Rouge, such as The Varsity, Fred’s, The Caterie, and Tabby’s Blues Box, his band is not located in Louisiana which makes it difficult for him to perform locally.
“I haven’t played an official gig in Baton Rouge in a couple of years,” he said. “I’m pretty expensive to book these days, but I still like to come out and play. So you’ll see me just kind of come up and hang out and jam, but it’s not like the ‘Chris Thomas King show.’ You kind of have to go to Jazzfest or some kind of special concert to see something like that.”
The blend of hip-hop and blues is what makes the younger generation — who may not normally would not be interested in traditional blues — interested in King’s music.
“I’ve always noticed that before he got involved with the ‘O Brother Where Art Thou,’ the crowds were always younger than your traditional blues crowd,” said Tommy Comeaux, publisher of Rhythm City magazine. “I see a growing interest among young people in the blues scene. I think locally more and more people are getting into the blues.”
Paul Harang, a political science freshman, often frequents Tabby’s Blues Box to listen to the artists and hope for a glimpse of King.
“It’s the best music in Baton Rouge, easily,” he said. “If you go there, you’re guaranteed good music. No matter who’s playing, there’s going to be something good.”
When he gets the chance, King returns to the Blues Box where he was raised to play a set with the house band.
“It’s like my living room really, I just kind of come and visit my friends, see my brother, my sister, and whoever is hanging out, and just kind of jam,” King said. “It’s a lot different from what I do when I’m on tour.”
Some of the highlights of his career include winning the album of the year Grammy for the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, recording with Ray Charles for “Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story,” and performing in Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall in New York City last year.
“I was very lucky, the stars just lined up or somebody sprinkled some magic dust on me or something, but I’ve done some stuff that blues artists have never done,” King said.