Butch Cage and Willie B. Thomas

As a result of the destruction caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Cage settled in Zachary, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, to work in a manufacturing factory and perform at social gatherings.

When he and his family moved to Zachary in 1925, Thomas was crushed by fallen furniture, causing a back injury which permanently disabled him and stunted his growth.

Cage and Thomas engaged in a set of field recordings with Oster, making them a rare exception among the Baton Rouge area musicians of string band tradition who went largely unrecorded.

[6][7] Fourteen of the duo's cuts appear on the 1961 album Country Negro Jam Sessions, which also features tracks by Robert Pete Williams, a guitarist who occasionally performed with Cage and Thomas.

[3] Oster thought highly of Cage, describing him as "a great representative of the now virtually extinct nineteenth century negro fiddle tradition".