Willard Thomas

Willard "Ramblin'" Thomas (1901 or 1902 – 1944 or 1945) was an American country blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is best remembered for his slide guitar playing and for several recordings he made in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Blues scholars seem undecided if his nickname referred to his style of playing or to his itinerant nature. He was the brother of the blues musician Jesse Thomas.

Birth and Death Data: Born Logansport (town in Louisiana, United States), Died 1945 (Memphis (city in and county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, United States) )

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1927 - 1932

Roles Represented in DAHR: composer, lyricist, vocalist, guitar

Notes: Willard Thomas is credited as Ramblin' Thomas, Rambling Thomas, and R. Thomas.

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Victor BVE-70666 10-in. 2/9/1932 Ground hog blues Rambling Thomas Male vocal solo, with guitar vocalist, instrumentalist, guitar, lyricist  
Victor BVE-70667 10-in. 2/9/1932 Shake it gal Rambling Thomas Male vocal solo, with guitar vocalist, instrumentalist, guitar, lyricist  
Victor BVE-70668 10-in. 2/9/1932 Ground hog blues, no. 2 Rambling Thomas Male vocal solo, with guitar vocalist, instrumentalist, guitar, lyricist  
Victor BVE-70669 10-in. 2/9/1932 Little old mamma blues Rambling Thomas Male vocal solo, with guitar vocalist, instrumentalist, guitar, lyricist  
OKeh W80853 10-in. 5/10/1927 Poor boy blues Hattie McDaniel Female vocal solo, with jazz/dance band composer, lyricist  

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Thomas, Willard," accessed January 16, 2026, http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106347.

Thomas, Willard. (2026). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved January 16, 2026, from http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106347.

"Thomas, Willard." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2026. Web. 16 January 2026.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106347

External Sources

Wikipedia: Ramblin’ Thomas

Discogs: Willard Thomas

Allmusic: Willard Thomas

Linked Open Data Sources

LCNAR: Thomas, Willard - https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n91069576

Wikidata: Ramblin’ Thomas - https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7289240

VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/17408669

MusicBrainz: Ramblin’ Thomas - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/ba8a0396-f8dc-47f6-b6a2-d1931eaac0e3

Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license

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