Paul Thorn’s new album evokes gratitude and optimism 

By Galen Holley

Getting old is hard, and, on his latest record, downhome troubadour Paul Thorn sings about aging gracefully alongside his audience.

“My fans aren’t teenagers, and neither am I,” said Thorn, laughing, during a recent drive to Nashville, a day ahead of the February 20 release of his fourteenth studio album, “Life is Just a Vapor.” On the album, Thorn pours out his sentiments about the passage of time, acceptance, and the slings and arrows of this mortal coil. “These are songs written by a 60-year-old man, and I think my fans can relate,” said Thorn. “If we were cars, we’d have 170,000 miles on us.” Thorn plans to play 140 shows this year promoting the album, including two shows on March 1, at 5 and 8 p.m., at the Cromwell Theatre, on the campus of MUW in Columbus. Thorn said that the album, a year in the making, is perhaps the finest he’s ever made.

“The musicianship and production quality are special,” said Thorn, a Lee County resident with a past as anecdotal and variegated as Forrest Gump. Thorn has always had his finger on the pulse of life in the rural South. The son of a preacher, Thorn has a singular gift for writing songs that sound like stories shared over a slug of whiskey at a deer camp. On this record, however, he also shows a deft hand for crafting songs that are poignant and evocative. The music is nostalgic, without drifting into maudlin sentimentality.

One of the new tracks, “Tough Times Don’t Last, Tough People Do,” celebrates the importance of keeping your chin up. That’s sage advice, especially coming from a former professional boxer who once fought Roberto Duran. The brightly affirmational “Courage, My Love,” has a soaring feeling. The track sounds like liquid Americana poured over the strings of slide guitar, all buoyed along with great background harmony, something like Jackson Browne meets the Eagles.

“These songs really resonate, and you can just tell it, when we play live, that the fans connect with them,” said Thorn.

The title track, “Life is Just a Vapor,” starts with a lyric rooted in a backstory that is quintessentially Paul Thorn. He was eating ice-cream with the late, great songwriter John Prine. After enjoying the sweet treat with the legendary Prine, the excited Thorn immediately posted the experience to social media, whereupon he quickly got an admonishment from Prine’s manager to take it down, because the singer was a diabetic and his wife would kill him. .

Thorn’s eclectic influences shine through on this album, as with “I’m Just Waiting,” which has the smoky, juke-mysterious sound of Robert Cray, with a touch of B.B. King.

Thorn credits the album’s polished sound largely to the fact that he’s played with the same musicians for more than 20 years. Those include drummer Jeffery Perkins from Nashville, guitarist Chris Simmons from Alabama, New Albany’s own Michael Graham on keyboard, and new bassist Scott Esbeck (Ralph Friedrichsen from Oregon was the former, long-time bassist). Also playing on the record are Luther Dickenson of the North Mississippi AllStars on guitar as well as Bill Hinds. Legendary guitarist Joe Bonamassa is also a special guest contributor. Thorn’s manager, Billy Maddox, produced the album. The tracks are nuanced and smooth, and full of what Thorn called “ear candy.”

Mixed in with the record’s more soulful entries is the hilarious (and deeply bluesy), “Geraldine and Ricky,” a fictional account of a lady evangelist and her ventriloquist dummy who travel the South spreading the Good News. Their partnership sours. “I wanted to write a song about a toxic relationship with a woman, and I thought, what better vehicle than this story,?” said Thorn, explaining that the pair were a real evangelical act he saw as a kid. “They went around to all the churches,” said Thorn. He recently went into a shop in Tupelo and happened to see a Geraldine and Ricky album, and it set his creative mind to work. In short, Geraldine gets too big for her britches and discards the good-hearted dummy. Things don’t end well for her. “It’s a song about karma,” said Thorn, laughing. The song is accompanied by a riotously funny animated music video.

In the end, “Life is Just a Vapor,” the title of which Thorn took from a biblical passage, is a celebration of gratitude and perseverance. “Life has gone by so fast,” said Thorn. One of the threads that runs through the album is Thorn’s close connection and appreciation of his fans. “I haven’t had to keep a steady, day job since 1997,” said Thorn. “I get to do this for a living, and I really do appreciate it.”  He paused. “Instead of dreading death, I’m going to enjoy life,” said Thorn. “I’ll keep doing it until I die.”