"Southbound" - the new release from Jefferson Thomas
Sixth studio album from Americana/indie-pop singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jefferson Thomas to be followed with 2025 US and European tour dates
ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, November 22, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- "Southbound" is the sixth studio album from Americana/indie-pop singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jefferson Thomas. On this outing, he takes a decidedly “twangier” direction.
“Country music is what I grew up on,” explains Thomas, “so people would hear that in my playing, even if I was doing rock or funk or whatever. Then they would often suggest that I ‘go country.’ But I never wanted to be that calculated about it, like a lot of people are now. I’m mainly a rock guy, but I adore old-time country and bluegrass, and I resent seeing its rich legacy cheapened and used as a marketing gimmick.
But the main reason I always bristled at being called ‘country’ was that I was always much more adventurous lyrically than country music allows. My songwriting comes from the rock world, where you’re covering heavier lyrical ground than unrequited love and pickup trucks.
I also lived in New York City for many years, and I got sucked into that whole pseudo-intellectual faux-sophisticated thing, where you’re dressing in black and more interested in critical acclaim and being perceived as making ‘serious art’ than just making good music. It took me years to realize what a bullshit trip that was, and to finally break free from it.”
Meanwhile, Jefferson had written a couple of things that actually were more in the vein of unrequited love and pickup trucks, but they didn’t fit in with the rockier material he was doing. He recently went back to them and realized that they’d never gotten a fair shake, and he even ended up writing a few more. “I finally left New York City and moved to South Carolina, and that was incredibly liberating in so many ways. I was no longer so hung up on how I’d be perceived doing these songs, I just figured I had done some good work and I should get it out there.”
"Southbound" (officially released November 22nd) roars right out of the gate with the album’s first single, "She’s Been Going Through Some Things", ironically the album’s most rock and pop-oriented track. Next up is the hilarious mandolin-driven "Cocaine Killed All of My Friends", followed by an Americana landscape equal parts country/pop ("Keep Working", "Bigger Than You And Me"), bluegrass ("Hooverville"), classic rock (smartly-rendered covers of The Band’s "It Makes No Difference" and Tim Hardin’s "If I Were A Carpenter"), and even some good old hardcore vintage country ("Looking For Cowboys" and "Shiny Stuff").
“Yeah, I had to include those two," Thomas adds. "I figured if we’re gonna twang, man, let’s really do it. They’re both unapologetically old-time cornball country. My folks were both country musicians and that’s how I came up. I wrote 'Looking For Cowboys' for my Dad and 'Shiny Stuff' for my mom. She always hated modern country and said she wished people would still do some old-time country tunes. So I wrote one for her!”
Jefferson Thomas sounds at ease and comfortable in his own skin throughout the thirteen tracks of "Southbound." It never sounds like he’s trying to be anything he isn’t – perhaps because he finally decided to stop avoiding what he is.
Shelley Rosen
Evanworks Music
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