I'm interested in a fairly obscure bluesman called Ashley Thomson.
He recorded on the earliest 4 Cannon Jug Stompers sides - these
were Minglewood Blues, Madison Street Rag, Big Railroad Blues,
and Sprindale Blues.

In the commonest (only?) photo of CJS he is in the middle, seated
and with a guitar (eg. http://www.taco.com/roots/cannon.html )

Ashley sang on Minglewood and Big Railroad; and played guitar on
all the tracks with Gus Cannon (banjo/jug) and Noah Lewis (harp).
While all members of CJS took turns on vocals, Thomson was IMO
perhaps the weakest singer of the band (my fave is Hosea Woods).

However his guitar work really gets to me. He is on 6-string
acoustic but concentrates on a really driving rhythm guitar
on the bass strings, with fast bass runs and some string snaps.
For this type of guitar work I would have to rank him with
his better-known contemporaries Joe McCoy and Walter Vinson.

I believe he was born in Tennessee (Ripley?) in 1896; he seems
to have been a childhood friend of Noah Lewis. I also don't think
he made any other recordings except the first few CJS sides. If
anyone can shed more light on Ashley, or refer me to any published
info, please let me know.

Thanks,
Stevo