[3][4][5][6][1] Blinded as the result of a work-related accident in his late teens, Thompson spent most of his life as a street musician, singing to his own accompaniment on guitar and harmonica.
After a couple sessions with another label, Thompson's recording career ended, and he returned to his life as an itinerant musician, playing on the streets well into his fifties.
From around 1912 to 1914, he attended the North Carolina School for the Blind and Deaf in Raleigh learning to make brooms and mattresses and tune pianos.
His new-found success made it possible for him to replace the low quality guitar he had been playing with one of Gibson's top models, and he was able to buy an automobile for friends to drive him to engagements.
Meanwhile, Thompson constantly worked on developing his skills, becoming adept at 26 instruments, including banjo, mandolin, fiddle, cello, autoharp, piano and drums.
Realizing the supply of traditional material was limited and that audiences were developing more sophisticated tastes, record companies began looking for new sounds and new songs.
Somehow they managed to return to North Carolina, where Thompson spent the rest of the 1930s through the end of World War II playing in relative obscurity.