Earl Thomas

EARL THOMAS
UNPLUGGED AT CAFFE CALABRIA
“My intention for this record is to capture my live performance in a vocal and guitar duo setting,” says Earl Thomas. “The Coffeehouse Show started out as a collection of songs that I performed on the street and in coffeehouses around town back in the nineties.”

The award winning singer, songwriter and entertainer is talking about his new album Unplugged At Caffe Calabria to be released October 29, 2005 on Conton Records. His seven previous albums have made Earl Thomas one of the most popular writer/performers on the contemporary blues scene. With this new collection, the artist formerly known as “Goody Bridgeman” in his hometown of Pikeville, Tennessee takes a new creative turn: He presents thirteen songs of his own unique original pen and covers of Bobbie Gentry, Tracy Chapman and Nina Simone.

As one who came of age in the seventies, Earl Thomas was influenced by the music surrounding the Vietnam war and his life and musical consciousness was shaped by the Gospel music of his region of birth, British Invasion, Rock & Roll, Southern Rock, and the Soul music and Blues of the sixties.

A natural comedian or “cultural observer” as Earl refers to himself “Unplugged” includes some of his jokes and comments under the heading Earlspeaks. Says Earl Thomas of his between song banter, “I like to tell stories that relate to the song I’m going into and relate the songs to my own life and real life is funny. The talking to the audience started when the guitar player broke a string and rather than stand there and wait for him to change it, I started talking, out of nervous energy, to the audience.” The result is a delightful and comical take on everything from Racism (“they have a big statue of Jefferson Davis in downtown Memphis…”) to Co-dependency (“there was not a term for co-dependency back in my parents’ day, they just called it the blues…”)

All tracks on the new disc are produced by Earl Thomas and were recorded live in just one night in San Diego with Heine Andersen on solo acoustic guitar. Josquin Des Pres and Brett Wiesman, Track Star recording engineers along with sound engineer John Edwards, capture the undeniable ambiance of an intimate Earl Thomas show.