MONROE COUNTY, Miss. — Paul Thorn’s new
album Too Blessed To Be Stressed stakes out new
territory for the popular roots-rock songwriter and performer. “In the past,
I’ve told stories that were mostly inspired by my own life,” the former
prizefighter and literal son of a preacher man offers. “This time, I’ve written
10 songs that express more universal truths, and I’ve done it with a purpose: to
make people feel good.”
Which
explains numbers like the acoustic-electric charmer “Rob You of Your Joy,” where
Thorn’s warm peaches-and-molasses singing dispenses advice on avoiding the
pitfalls of life. And then there is the title track which borrows its tag from a
familiar saying among the members of the African-American Baptist churches Thorn
frequented in his childhood. “I’d ask, ‘How you doin’, sister?’ And what I’d
often hear back was, ‘I’m too blessed to be stressed.’” In the hands of Thorn
and his faithful band, who’ve been together 20 years, the tune applies its own
funky balm, interlacing a percolating drum and keyboard rhythm with the slinky
guitar lines beneath his playful banter.Thorn’s
trademark humor is abundant throughout the album, which will be released
August 19, 2014 on Perpetual Obscurity/Thirty Tigers. “Backslide on Friday” is a
warm-spirited poke at personal foibles. “I promised myself not to write about
me, but I did on ‘Backslide,’” Thorn relates. The chipper pop tune is a
confession about procrastination, sweetened by Bill Hinds’
slide guitar and Thorn’s gently arching melody. “But,” Thorn protests, “I know
I’m not the only one who says he’s gonna diet and just eat Blue Bell vanilla ice
cream on Sundays, and then ends up eating it every day!”
“Mediocrity
Is King” takes a wider swipe, at our culture’s hyper-drive addiction to
celebrity artifice and rampant consumerism. But like “Everything Is Gonna Be All
Right,” a rocking celebration of the simple joys of life, it’s done with Thorn’s
unflagging belief in the inherent goodness of the human heart.
“I
don’t think I could have written anthemic songs like this if I hadn’t made my
last album,” Thorn says of 2012’s What the Hell Is Goin’
On? Like 2010’s autobiographical Pimps &
Preachers, it was among its year’s most played CDs on Americana
radio and contributed to Thorn’s rapidly growing fan base. And Thorn followed
that airplay success with his AAA radio hit version of “Doctor My Eyes” from
April 2014’s Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson
Browne. The latter also features Grammy winners Bruce
Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, the Indigo Girls, Lucinda Williams, Keb’
Mo’, Ben Harper and Don Henley.
What the Hell Is Goin’
On? was
also Thorn’s first set of songs written by other artists, borrowed from the
catalogs of Allen Toussaint, Buddy and Julie Miller, and
Rick Danko, among others.
“I
lived with those songs and studied them before I recorded that album, and that
changed me and made me grow as a songwriter,” Thorn relates. “Lindsey
Buckingham’s ‘Don’t Let Me Down Again’ especially got me thinking. It
was a rock anthem with a sing-along hook, and I fell in love with
it and the idea of big vocal hooks. So every song on Too
Blessed To Be Stressed has a big vocal hook in it. And it works!
We’ve been playing these songs in concert, and by the time the chorus comes
along for the second time people are singing along. I’ve never seen that happen
with my unreleased songs before, and I love it.”
It
helps that those big vocal hooks on Too Blessed To Be
Stressed are being reinforced by the sound of Thorn’s flexible and
dynamic band, as they have been doing for years in concert. During their two
decades in the club, theater and festival trenches, the four-piece and their
frontman have garnered a reputation for shows that ricochet from humor to
poignancy to knock-out rock ’n’ roll. Guitarist Bill Hinds is
the perfect, edgy foil for Thorn’s warm, laconic salt o’ the earth delivery — a
veritable living library of glowing tones, sultry slide and sonic invention.
Keyboardist Michael “Dr. Love” Graham displays a gift for
melody that reinforces Thorn’s hooks while creating his own impact, and helps
expand the group’s rhythmic force. Meanwhile drummer Jeffrey
Perkins and bassist Ralph Friedrichsen are a
force, propelling every tune with just the right amount of up-tempo power or
deep-in-the-groove restraint.
“These
guys really bring my songs to life,” says Thorn. “A lot of albums sound like
they’re made by a singer with bored studio musicians. My albums sound they’re
played by a real blood-and-guts band because that’s what we are. And when we get
up on stage, people hear and see that.”
Thorn’s
earlier catalog is cherished by his many fans thanks to his down-home
perspective, vivid-yet-plainspoken language and colorful characters. It helps
that Thorn is a colorful and distinctly Southern personality himself. He was
raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, in the land of cotton and
catfish. And churches
“My
father was a preacher, so I went with him to churches that white people attended
and churches that black people attended,” Thorn says. “The white people sang
gospel like it was country music, and the black people sang it like it was
rhythm and blues. But both black and white people attended my father’s church,
and that’s how I learned to sing mixing those styles.”
His
performances were generally limited to the pews until sixth grade. “I’m
dyslexic, and got held back in sixth grade,” Thorn relates. “I didn’t have to
face the embarrassment, because my family moved and I ended up in a new school.
There was a talent show, and I sang ‘Three Times a Lady’ by Lionel
Ritchie with my acoustic guitar, and suddenly I went from being a
social outcast to the most desired boy on the playground. The feeling I got from
that adulation stuck with me and propelled me to where I am today.”
At
age 17, Thorn met songwriter Billy Maddox, who became his
friend and mentor. It would take several detours — working in a furniture
factory, boxing, jumping out of airplanes — until Thorn committed to the
singer-songwriter’s life. But through it all he and Maddox remained friends, and
Maddox became Thorn’s songwriting partner and co-producer.
Nonetheless,
Thorn possessed the ability to charm audiences right from the start. Not only
with his music, but with the stories he tells from the stage. “Showmanship is a
dying art that I learned from watching Dean Martin on TV when I
was a kid,” Thorn explains. “He could tell little jokes and then deliver a
serious song, then make you laugh again. And he would look into the camera like
he was looking right at you through the TV. That’s what I want to do — make
people feel like I’m talking directly to them.”
That’s
really Thorn’s mission for Too Blessed To Be Stressed,
which can be heard as a running conversation about life between Thorn and
listeners — a conversation leavened with gentle insights, small inspirations and
plenty of cheer.
“I
wrote these songs hoping they might put people in a positive mindset and
encourage them to count their own blessings, like I count mine,” Thorn observes.
“There’s no higher goal I could set for myself than to help other people find
some happiness and gratitude in their lives.”
