RATING CHART:
1 note – Pass
1.5 notes – Mediocre
2 notes – Average
2.5 notes – Above Average
3 notes – Good
3.5 notes – Great
4 notes – Excellent
4.5 notes – Exceptional
5 notes – Classic
Videos by American Songwriter
Paul Thorn
Life is Just a Vapor
(Thirty Tigers)
🎵🎵🎵 ½
Americana didn’t even have a name when roots singer/songwriter Paul Thorn released his 1997 debut. Since then, the Tupelo, Mississippi native, ex-prizefighter, and skydiver, has released about a dozen more albums. They all shoehorn cunning lyrics into music, meshing gospel, soul, pop, and rock with an unpretentious, everyman voice that entices listeners with its alluring drawl.
On Life Is Just a Vapor (a biblical quote), Thorn crafts songs with one ear cocked to the radio play that has often eluded him, the other towards delivering fine-tuned words that stand with his best. The veteran musician, who often performs solo acoustic, provides eleven nuggets filled with life lessons, enhanced by rollicking Southern fried melodies and a full band.
From the easy thumping shuffle of the opening self-descriptive “Tough Times Don’t Last” to the near glam rocking of “Chicken Wing” (recounting his old “pimpin’ name” and how he’s mellowed into old age yet keeps a 12 gauge handy), and getting serious on the closing acoustic country bluegrass ballad “Old Melodies” (Amazing Grace used to be our favorite song / But now it’s We Shall Overcome), Thorn touches on varied concepts and musical genres.
[RELATED: Songwriter U: Paul Thorn Shares Songwriting Stories and Advice for New Artists]
Some subjects like “Geraldine and Ricky,” about a traveling evangelist and her ventriloquist doll (the latter helps spread the gospel), are stranger than fiction and as captivating as they sound. The chiming Byrds-like guitar and pop melody underpinning “I Love You Like a Cigarette” compares his attraction to a lover with the titular addiction. He shifts to funky Little Feat/Muscle Shoals territory for “She Will,” adding a horn section for soulful punctuation while warning a friend that his new romance isn’t what she seems.
The production is crisp and clean, the playing loose and classy, allowing Thorn’s amusing verses and slurred voice to create music where “… there’s a message in it about how to live life,” as he explains in the notes. In his hands, those teachings go down easier than sweet tea on a steamy summer’s day.
Photo by Jeff Fasano
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