Today, Southern singer-songwriter Paul Thorn announced his new album Life Is Just A Vapor will be released on February 21 via Thirty Tigers. The album is an outspoken account of the life lessons Thorn has experienced throughout his unique and extensive career, and a reflection of his 6 decades on this planet.
Along with the announcement, Thorn also shared the lead single and album opener, “Tough Times Don’t Last,” a bluesy, resilient track offering words of support and encouragement meant to uplift the listener, especially in times of struggle.
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 as a pro boxer; maybe it just comes naturally. But whether he’s targeting heads, hearts, hips or the occasional funny bone, he somehow manages to condense large nuggets of wisdom into tight little mantras, the kind embroiderers stitched onto pillows before internet memes existed.
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. “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.”
American Blues Scene‘s Don Wilcock wrote in this 2021 interview:
Paul is an everyman whose music 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. I first heard him open for B.B. King at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in 2010. He isn’t technically a bluesman. He was totally unknown to this audience, and he was preceding the most popular blues performer alive in the heart of Delta blues territory.
I thought the audience would eat him alive. Instead, they loved him so much, he’s been invited back every year since. At the end of his performance highlighted by “Pimps and Preachers (his dad’s the preacher and his uncle the pimp), he told the crowd that if they didn’t buy the album, they were all going to hell. Hundreds took him at his word.
