The PT Diaries

One black, one white. One from Texas, one from Mississippi. One woman (with her band), and one man (solo). Both raised in the church. Both steeped in the tradition of American music, and both putting their own contemporary twists on it - blending blues, rock, gospel, folk, R&B, and country music. Most importantly, both have a whole lotta soul! Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn have taken their careers to new heights with their most recent releases: Ruthie’s new, deeply intimate recording Let It Burn and Paul’s June 2010 release Pimps & Preachers. But it is their live shows that have really established Ruthie and Paul as two of America’s freshest and finest performers. Perhaps it’s the shared experience of the lively church music of their youth that has made them such compelling entertainers. Ruthie sang in church as a child and Paul was raised the son of a Pentecostal preacher. Whatever the reason, their songs of humanity and redemption have earned them enthusiastic fans and high praise from press, promoters, and fans alike

ABOUT RUTHIE: “Ruthie Foster has established herself as a down-home diva whose assurance and authority have put her on a certain path to stardom.” - Blurt

Following the path to critical acclaim and artistic triumph blazed by her Grammy-nominated 2009 CD The Truth According To Ruthie Foster, Ruthie’s new CD was recorded at the legendary Piety Studios in New Orleans. Let It Burn is a dark, smoky mix of sparsely-crafted originals accompanied by haunting interpretations of an unexpected collection of covers ranging from Adele to Los Lobos, and from The Black Keys to Johnny Cash. Recorded in the voodoo shadows of New Orleans with a small group of A-list musicians led by the Meter’s own George Porter, Ruthie provides her most personal visit yet with her deeply soulful vocals, supported at times by special guests Stax legend William Bell and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year and the 2010 Living Blues Music Award Critic’s Poll for Female Blues Artist of the Year, Ruthie was also named “Best Female Vocalist” at the 2008 Austin Music Awards. She’s been featured on the PBS syndicated show Austin City Limits and NPR’s All Things Considered, and has made impact appearances at the world’s most prestigious festivals and in collaborations with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Warren Haynes, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Derek Trucks.

Click here to visit Ruthie’s website.

ABOUT PAUL: Paul Thorn’s “gruff voice has gotten him compared to Springsteen and Tom Waits. But when he sits down to write, he’s more like John Prine.” - Newark Star Ledger

Paul Thorn’s life story is a fascinating one - born in Elvis’ birthplace, son of a Pentecostal preacher, boxed former world champ Roberto Duran on national TV, worked in a furniture factory, jumped out of airplanes - but with his new album, Pimps & Preachers, Thorn delves into perhaps the most interesting part of his strange-but-true story. The record charted in Billboard’s Top 100 and was #1 on the Americana radio charts for 3 solid weeks (beating out albums by John Prine, John Mellencamp, and Alejandro Escovedo). Paul has toured with everyone from Huey Lewis & The News to Sting, Mark Knopfler to Bonnie Raitt.

Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn now bring their joint musical endeavor to a wider audience, beyond geographic and musical frontiers.

Click here for tour dates.

With great regret, we have to announce that the Paul Thorn shows in Rockford and Urbana, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin have to be canceled. Paul has come down with a bad case of laryngitis and simply cannot sing. The shows in Illinois will be rescheduled for the first week of December; we are hoping for open dates to reschedule the Turner Hall show in Milwaukee at some point. Stay tuned for dates - we will announce them here, on Facebook, the email newsletter, and on Twitter. If you know Paul, you know that it kills him to disappoint his fans, but there can be no show if there is no voice.

Your tickets will be honored for the rescheduled shows, or you can contact the promoter to be refunded if unable to attend on the new dates. Remember, we will keep you posted on any updates as we receive them. We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and we really appreciate your understanding.

A lot of people joined us online for the Muscle Shoals show on Saturday, January 29th. Those of you who were at the show and those who viewed it online with no problems know what a truly memorable show Paul and the guys delivered. However, this post is addressed to those who paid for but could not view the broadcast. After reading your comments, the knowledge that you planned your evening around this show and weren’t able to see is a huge bummer for us. Our original concept was make you, our core fans and friends, part of this unique evening–we wanted you to be there with us. Your disappointment has cast a cloud over an otherwise successful night and we want you to know that we will do whatever it takes to make this right.

The link between us and the internet for this show was All Access Live. They have taken responsibility for the delivery problems and will make refunds to anyone who couldn’t see the show. If you had trouble viewing the feed, please contact admin(at)vuwme.com.

The archived video of the show will be posted in the next day or so and you will be able to watch it at your convenience. All Access Live will email you when the archive is up and ready to go.

Paul has put in a couple of long days prepping for this event and is beat. He wants to talk to you all via Facebook on Monday, but tonight he wants to catch his breath and spend this Sunday evening with his wife and kids.

Again, please accept our apologies.

Billy and the guys

This morning I turned on the TV in my hotel room and Keeping Up with the Kardashians was on. The opening scene showed one of the Kardashian daughters lying on a table with her legs gaped open, and when i say “gaped open” I mean up in the buck, like one of those low rent porn movies that has no music in it. (Yes I’ve seen one or two of those in my time.) Any way, as the scene unfolded, I learned that she was there with her sister to get a Brazilian wax. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s when they yank off all your pubic hair with melted wax. While this was taking place the two sisters were having a casual conversation about what they were looking for in a man. The one that was getting her onion peeled said that she wanted a man with permanent rock hard abs and thick hair that wasn’t gonna ever fall out. As I watched this program, I pictured some young 13 year old girl watching this “show” and thought about how she would be influenced by these two shallow females. More than likely, whatever the Kardashian girls endorse will become her philosophy of life.

I say that if you want to have a Kojak beaver it’s fine with me, but i would like to suggest that you DO NOT put the procedure on national television. Also, if you want a man with eternal rock hard abs and perpetual thick hair you will probably have to replace him every 10 years. Even fitness guru Jack Lalanne, who ate healthy and drank from his juicer every day, now has a sagging midsection. I am concerned about how a lot of today’s mainstream pop culture “entertainment” (whether it be television or Top 40 radio) is leading a generation of impressionable youngsters toward a mental highway that will guide them down a soulless path, transforming them into being mentally and spiritually bankrupt people who won’t know the nutritional difference between a Yoo Hoo chocolate drink and a cold glass of whole milk. I actually recently heard a young person say (and I quote), “Billy Graham is cool but he aint no Tommy Lee.”

As bleak as the future seems, I believe that there is still hope. I know that I can’t change the world, but I can continue to try and make a positive connection with all of you wonderful people who continue to come out to our shows and support what we do. I know in my heart that there is a certain group of humans out there who are hungry to connect with something that is not mean-spirited and will give them some much needed food for the soul. Every time we get together I get such a feeling of joy. I love you guys. I am with you for life, and I hope you are with me too. Thank you so much for all you do. I will see you at the next show. Bring a friend so more folks can experience the great connection we have. I hope to see you soon.

If you see the Kardashian girls, tell them that they are invited too. But they are gonna have to ACT RIGHT or they will be asked to leave.

What a wonderful time I have had over the last couple of days opening for John Prine. He is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. I met john several years ago and we have become friends. I have opened for him many times and it is always a wonderful experience. He has the most loyal fans i have ever seen. When he performs they hang on every word he says. They really embrace the spirit of his songs, some of which are, in my opinion, timeless classics. He has really been an important person in my musical career by exposing me to his fans. A lot of them are now fans of my music too and that has really helped me expand my audience. Each night during his encore he always invites me out on stage to sing a duet with him on the song Paradise. Someone took a great picture of me and John on stage together which I plan on framing and hanging somewhere prominently in my home. Beyond the good time we had on stage, I also noticed how good he treated his employees. Each night after the show he has a ritual of inviting all of them into his suite for post-show refreshments and conversation. They all seem to love him and I can see why. In today’s world where mediocrity is king it was so refreshing and encouraging to be in the presence of someone truly great, not just as an artist but also as a person.

On a lighter note, John and I were talking about things we like to do other than music and it turns out that we both have an affection for comic books and cartoons from our childhood. Some of his favorites are The Archies and Clutch Cargo while I prefer The Herculoids and the original Land of the Lost.

Paul

If you will indulge me for a moment I want to jot down a few words about the new Huey Lewis & The News project. It is a CD called Soulsville, and on it Huey and the boys mine some great material from the Memphis/Stax 60s soul explosion. These aren’t the obvious songs that have been covered a million times by a million artists. These are brilliant but seldom heard gems from Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, Joe Tex, and others recorded as live performances at Argent Studios in Memphis. These tunes were cut with a faithful reverence to the vibe, groove, and soul of the original tracks, and I was fortunate enough and honored to be included in the process.

Huey and the band have been friends of ours for some time now, and ever since we played our first show with them it has been glaringly obvious what a tight, punchy, smoking band they are. But the thing that struck me back in January as we recorded the Soulsville tracks was that these guys, to a man, are real students, historians, and caretakers of great American music. I have worked as a musician in Tennessee, Georgia, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama all of my life, and they knew much more about the Memphis/Macon/Muscle Shoals soul scene of the 60s and 70s than I did. Additionally, Huey & The News have been in the biz a long time and I expected them to be at least somewhat jaded, but there was no been there/done it attitude to be found anywhere. The excitement as we worked up and recorded these tunes was contagious, the fun factor was high, and I felt like a kid again working up cool soul songs to hit the frat party circuit with a new band. But these guys are no kids - they are world class, grown-assed men playing the hell out of their instruments, and working with them was nothing but a bonafide pleasure.

The American release date for Soulsville is November 2nd. All the relevant links are below if you want to check it out…

Cheers!

Bill Hinds, PTB guitar player

All the relevant links…

Discussing Soulsville and music videos (YouTube)

Huey Lewis & The News Facebook page

HueyLewis.com

Preview Soulsville for free! (requires Facebook login)

Buy Soulsville at Amazon.com

Download Soulsville on iTunes

Hi everybody. This is Ralph, the new bass player with Paul Thorn. I’ve been asked to share a little bit about myself with the friends and fans of PTB. I appreciate your interest and look forward to meeting many of you in the future.

Like Paul has mentioned at the shows, I’m originally from Portland, Oregon and I spent my early musical years performing in various bands throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 1986, I moved to Los Angeles and spent most of my time there writing and pursuing that elusive record deal with a couple of original projects. The deal didn’t come, but I hit the jackpot when I met Ann Marie (Annie), a singer who had moved from Albuquerque to pursue her dream.

Then, one rainy February night in ‘93 as we watched my beloved 1985 white-with-rust-red-interior Honda Civic Wagon drive off with neither of us behind the wheel, we decided it was time for a change. Later that year we were married and heading for Tennessee to begin a new adventure.

Since living in Nashville, I have had the pleasure of working with wonderful artists such as Keith Anderson, JoDee Messina, Suzy Bogguss, and Collin Raye, to name a few. I also continue to write and play in a rock trio called the Mad Hatter Band in my spare time.

I feel very blessed and thankful to be able to make music with so many cool people including this great group of guys I’m working with now. Paul, Billy, Jeffrey, Michael, Bill, and you, the PTB fans around the country, have been so warm and welcoming to me and I can’t thank you enough. I look forward to many years of being a part of the PTB Nation.

Thanks for all your support,

Ralph Friedrichsen

I grew up as the son of a Church of God of Prophecy pentecostal minister. I went to church every Wednesday night and twice on Sunday. At a very early age I was saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost . The church was my whole world and I was told that anything outside of that world was evil. Me and my sisters were not allowed to go to movie theaters or skating rinks. Whenever we went swimming, the boys and girls had to swim separately because the church rightly rationalized that seeing the opposite sex in a bathing suit would cause us to lust in our hearts, which was a major sin.

Around the age of 12 me and my dad were sitting at our kitchen table when the phone rang. He answered it and immediately had to sit down. It was my long lost Uncle Merle. The family had not heard from him in 10 years and we all thought he was probably dead. As it turned out, he was alive and well. He told my dad that he had been living out in California and wanted to come home and reconnect with his family. They were all excited to see him return and I was anxious to meet the uncle I had no memory of. When we picked him up at the airport he was unlike anyone I had ever seen. His clothes were very stylish and when he spoke, his words sounded like poetry. The cadence of his speech was strangely similar to my father’s when he was behind the pulpit, but slightly more raw and flamboyant.

As time passed by, me and my Uncle Merle became very close, and with that closeness he began to tell me about his past life. He informed me that during the time he was away he had made his living as a pimp. He explained to me in graphic detail the ins and outs of the street life. He showed me that there was a broader world out there  beyond the small one I had grown up in. He exposed me to what life was like on the wrong side of the tracks by secretly taking me there countless times to experience it for myself. The song Pimps and Preachers is a sincere tribute to my father and my uncle. The time I spent with them has given me a certain set of social and coping skills that have served me well in life.

Oh, and by the way, these self proclaimed “hip hop pimps” that you see on television surrounded by bitches and bling bear no resemblance to what a real player is. Most of them have no game at all. They are merely wealthy and have zero chops or real ability to get inside a persons mind. If not for their money and fame no decent female would give them the time of day. They would be laughed at for not knowing how to pull their pants up. My dad and my uncle could walk into any room with no money in their pockets and leave with a congregation of believers or a stable full of fresh turn-out.

Last night at about ten o’clock, me and my wife arrived at the Hollywood Hotel and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. We put our bags in the room and decided to gamble just a little bit before we turned in. We said a short prayer together and asked God to lead us to the most lucrative slot machines so that we could get rich and live large like Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston. As we walked aimlessly through the neon jungle of bells and whistles, I saw desperate looking old people hovering over their favorite games and betting the max while holding strong drinks and plastic buckets full of golden tokens. I had no clue where to insert my 20 dollar bill, then suddenly God spoke to me in a clear voice that sounded like Telly Savalis and said that Heather and I should sit down at the Hee Haw Buck and Roy 25 cent slot machine. We obeyed his command, and within 5 minutes Heather had won 100 dollars and I had won 250 dollars. Praise the Lord. Heather and I have a running agreement that we always split whatever we win, so we both ended the day with 175 dollars directly in our pockets. I cannot stress enough the importance of obeying God’s will. If you open your heart to Him, He will lead you to the light of the winning slot as he did for us. But be careful - the devil also hangs out in the casino and he wants you to get drunk and empty out your savings at the ATM machine.

Get a free download of the title track from Paul’s upcoming Pimps & Preachers CD! Just send an email to pimps@paulthorn.com with your home state as the subject and you will get an immediate response containing the free download link. Enjoy!