Cotton Thompson

Cotton Thompson was an excellent blues/western swing fiddler and vocalist best known through his several stints with Johnnie Lee Wills, and with whom he cut the definitive western swing version of Kokomo Arnold's blues classic "Milk Cow Blues" in 1941. His career was cut short by his untimely death in 1953, though in the twenty years prior he had cut an indelible niche in western swing history. Thompson began his career in the early 1930's in Texas medicine shows before joining the Alabama Boys in Oklahoma in 1934. Based in Tulsa throughout most of their existence, the Alabama Boys became Bob Wills' chief local rival and over the years Wills continually raided the group for talent (Eldon Shamblin and Louie Tierney were among the later famous Texas Playboys to be spirited away.) Thompson's Milton Brown-inspired vocals dominated the group's only commercial recording session in 1937 and in 1940 he joined Johnnie Lee Wills' new band, likewise dominating first Decca session in 1941. Thompson appeared in several of Bob Wills' Columbia films in 1942, served briefly during World War II (suffering a severe, non-combat leg injury that left him with a permanent limp), and also worked on the West Coast with Jimmy Wakely and others. By 1946, he was working with Moon Mullican in Port Arthur, Texas and played on Mullican's first session for King in January 1947. He headed back to Texas later that year, leading his own Alabama Boys as well as working and recording again with Mullican. By 1949, he was working with Richard Prine'e All-Stars in Beaumont and 1950 found him in Houston playing in Olin Davidson's Village Boys. Thompson later worked in Odessa, Texas and he had returned to Johnnie Lee Wills by 1952, recording two sessions with Wills before dying the following year.