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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

You gotta hear Jody Thomas

"Heartfelt tenor … lethal" Artrocker
"Haunting vocals. Stunning." Irish Times

Jody Thomas is the reverse of Bob Dylan. Once an electric artist, he's been playing predominantly acoustic shows, to howls of concern from people who like their guitar filthy and distorted. He performs with a small group of rotating musicians who cover extra guitar, bass, piano, percussion and strings. The line up rarely stays exactly the same from show to show, which means that every performance has a different and unique flavour.

Fans who've only stumbled upon Jody over the last 18 months would be mistaken if they classified him as a purely acoustic artist, though. While his debut release, the EP "We Are", has strong acoustic tendencies, there are moments where the nicely-nicely façade slips into noise dirty enough to satisfy even the most hardened rock fiend. The overall effect is one part-Rufus Wainwright, one part-Thom Yorke, one part-Jeff Buckley and one part-Audioslave.

While live shows will remain fairly firmly acoustic in the near future, don't be surprised if the next recordings contain more than a few nods in the direction of alternative rock or even electronica. One thing Jody doesn't do is sit still. In the words of one Edward Vedder: "Do The Evolution…"