Paul Thorn Unleashed--What the Hell is Going On?
I recently had a chance to talk with Paul Thorn about his latest album, What the Hell is going On?, released May 8th on his own indie label, Perpetual Obscurity.
Paul Thorn has had an amazing history; he has been a professional boxer, he once fought Roberto Duran. He has toured with some of the most amazing musicians in the world: Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knoppfler, John Prine.
How are you doing today Paul?
I'm doing good. How are you doing?
I'm doing really great, thanks. You're new album, What the Hell is Going On, that came out May 8th right?
Yeah.
Are you touring on it right now?
Yeah, I'll be touring on this thing for the next year, you know?
You just put out an album 2010, that was Pimps and Preachers?
Yeah. That's right. Pimps and Preachers did real well for us. Every record we've put out it seems like sells more than the one before, and every year it seems like the following gets bigger, more people coming to the shows. My careers never blown up overnight, but it's really steadily grown every single year.
You've been around since the '90s. You were on A&M Records originally, right?
Yes, I was. And like most big label deals, nothing came of it. But when I started putting out my own records independently, that's when things started taking off and doing good.
Pimps and Preachers was all original, kind of story-telling and this is an album of covers. But it's not your regular kind of cover album.
I didn't want to do an album of songs that everyone was familiar with, that had been recorded a million times. I wanted to do an album of songs that were good songs, but not something that everyone had heard by 15 different artists. These are what you call "deep cuts." These are songs by well known writers, but these are some of their more obscure tunes that the world has never heard unless they're a die-hard music fan.
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