Paul Thorn’s blend of comedy with hard as nails rock your ass off stuff is something to behold, as is the man himself.  Dude came out early and sat up on the hill not ten feet from us eating hot dogs and nachos conversing with the real people like no big deal.  When Bonnie Bishop called him out to praise him for letting her open, Rose turned and asked “How much did you pay her for that?”  To which he dead panned “Around twenty dollars!” He has spoken how he loves Dean Martin’s comedic wit and the middle class cult following who puts food on his family’s table. The combination makes for a killer evening.

Bonnie Bishop opened up and got the crowd rollin’ with a bluesy funk thang that was a change from when I saw her a few years back at Hayes Carll’s Stingaree Fest.  Blond to black hair and a full on Susan Tedeschi style act for her now. Very good fit for her with acoustic guitar, keyboards, bass bottom, and drums. Highlights focusing on her ample lungs were “Keep On Usin’ Me”, “Do Right By Me”, and “You’re Not the Only One”. The switch seems to suit her fine and I’ll check her out more in the future.

Paul Thorn hit the stage running with a new one from “Pimps and Preachers” (his latest CD) “Weeds in the Roses” !  Thorn’s lead guitar player, Bill Hinds, is one of the better shredders I’ve seen as of late and he was spot on killer on this one and all night long.  PT yellin’ for some “Jezabel pesticide” was epic!  Thorn has such a down to earth smile, even when he confesses that “I had impure thoughts up on the hill watchin’ Bonnie Bishop’s legs.” Another great line out of nowhere: “If a tornado hit that hill a lot of white folks would get wiped out!”    Highlights which were too many to keep track of were “Do You Regret the Things Left Undone”,  “A Good Day”, super charged “Rise Up”, solo laugh riot tune “I Don’t Like Half the Folks I Love” about family reunions, true tail about his boxing career and jammer deluxe “Hammer and Nail”, and the cover song from latest “Pimps and Preachers” which he dedicated to his real life dad (preacher) and pimp (uncle) telling the crowd to be proud of who you are.  Amen bro.  What an all around enjoyable evening this was.  “I Hope I’m Doin’ This Right” was so heart felt and tender.  Dedicating a tune to Carmalito’s taco stand for their outstanding nachos full of cheese was somethin’ else.  “If I wasn’t married I’d take her to the Dairy Queen tonight!”   Bonnie Bishop trotted out to lend some killer interaction with PT on “Lover’s Vacation”.  He declared that was so hot we gotta resod the grass cuz its all burned up!

THAT pretty much sizes up thee entire evening to me.  There WILL be a fifth time for us to see Paul Thorn for sure and please try and catch this cat with his band when you can!  Check out : www.paulthorn.com sometime. Later and God Bless live music.