eTown Live Radio Show Taping w/ Paul Thorn & Ruthie Foster
More than just a regular concert, eTown is a unique live experience! Audience members will watch the eTown Broadcast recorded before their very eyes, complete with performances and interviews with both of our visiting artists, as well as the eChievement Award segment, eTown's opportunity to honor everyday heroes who are doing their part to make the world a better place. You won't want to miss it!
Doors: 6:00pm
Show Start: 7:00pm
Show End: 9:00pm
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 Don't Let Nobody Rob You Of Your Joy, where Thorn's warm peaches-and-molasses singing dispenses advice on avoiding the pitfalls of life. The title track 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 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 also 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."
From houses of worship to houses of blues, Ruthie Foster has always been a rafter-rattler. And with a soul-filled voice honed in Texas churches, she can move audiences to tears or ecstasy — sometimes in a single song. Her last two albums, 2009’s The Truth According to Ruthie Foster and 2012’s Let It Burn, moved the Recording Academy to deliver Best Blues Album Grammy nominations; her latest,Promise of a Brand New Day, could make her a contender once more.
For this effort, Foster put Meshell Ndegeocello in charge as her producer and then got out of the way, letting the lauded singer and bassist call the shots regarding players, takes and mixing. “I wanted this album to highlight Ruthie’s voice and also communicate her vibe, give a fuller picture of her artistry and ability,” explains Ndegeocello. “She really trusted me with the music and I think we've made something that complements and holds its own alongside the power of her voice.”
Foster says that one was among several songs she had that couldn’t seem to find a home before Ndegeocello latched onto them “and really worked some serious magic.”
It’s obvious, however, that Foster’s own magic will shine through regardless of who’s producing. Her Grammy-nominated albums were helmed by Chris Goldsmith, whose credits include Grammy-winning albums with Charlie Musselwhite and the Blind Boys of Alabama, and Grammy-winner John Chelew, producer of the album universally hailed as John Hiatt’s masterpiece, Bring the Family, among others. From 2011 to 2013 she earned three consecutive Blues Music Awards, plus an Austin Music Award for Best Female Vocalist and a Living Blues Critics’ Award for Female Blues Artist of the Year. And those are just some highlights of her awards history.
She’s also toured and recorded with Warren Haynes, traded verses with Susan Tedeschi on “The Weight” during the Allman Brothers’ 2012 Beacon Theater stretch and sang on an episode of the TV series Revolution. She first delivered a gorgeous “Angel from Montgomery” with Bonnie Raitt at one of Wavy Gravy’s annual SEVA benefits, then repeated it with her on The Road to Austin, a loving all-star tribute to the now-late Stephen Bruton that made its documentary debut in the 2014 South By Southwest Film Festival.
Such accolades and appearances reinforce the fact that Foster’s a blues-world rarity: an original voice who honors her forebears, yet transcends gentrification. If further proof is needed, the Eugene McDaniels-penned “Outlaw” should do it. The soul-sister celebration is, simply put, groovalicious. Or there’s her other ode to O.V. Wright, “My Kinda Lover.” Or “Let Me Know,” which, Foster confesses, she actually wrote for Marcia Ball, who never got a crack at it. Bramhall did, though; his guitar is all over the “blues-backboned” track, which Foster sings without backing vocals.
“Ruthie's voice is such a singular, powerful instrument, and she has such mastery of it,” Ndegeocello notes. “She can turn it on, belt it out and bring you to your knees, all in an instant.”
