Earl Thomas Helping Raise Blues Hall Of Fame Roof

2012-0729 PA Blues Fest Sunday-1250827, a photo by NoVARon on Flickr.

The highpoint of the 2012 Pennsylvania Blues Festival was the riveting performance by the veteran San Francisco Bay singer Earl Thomas and his Blues Ambassadors. Thomas brought not only a deep soul voice to his program of blues and classic R&B (A killer rendition of the Etta James smash I'd Rather Go Blind) , but his showmanship was dazzling. Definitely a performer of the old school, of which there is too little today. 

Tis image taken from the Blues Foundation's website

Sunday, March 24 Earl Thomas headlines a terrific Raise the Roof Concert for the Blues Hall of Fame to raise money for the Blues Hall of Fame that The Blues Foundation. This takes place starting at 1PM PDT, 4PM EDT and 8PM in Europe. Here is some information from the Foundation's website:

"Blues legend Earl Thomas and his friends will play at Club Fox in Redwood City on Sunday, March 24, 2013. This once in a lifetime event, which will not be replicated anywhere, will be live streamed by VenMundi, making it possible for Blues aficionados all over the world to enjoy these extraordinary artists who are coming together in support of The Blues Foundation's Raise the Roof! Campaign for the Blues Hall of Fame.

Sista Monica (seen at 2012 DC Blues Festival)
among those assisting Earl Thomas
Raise the Roof for the Blues Hall Of fame

Earl Thomas started out wanting to support The Blues Foundation by giving back his time and talents as a Blues artist. As his fellow Blues musicians heard about what Thomas was doing, they wanted to join him. As a result, the show will feature Sista Monica, Syreeta Neal, Lady Bianca, Kenny Neal, Tia Carroll, King Tuffnstuff, Shane Dwight, Daniel Castro, John Nemeth, Kyle Rowland, Greg Nagy, Aki Kumar, the Blues Ambassadors and the list is growing.

Thomas explains, “I’m excited to be part of this event, and even more excited to have my friends join me in supporting The Blues Foundation. I think it is important for all of us to give back to the music that we love and to ensure that the history of Blues is preserved. I’m also grateful to VenMundi for helping us contribute 50 percent of the proceeds in support of the Blues Hall of Fame.”"

Here is the link to the specific VenMundi.com page for this PPV event.

As a full disclosure, I am a member of The Blues Foundation and am currently making a monthly pledge towards the Blues Hall of Fame. I will be watching this PPV tomorrow.

Earl Thomas at 2012 PA Blues Fest

2012-0729 PA Blues Fest Sunday-7290043, a photo by NoVARon on Flickr.

I probably saw less blues and R&B this past year than in prior years. One of the top blues act I had the pleasure of seeing was San Francisco based earl Thomas who brought a raspy, deep soul, church-rooted vocal attack backed by a crack rocking blues band to the Pennsylvania Blues Festival in July. Not only did his vocals hit you in your gut, but his old school showmanship was quite compelling as well. Here was some terrific music with both substance and form.  Here is another image from that great show.

Earl Thomas and His Electrifying Blues Ambassadors

The biggest highlight of the 2012 Pennsylvania Blues Festival for this writer was a riveting set by the San Francisco Bay Area’s Earl Thomas with his band The Blues Ambassadors. Thomas brings to mostly original blues and soul numbers a raspy, vibrato-laden vocal style that may evoke some classic deep soul acts of thirty years ago. His band is a tough outfit that complements his searing vocals. In actual performance he has the stage presence of a Wilson Pickett crossed with Jackie Wilson that makes for some musical fireworks.

His performance impressed me enough to purchase his CD, Introducing the Blues Ambassadors (Earl Thomas Music). On the CD the Blues Ambassadors include Kedar Roy on bass; Robert Sidwell and Bob Welsh on guitars (Welsh doubles on electric piano); Takeshi Komori on organ and Paul Revelli on drums. The Band at the Festival was different but in both cases provided a firm backing for Thomas’ vocals.

Earl Thomas at the
2012 Pennsylvania Blues Festival

There is a nice of originals and covers from the strutting opening I’ll Be Alright with slide guitar helping drive the fast walking tempo as Thomas sings about having the blues as he walks down the road but will be all right. There is a pretty straight cover of Magic Sam’s All Your Love with a strong vocal that exhibits Thomas vibrato and some broiling guitar followed by a fresh take on the Big Maybelle classic One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show, performed if he was covering a Billy Boy Arnold Vee-Jay recording. His raspy voice, moving from talking to shouting, helps deliver this terrific lyric.

The mood changes on the soulful ballad performance, Never Can Tell, followed by the rocking groove of Don’t Do Me This Way, as he sings of the pain in his heart as he feels like rain on a sunny day, and baby, Another soulful ballad Standing in the Rain, is followed by a bluesy cover of the late Paul Pena’s Jet Airliner, which is true to Pena’s lyrics as opposed to those sung by Steve Miller’s in his better known version. She Fooled Me is a cover of Billy Boy Arnold’s I Was Fooled, and the band captures the feel of the classic Chicago blues sound behind Thomas’ singing. All Talk No Action, is an instrumental that conjures up classic Booker T. & the M.G.s while the topical How Come?, is a nice, understated performance.

I look forward to seeing and hearing more from Earl Thomas in the future. Introducing the Blues Ambassadors is an impressive recording although it did not exhibit all the electricity Thomas and his Band generate in performance. This is an artist and band we will be hearing more from in the future.

And here is a clip of Earl Thomas in performance.