MUSIC
Electric Sex – Out 3/16/18
Original Sin – Out 6/17/14
VIDEO
What's Not Already A Reason To Drink Can Easily Become A Reason To Drink.
…it then becomes clear that songs like these can only be performed this way, by a man and his guitar. No tricks, no gimmicks, succeeding or failing on the quality of their delivery. The delivery is as good as it gets.
The album is capped by the powerful duet with Lily Costner on “Go Your Own Way,” which truly deserves some attention – as does this entire album!
Teetering on that ill-defined line between roots country and folk music, Thomas has the uncanny ability of using finger picking to sooth listeners into their seats, and exceptional lyrics to prick their sides and wake listeners back up. This is a stunning album. That’s all there is to it.
[Featured Interview] The Boot caught up with Thomas to discuss ‘Original Sin’ and the personal and musical journey that ultimately led him to create the album.
PRESS
[Song Premiere: "Man In Need"]
For the new record [Electric Sex], Thomas has enlisted the help of a talented troupe of artists, including pedal steel wiz Drew Belk, Jason Morant on keys, bassist Jason Harris, and Jake Finch on drums. The result is powerful and enticing, and, as you can hear in our premiere of the single “Man in Need,” downright sexy too.
Fronted with a rugged voice and light synths, Jacob Thomas Jr.’s melodic new track “Carousel” takes listeners on an emotional roller coaster with lyrics that explore heartbreak and letting go of lost love.
It takes a lot of talent and craft for a singer/songwriter to present a piece of work that is both fresh and familiar. But that's what Jacob Thomas Jr. has managed to do with his new solo acoustic record, Original Sin.
[Best 41 Country Music Albums of 2014]
There is a mixture of original compositions and clever cover versions on the debut album by Nashville-based Jacob Thomas Jr, a former preacher. The covers include the 1974 track Drinkin' Thing and a neat duet with actress and singer Lily Costner on the old Fleetwood Mac classic Go Your Own Way. But Thomas can sing and his own compositions, such as Caroline and Bored With You, are quirky and impressive.
Alongside transcendent finger-picking, Jacob Thomas Jr. delivers his craggy voice on "Original Sin," the sparse yet evocative title track of his latest record. Born and raised in Southern Louisiana, Thomas Jr. has a lilt to his speech that invites swamp ghosts and creole inflections to creep in and out of the melodies.
He sings woeful stories, the type you feel in the tips of your fingers and the pit of your stomach. They’re raw and honest, laying all their emotions out on the table. Clearly, authenticity is more important to Thomas than trying to impress people, which in the end, is kind of impressive.
A sweet cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” from Thomas’ stark, magnetic debut album Original Sin.
“Living out here on my own, like a half-hearted lost rolling stone,” Jacob Thomas Jr. warbles in “Justine” off his debut Original Sin, released this June. The title track sets the tone for the Louisiana-born troubadour’s songwriting persona – a hard drinking, weed-smoking cowboy with a cold heart and a case of wanderlust.
Thomas and his acoustic guitar alone manage to play a pretty tune with some less than heartfelt lyrics that might cause question of his character, but applaud his honesty. Although there are several sweet tracks on the album like “What I Meant to Say” and “Only Love,” it’s his lack of sugar-coating the salty bits with a melancholic voice that really stand out as both revealing and refreshing.
BIOGRAPHY
Raw-voiced singer. Songwriter. Sharp, detailed storyteller. Road warrior. Multi-instrumentalist. After spending years onstage and in the writing room, there are few roles Jacob Thomas Jr. hasn't played.
His most engrossing role, though, may be the character he created with his 2014 debut album, Original Sin, and revisits once again with his follow-up release, Electric Sex. Equal parts autobiography and hedonistic fiction, the nine songs on Electric Sex tell the story of a man struggling to find the middle ground between his guilty conscience and R-rated instincts. It's a rock & roll album rooted in lust, love, last calls and long nights, all wrapped together in a swirl of reverb-heavy pedal steel and 1980s-influenced electric guitar.
If the bare-boned songs on Original Sin shone a light on Thomas' ability to pack a punch with little more than an acoustic guitar and a gorgeously ragged voice, then Electric Sex — full of heartfelt, anthemic anthems about getting laid, getting lost and getting left behind — shows the full range of his abilities. He's no longer a solo performer. Instead, he's a frontman, leading a studio band whose members include pedal steel wiz Drew Belk, producer and keyboardist Jason Morant, bass player Jason Harris and drummer Jake Finch. Together, they make a sound that nods to rock & roll's biggest moments — from Fleetwood Mac to ELO to Silverchair's Diorama — while still pushing into new territory.
Raised by holy-roller parents in the Deep South, Thomas was taught to steer clear of diversions like mainstream rock. Religion filled his childhood instead. Even so, that didn't stop him from catching snatches of popular music during his time outside of the church.
"Years later, I'm still playing guitar in the style of those songs I heard in the mall when I was growing up," he says, more than a decade after leaving the church, moving north to Nashville, and kicking off his career as a touring musician. "I was never really allowed to listen to that stuff, but whenever I was in public places, I'd hear something and think, 'That's amazing!' The guitar parts were so melodic. You could hum along to them."
Electric Sex doubles down on Thomas' love of good hooks. They're everywhere, from the slashing guitar riffs and piano chords that fill the album's bluesy, blue-balled opener, "Man in Need," to the melodies that turn "Carousel" into the record's epic centerpiece. Also driving the songs forward is the interplay between Thomas' guitar tones — which chime, ring and echo in true Reagan-era fashion — and Belk's unique approach to the pedal steel. The two musicians are longtime friends, having shared the stage ever since Thomas' very first gig in Nashville. Here, they turn that familiarity into a give-and-take between their two instruments, remaking the pedal steel as a rock & roll instrument along the way. That said, the album's lead single, "Whiskey Roller Coaster," finds Thomas adding some grit and grizzle to Nashville's country roots.
Recorded at a lake house outside of Chattanooga, a home studio in East Nashville, and the acclaimed Creative Workshop Studio in Berry Hill, Electric Sex is Jacob Thomas Jr's strongest work to date, filled with melodies that move, guitars that glisten, and songs that always leave a mark.