"...Thomas isn't a household name and has very much remained a local legend -- although hailed by critics whose pens have proven useless in taking her to a wider public which seems immune to her gifts. Thomas has never had huge record sales and it wasn't until 2007 that she finally won a Grammy (in the Contemporary Blues category for her album After in the Rain), the same year she was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame -- some said at least a decade or two too late.

Thomas' voice doesn't have the ache of Aretha -- indeed there is a pop quality about her early 60s songs -- and nor does it possess the power and gravitas of other soul-blues singers like Etta James. She is closer to Sam Cooke in many ways, but she had a tough upbringing which means she invests a lyric with a sense of real understanding."

- elsewhere.co.nz