When it comes to songwriting, less is more, and simplicity is strength. Just ask Paul Thorn, who’s spent three decades turning soulful grooves and small syllables into songs that pack a big wallop. Maybe he learned the power of minimalism from his years asa pro boxer; maybe it justc omes naturally. But whether he’s targeting heads, hearts, hips or the occasional funny bone, hes ome how manages to condense large nuggets of wisdom into tight little mantras, the kindembroiderers stitched onto pillows before internet memes existed.
Thorn’s new album, Life is Just A Vapor, contains some beauties: “Life is a vapor, let’s live it while we can”; “tough times don’t last, but tough people do” (from “Tough Times Don’t Last”);“any mountain up ahead is just a hill” (from “Old Melodies”). They’re words of advice, comfort, support, encouragement, often meant to uplift, especially in times of struggle.“
I like for people to be touched by music and get something from it, something that they can take with them throughout the day,” Thorn says. “Every song on this album, there's a message in it of some sorta bout how to live life.”
American Blues Scene writer Don Wilcock calls Thorn “an everyman (who) addresses things we all think about, but few can articulate with the kind of candor, humor and folksy truth that immediately endear him to almost everyone lucky enough to hear his music.
”Whether he’s expressing love in “I Knew,” warning an ex’s new conquest about the dangers ahead in “She Will,” extolling the value of holding off on sex in “Wait” or listing the ingredients for making a marriage work in “Courage My Love” (“a half-acre on your daddy’s land / and a little luck / a load of white gravel in our driveway / so we don’t get stuck in a rut /a 3-horsepower lawnmower and courage my love”), Thorn delivers his messages with consummate skill—and pinpoint precision. One minute, he’ll unwind an outrageous tale full of wild characters (often accompanied by his own cartoonish illustrations); the next, he’ll tug at heartstrings with confessions of love, loss or failed dreams, balancing wit and pathos with an ease only the best storytellers can pull off. One of Thorn’s favorites was his friend and mentor John Prine, who inspired the title tune.
We’ll discuss that one in a bit, but first, we should mention that in “Wait,” a commentary about dating in the Tinder era, the fella who buys his dates dinner with a two-for-$20 coupon is someone Thorn actually knows. “Geraldine and Ricky” is based on real people, too—well, areal person and her hickory-headed dummy. Whether written solo, with long time manager/collaborator/album producer Billy Maddox or with Chuck Cannon, Scotty Brassfield orDenny Carr, nearly all of these songs are inspired by or reference actual events or people;Geraldine was a traveling evangelist who couldn’t connect with children until she triedventriloquism. When she spread the lord’s word through Ricky, kids were mesmerized—including 5-year-old Thorn, who requested, and got, a ventriloquist doll for Christmas.
Thorn, a brilliant gospel stylist, could sing the heck out of either of those songs. If you haven’t heard his version of the O’Jays’ hit, “Love Train,” fromDon’t Let the Devil Ride, his 2018 album of gospel covers, you haven’t experienced the song the way it truly should be heard. On this album, he’s backed occasionally by Tupelo gospel group New Testament, or MuscleShoals session singers Cindy Richardson and Marie Lewey (aka the Shoal Sisters)—who sing on “Life is Just a Vapor,” a phrase adapted from scripture.
It's safe to say no one but Thorn would start a song with the lines, “Me and John Prine was eating ice cream / at the Double Tree Inn Suite 1019.” And no one but Thorn would follow them with,“Don’t tell Fiona she won’t understand / Life is a vapor. Let’s live it while we can.”
Of his late friend, Thorn says, “He’s one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and one of the nicest people, too.I can't even count the times I've opened up for him, which was a great opportunity for me.”
As he will do for countless audiences, Thorn narrates the story behind those lyrics: “One night after I opened up for him,” he recounts, “John invited me and a few other friends to come to his hotel room and have some ice cream after the show.So I went, and it was a big thrill. Then the next morning I went on Facebook and I wrote about my encounter, and I said to the world what a moment it was for me to get to hang with John and have this ice cream and everything.
“Right when I posted it, his manager called my manager and said,‘Take that post down immediately. John is a severe diabetic, and his wife Fiona is going to kill him for eating ice cream.’”
In total straight-man mode, Thorn nonchalantly adds, “Yeah, I got him in trouble for eating ice cream.”
And that’s how the finest troubadours do it: Set ‘em up with humor, then hit ’em in the feels with lines like, “Every day’s a gift, breathe in and hold it. / Every day’s a gift, it’s gone before you know it.
”Gorgeous, moving words. Simple, straight-forward and, if you’ve lost a loved one, or a hero like Prine, very likely tear-inducing.“
I'm just trying to put out a good body of work that will be remembered like John's music,”Thorn admits. “I'm trying to carry on his tradition, to keep it alive.”
Prine, the heavyweight champ at spinning humor and heartbreak into gold, would have loved this song, and this album. Maybe the lyrics he inspired will motivate someone to grab some threadand start stitching.
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda, I’ll do it someday,/Turns into time just slippin’ away. / The hourglass is runnin’ out of sand, / Life is a vapor. Let’s live it while we can.”
Paul Thorn
Will Hoge
