James Thomson

James Thomson's eponymous debut album is the right amount of country, folk and blues, and could probably be categorised as 'Americana' if one were forced to pick. This doesn't mean that it's hard to identify what's going on - just that Thomson seems to have a few influences and he isn't reticent to combine them, depending on what the song needs. There's a bit of Townes van Zandt and a bit of Ryan Adams, and a bit of honky tonk, and they're all welcome on this record that makes you want to do nothing so much as curl up and listen to it.

Thomson has a great voice - warm and smooth with a slight edge. It's an 'old' voice, in that it sounds like its owner has seen a lot of life and is bringing that to bear in the stories that he's singing. So it's hard to believe that Thomson is in his early twenties, because it doesn't sound like he's borrowing these stories - he sings them like they mean something to him, that they are his.

The album starts out with a wayward harmonica that leads us into a series of tracks that go up, and then down, in key. By the third track, 'Not for You (Odds & Ends)', we are in Thomson's quiet heart, and that is largely where we stay. This is not a raucous record - it is often gentle, and slightly melancholic. Some of the songs have a reassuring swing that never turns into a swagger. It's not hard to imagine Thomson sitting on a stool in the corner of a bar, simultaneously entertaining and observing the patrons.

This is country music in a largely urban setting, and given that there's a large city audience for country music, that is not at all a problem. Indeed, it demonstrates how the genre can adapt to all kinds of material - it does not require open plains and endless sky (although they're nice to have) - and perhaps even how it allows all sorts of stories to be told in a way they couldn't within other genres.

This album is a very strong start for a young artist - one can only hope he continues to write and play for many years to come, and that there will soon be another album of this calibre. - Jolene - The Country Music Blog

James Thomson's eponymous debut album is the right amount of country, folk and blues, and could probably be categorised as 'Americana' if one were forced to pick. This doesn't mean that it's hard to identify what's going on - just that Thomson seems to have a few influences and he isn't reticent to combine them, depending on what the song needs. There's a bit of Townes van Zandt and a bit of Ryan Adams, and a bit of honky tonk, and they're all welcome on this record that makes you want to do nothing so much as curl up and listen to it.

Thomson has a great voice - warm and smooth with a slight edge. It's an 'old' voice, in that it sounds like its owner has seen a lot of life and is bringing that to bear in the stories that he's singing. So it's hard to believe that Thomson is in his early twenties, because it doesn't sound like he's borrowing these stories - he sings them like they mean something to him, that they are his.

The album starts out with a wayward harmonica that leads us into a series of tracks that go up, and then down, in key. By the third track, 'Not for You (Odds & Ends)', we are in Thomson's quiet heart, and that is largely where we stay. This is not a raucous record - it is often gentle, and slightly melancholic. Some of the songs have a reassuring swing that never turns into a swagger. It's not hard to imagine Thomson sitting on a stool in the corner of a bar, simultaneously entertaining and observing the patrons.

This is country music in a largely urban setting, and given that there's a large city audience for country music, that is not at all a problem. Indeed, it demonstrates how the genre can adapt to all kinds of material - it does not require open plains and endless sky (although they're nice to have) - and perhaps even how it allows all sorts of stories to be told in a way they couldn't within other genres.

This album is a very strong start for a young artist - one can only hope he continues to write and play for many years to come, and that there will soon be another album of this calibre. - Jolene - The Country Music Blog

With glowing endorsements from Stuart Coupe and Peter Jesperson (who discovered The Replacements and now works for New West Records), NSW singer-songwriter James Thomson emerges with his debut album of compellingly genuine country blues.

With all the charm and pensive swagger of some of (Paul) Westerberg's solo stuff, it's easy to see why Jesperson might be attracted to Thomson's work.

Also like Westerberg, Thomson toys with well-worn Folk/Country/Blues but treats them with enough ingenuity and personality to render them bright and crisp.

On his eponymous debut, Thomson crams no less than 15 of his own compositions onto the one disc - clearly he's not short of material.
Based on his own acoustic fingerpicking, harmonica playing and sincere vocals, the songs really need little else to get the point across. That said, sparing augmentations in the form of some bass, percussion, electric guitar and Jason Walker's pedal steel help to diversify the sonic pallette just enough.

As a lyricist Thomson draws from deep down in the well of American roots music, with songs like "Somethin' Bout A Fast Train" and "Down The Line" employing timeless metaphors of trains and devils and barstools and moving on. But again, in Thomson's hands it comes across as ardent rather than lay or contrived.

- Martin Jones - Rhythms July 2012

“I’m not a perfect man and I don’t pretend I am,” NSW’s James Thomson admits on his debut album. But he is certainly a striking new talent.

Let’s get this straight: Thomson is not reinventing any wheels. This is earnest folk – no tricks, no frills, just tasteful playing and a collection of laidback laments, “waiting while our lonely nights start turning into years”.

Fifteen songs, clocking in at more than an hour, is an ambitious debut, but the quality of the songwriting suggests this is the start of something special.

- Jeff Jenkins
- Stack Magazine

“I’m not a perfect man and I don’t pretend I am,” NSW’s James Thomson admits on his debut album. But he is certainly a striking new talent.

Let’s get this straight: Thomson is not reinventing any wheels. This is earnest folk – no tricks, no frills, just tasteful playing and a collection of laidback laments, “waiting while our lonely nights start turning into years”.

Fifteen songs, clocking in at more than an hour, is an ambitious debut, but the quality of the songwriting suggests this is the start of something special.

- Jeff Jenkins
- Stack Magazine

Roots

By any objective measure, young Australian roots artist James Thomson is working well-furrowed - some might argue, near-exhausted - fields; certainly fields raked, sown and harvested a good many seasons.

What's more, given that country rock is having itself a mini boom among a fresh generation, standing out in this crowd is going to take something pretty special. The thing is, I think Thomson may become that something special.

I didn't say ''new'', mind, not when this debut only occasionally stops being Justin Townes Earle long enough to take up occasional moments as an antipodean Ryan Adams (a pair who have taken up long traditions themselves).
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That is, it moves between measured-pace ballads that ache in all the right places but never tip into weariness, and lean, rhythmic, almost-homespun tunes in which harmonicas suggest trains, steel guitars evoke open spaces and worn boots come as standard.

Also in play are references to the kind of drugs you'd think a regular bloke from outside the cities shouldn't know, women who often decline the opportunity to make life easy and restlessness that's both physical and emotional.

What impresses about Thomson's songs is they never become the sum of their cliches but flow through their stories naturally, refreshingly and, yes, sometimes with a hard-to-believe naivety.

Or maybe what seems like naivety is simply someone who is less cynical about a form the rest of us think we know intimately; someone with the ability to make those songs stick.


- Bernard Zuel
- Sydney Morning Herald - Spectrum July 2012 - Bernard Zuel