Never Too Late to Call Paul Thorn

• 1 Two Tears of Joy 03:00
• 2 It's Never Too Late to Call 03:01
• 3 Sapalo 03:09
• 4 Breaking up for Good Again 03:35
• 5 What I Could Do 03:53
• 6 Here We Go 02:48
• 7 Apple Pie Moonshine 03:24
• 8 Sapphire Dream 03:59
• 9 You Mess Around & Get a Buzz 03:09
• 10 Goodbye is the Last Word 03:41
• 11 Holy Hottie Toddy 03:35
• Total Runtime 37:14

Info for Never Too Late to Call

Sieben Jahre lang hat Thorn an dem neuen Werk gearbeitet, es enthält ausschließlich Originalmaterial, einige Songs hat Thorn selbst geschrieben, andere hat er zusammen mit seinem Freund und langjährigen Manager Billy Maddox geschrieben. Das Album wurde im Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis aufgenommen und von Grammy-Preisträger Matt Ross-Spang produziert.

Die Szenerie des ländlichen Südens von Thorn verändert sich. Die Trailer Parks, Schotterstraßen um Tupelo und Highschool-Schönheitsköniginnen flackern im Rückspiegel. Vor zwei Jahren kehrte Thorn mit der Veröffentlichung von "Don't Let the Devil Ride" zu seinen frühen Gospel-Wurzeln zurück.

Im Gegensatz zu früheren Platten, die sich mit kurzzeitigen Liebesaffären und dem “kissing the right one good-bye” beschäftigten, handelt Thorns neues Album "Never Too Late To Call" von einem Mann, der mit "the right one" zusammen ist und glücklich ist, dort zu sein.

Dieses Werk, an dem er sieben Jahre gearbeitet hat, enthält ausschließlich Originalmaterial, einige Songs hat Thorn selbst geschrieben, andere hat er gemeinsam mit seinem Freund und langjährigen Manager Billy Maddox geschrieben. Das Album wurde im Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis aufgenommen und von Grammy-Preisträger Matt Ross-Spang produziert.

Bei der wohl liebevollsten Komposition des Albums, "Sapphire Dream", hat sich Thorn mit seiner Tochter Kitty Jones zusammengetan, die den Song mitgeschrieben hat und ihren Vater gesanglich begleitet:

Jeweled birds fly under crushed velvet skies
And the blue rain don’t fall on me
The sun is on our face; it’s a perfect place
And the one I love is here with me, in my sapphire dream

Besonders ergreifend ist "Breaking Up For Good Again". Bei diesem Stück wird Thorn von seiner Frau Heather unterstützt. Ihr Zusammenspiel ist nicht nur wunderschön, sondern klingt auch wie die Wahrheit, die zwei kennen, die gemeinsam den holprigen Weg gegangen sind, den jedes Ehepaar zurücklegen muss.

"Es zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch das Album, dass Menschen einander brauchen und sich gegenseitig die Hand reichen", sagt Thorn.

Wie alle Songs von Thorn hat auch der Titelsong des Albums, "It's Never Too Late to Call", eine eigene Geschichte.

Er schrieb den Song für seine Schwester Deborah, die 2018 verstarb. Wenn Thorn auf Tour war, sehnte er sich danach, nach seinen Shows mit jemandem zu sprechen, Stunden nachdem die Mitglieder seiner unmittelbaren Familie schon schliefen. Aber seine Schwester, eine Nachteule, blieb oft die ganze Nacht auf.

"Ich konnte sie anrufen und sie war immer wach", sagte Thorn. "Ich habe das Lied über sie geschrieben."

Der Song ist ein weiteres Beispiel für ein charakteristisches Merkmal von Thorns Arbeit - eine Qualität, die seine Fans lieben - die intensive persönliche Natur seiner Texte. Thorns Musik war schon immer eine Reflexion darüber, wo er gewesen ist oder wo er in seinem Leben steht. Auf "Never Too Late to Call" finden wir den sanfteren Paul Thorn. Der messerscharfe Witz und der sanft-humorvolle Kommentar zu den existenziellen Fragen des Lebens sind immer noch vorhanden, aber hier gibt es eine Ruhe über seine Lebensreise. Oder, um es mit seinen Worten zu sagen: “I’ve been such a lucky boy. I’m crying two tears of joy”

Paul Thorn, Gitarre, Gesang
Chris Simmons, Gitarre, Akustikgitarre, Slide Gitarre, Gesang
Michael Graham "Dr. Love", Klavier, Synthesizer, Orgel
Ralph Friedrichsen, Bass, Gesang
Jeffrey Perkins, Schlagzeug, Percussion

Paul Thorn
An interesting thing happened on Paul Thorn’s road to recording a follow-up to his most successful release, 2010’s Pimps and Preachers. After writing many discs of semi- autobiographical tunes that have drawn comparisons to John Hiatt and John Prine, the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter - hailed as the “Mark Twain of Americana” - decided to take a detour and do an album of covers. “I wanted to take a break from myself,” Thorn reveals, “do something different, and just have fun.”

The collection, entitled What The Hell Is Goin’ On? (due May 8, on Perpetual Obscurity/Thirty Tigers) finds Thorn putting his own gritty rock stamp on some of his favorite songs. There are some names familiar to Americana fans (Buddy Miller, Ray Wylie Hubbard), some lesser-known (Foy Vance, Wild Bill Emerson) and some surprises. The Buckingham/Nicks tune “Don’t Let Me Down Again” originated on that duo’s debut, not during the Fleetwood Mac era, while the Free song that Thorn chose to cover is an obscure one, “Walk In My Shadow.”

Thorn selected tunes that meant something important to him. “I would hear them in the tour van or I’d be at a festival and see someone perform them live,” Thorn says, “and I'd say ‘That’s a great song, I wish I had written it!’” One thing the songwriters have in common according to Thorn is that they are true artists. “They don’t just write songs in an effort to become popular or follow trends,” he explains. “At the risk of sounding corny, they write with their hearts. None of these songs are cookie-cutter tunes like you hear on the radio today. They all have real depth, which is very appealing to me.”

This set of songs covers subjects that are familiar territory to Thorn, from the spiritual pull of Miller’s “Shelter Me Lord” to the spirited fun in Big Al Anderson’s “Jukin’”. Thorn, so skilled with his own character studies, plays storyteller with such lurid tales as Hubbard’s “Snake Farm” and Emerson’s “Bull Mountain Bridge.” Emerson (who has written for George Jones and Tammy Wynette) is someone, according to Thorn, who “can tell a story in a song like nobody else.”

What The Hell Is Goin’ On? also delivers songs of love and salvation. Vance’s “Shed A Little Light” and Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s “Take My Love With You” are emotionally powerful tunes that really resonated in Thorn. The latter particularly expresses Thorn’s feelings about being on the road and missing his family back home: “Being a touring musician is a blessing and a curse...and Eli put into words what I feel like sometimes.”

What The Hell’s centerpiece is the powerful title track, a blistering look at life in modern times that was penned by blues-rock icon Elvin Bishop. Its message really hits home with Thorn. “We are living in a new world where people are very connected, but also at the same time are disconnected,” Thorn states. “I believe technology in moderation is good but too many folks are walking around wearing ear phones and some have forgotten the lost art of basic social skills.”

The song also is significant because he has developed a friendship with Bishop over the years. “I sometimes visit him at his house when I’m out in California and he always gives me a jar of his homemade jelly that he makes with fresh kiwis from his garden.” Thorn recalls. “He sang this song for me on his front porch one day and it blew me away.” It was also a treat for Thorn to have Bishop perform a guitar solo on the tune – which Thorn describes as “wonderfully raw and dirty.” Other special guests on the album are Delbert McClinton (another Thorn idol) and the marvelous singing McCrary Sisters. The heavy lifting on the album, however, was done by Thorn and, as usual, his touring band (guitarist Bill Hinds, keyboard player Michael Graham, bassist Ralph Friedrichsen and drummer Jeffrey Perkins). “The guys in this outfit are a tight unit and a well-oiled machine,” Thorn proclaims. “I’ve had the same guys in my band for goin' on 15 years and they are incredible musicians.” Another long-time collaborator is Billy Maddox, who Thorn describes as a “genius in the studio,” and who served as What The Hell’s producer. The sense of camaraderie between Thorn, his band and the producer contributes to the disc’s loose, live performances. The lived-in quality is undoubted aided by the fact that Thorn and the band had already played these songs live and honed them into what Thorn calls “crowd-pleasers.”

Thorn has been pleasing crowds for years with his muscular brand of roots music – bluesy, rocking and thoroughly Southern, yet also speaking universal truths. The Tupelo, MS native worked in a furniture factory, jumped out of airplanes, and was professional boxer before sharing his experiences to the world as a singer-songwriter. His last album, Pimps & Preachers, which topped the Americana charts for 3 weeks and broke into the Billboard Top 100, perfectly exemplified the vivid scope of his songwriting but also his family background. While his father is a Church of God Pentecostal minster, his uncle (his father’s brother) spent time as a pimp - and Thorn was influenced by both of these men. Mining these ‘saint and sinner’ scenarios, Thorn crafted a disc that All Music Guide lauded as “a great rock & roll album,” while the Nation labeled it “an incredible find.”

When Thorn and his band hit the road, he’ll be performing both his captivating originals and these favored covers, because, as he states, “there are so many great writers out there whose songs need to be heard.” Thorn also might slip in a new song or two as he already has started writing more songs of his own for the next album.

This album contains no booklet.