From: sunofmusic@gmail.com   
      
   "I know how it's supposed to go," says Jefferson Thomas. "You write a bunch of   
   songs, you make a record, then you hit the road and play those songs for   
   everybody."   
      
   Well, not this time. The songs appearing on Thomas' new release Come Alive   
   (out February 10) were chosen mainly by their reception by the past year's   
   audiences. Thomas' live shows are often three- or four-hour servings of his   
   irreverent and infectious    
   mix of rock, twang, and pop, served up over crunchy guitars and smoky vocals.   
   They're high energy, jammy, interactive affairs, with everything but the   
   kitchen sink thrown in; solo acoustic segments, some choice cover tunes, maybe   
   a short burst of stand-   
   up comedy, and even on-the-spot songwriting.   
      
   "Transmission," is a perfect example. An over-the-top psychobilly rant that   
   careens dangerously towards punk, it clocks in at a blink-and-you-missed-it   
   1:49. "I had just had the transmission in my van replaced, and the new   
   transmission gave out on the    
   way to a show. While I was sitting there waiting for the tow truck, I called   
   the auto shop who did the installation and was reaming them out. I screamed   
   into the phone, 'Fix my f---ing transmission!' - and the cadence and rhythm   
   was so perfect that I    
   hung up and wrote the whole song right there on the side of the highway. We   
   worked it up right there and played it in front of people three hours later."   
      
   The song has been a staple of Thomas' live show ever since. "I've been busier   
   on the live front - 268 dates in the last two years - than any time in my   
   life, and why shouldn't that have an impact on your next record? How many   
   times have you slaved away    
   in the studio on something you can't stand hearing by the time it's done? Not   
   this time. I'm gonna be able to enjoy listening to this one myself."   
      
   "Looking For Cowboys" could be a straight-up country song, but it eschews the   
   typical, empty-headed drove-my-pickup-truck-to-the-line-dance-with-a-beer   
   lyrical fare that has afflicted modern country for too long. Thomas takes on   
   the assimilation of    
   combat veterans back into civilian life, with lines like, "Now I'm watching   
   the man on TV/standing on the ground I stood/cashing it in and playing to   
   win/the way I never could." With three verses examining that assimilation over   
   three wars spanning seven    
   decades, "Cowboys" at least aspires to serious cultural commentary, while   
   wisely assuming neither a pro- nor anti-war stance.   
      
   "Dusty" is a stark, first-person account of a fictional solitary sociopath in   
   the American southwest with a penchant for killing prostitutes. "That's the   
   first time I've ever assumed a character and gotten all literary on your ass   
   (laughs). My love-life    
   took a beating for a year or so after I started playing 'Dusty' live, because   
   it comes off as autobiographical." A creepy song, sung in a creepy baritone   
   over a creepy, foreboding blues setting, it would have been right at home   
   under scenes from "   
   Breaking Bad" or "Sons Of Anarchy."   
      
   Those are two of the headier tracks, but much of "Come Alive" is a fun,   
   self-effacing, boozy affair with haphazard guitars and vocals that couldn't   
   care less about auto-tune, and a slight retro nod toward seventies   
   country-rock. Of all the colorful,    
   flawed characters we encounter throughout, perhaps none is more colorful and   
   flawed than Thomas himself, which makes "Come Alive" a disarming collection of   
   songs that are good because they don't try to be great.   
      
   ###   
      
   For more information, contact Shelley Rosen at srosen@evanworks.com   
   or visit the artist's website at www.jeffersonthomas.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)