NEWCASTLE bluesman James Thomson describes his sound as an “anarchism” and “unashamedly '60s and '70s”.
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A taste for music deeply rooted in American blues and folk he attributes to his parents’ record collection.
“They had a great music collection, it was really Bob Dylan that was the catalyst for me,” Thomson said.
“I discovered Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde and Bringing It All Back Home.”
“That changed everything for me, it changed the rules. It was earthshaking, the music, I had never heard anything like it before.
“I wondered who influenced this guy? How does he sound like that?
“I started doing some digging and then I discovered Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie and all those foundation musicians.
“And then went through the weird backwards of America where all that kind of working, folk music comes from.”
Thomson learnt to play at 15 on an old acoustic guitar. He took half a dozen lessons and by 17 he was writing his own material.
In 2012 he recorded his debut self titled album at Leisure Suite Studio with Grant Shanahan.
“I had no grand plans or design, I had limited recording experience,” Thomson said. “ I really didn’t know what I was going there to do, apart from record my songs.”
He ended up laying down 16 bare tracks for the recording.
“It was a fairly ambitious debut,” he said. “Being young and naive I didn't know any better.”
The work was handed to Stuart Coupe of Laughing Outlaw Records, who signed Thomson onto the label.
He headed back into the studio in 2015 to record Cold Moon. It was album of the week on the ABC’s The Inside Sleeve.
Thomson has since pulled together a band, James Thomson and The Strange Pilgrims, with Marty Burke on guitar, Tim Burns on drums, and Craig Rattray on bass.
“We have been touring pretty steadily since the end of 2015,” he said. “We have been pretty much working our butts of since then.”
Thomson has a new album written, soon to be recorded.
“We have done some demos and I think we will have a new single out before the end of the year,” he said.
Before the band turns its attention to recording it will play one last gig where they will perform the soon-to-be-recorded material.
“We have played odd songs from the new batch at gigs over the last six months, but not a set which is predominantly the new songs,” Thomson said.
“It’s going to be exciting for us.”
Next gig: The Cambridge Hotel, August 4.