Earl Thomas happy with little house in the big woods

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:13 PM PST ∞

Longtime San Diego resident Earl Thomas spent years living just blocks from the water in Ocean Beach. He's not much farther from the water now, but he's about as far north as one can be and still live in California. Thomas, who was attending Humboldt State University when he began his career as a soul/R&B singer some two decades ago, has spent the last three years back living among the redwoods of Northern California, just outside Trinidad.

"I always wanted to live here ---- my dream came true," he said by phone from his rural home in Trinidad. "I'm a forest guy. Some people like to live in the city; some people are urbanites. Some people are beach people. I am a forest person.

"I can walk out my door, walk 150 yards west and I'm in an old-grove redwood forest; I walk another 250 yards, and I'm at the ocean ---- and there are no people."

While having no people around can be perfect for hermits, Thomas is, as mentioned, a singer (one who is performing Feb. 24 at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach in a benefit for the North County Community Services Food Bank). And singers ---- particularly soul singers who have modeled their style after Ike and Tina Turner ---- need bands.

"The way I've learned how to work it is I actually have three working bands. I've got one in San Francisco, I have another band in Copenhagen, and they tour with me in Scandinavia. And I have another band in the United Kingdom."

But Thomas said none of those bands got much work from him last year.

"Last year, believe it or not, I spent almost the entire year here. After my mom died, I started a whole six-month tour the Monday following. I didn't really have the chance to grieve properly. And I am a proud mama's boy. I didn't really take very good care of myself. So I decided to take last year off, to just heal and get my equilibrium back. This year's looking real busy. The way my calendar looks now, I'll be home for four months this year."

In addition to losing his mother recently, Thomas also lost one of his chief mentors when Ike Turner died at his San Marcos home. Like others who were tutored or employed by Turner, Thomas said the public image Turner carried due to allegations of spousal abuse and drug use didn't tell the whole story.

"He was nothing but kind to me," Thomas said.

But despite a cheerleader like Ike Turner in his corner, and despite having a national record contract and having been featured in Living Blues magazine in the mid-1990s, Thomas never found the breakthrough success, the hit records, that were predicted for him. He's made a nice living off his music, but 15 years ago critics were saying he'd be a superstar.

Thomas said he thinks it's because people assumed he knew what he was doing on the business side of things, when he was in reality pretty lost.

"My first CD, 'Blue ... not Blues,' was our senior project. Phillip Wooten and I went into the studio instead of writing a symphony. We were not professionals at all. I'd never been in a band before. Buddy Blue picked it up and passed it on to his label" (Bizarre/Planet Records).

"I think that's why Earl Thomas didn't become a household name ---- I didn't know what I was doing.

"I've never really been one of those self-promotion guys. I'm not a very good PR person for myself."

Besides gearing up for a spring and summer of touring, Thomas is also finishing up a new studio recording, which he hopes to have finished soon. He's not shopping it to a label ---- it will be his first self-released record, and first since 2006's "Plantation Gospel."

"This album is definitely geared for the blues audience," he said of the pending release. "Earl Thomas is a bluesman. I always was, but I've had other interests artistically. I've found the balance with this project. It's blues, but not so blues that I'm not being true to my own artistic tastes."

He doesn't expect the record to be a huge hit ---- he just wants to make back the money he put into making it and promoting his career.

"I really used to think I wanted to be famous. I've learned that quality of life is much more important than anything else.

"As long as I can keep my little house in the woods, I'm happy as a clam."

Earl Thomas, with Amber Ojeda and Justus Ewing

When: 8 p.m. Feb. 24

Where: Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach

Tickets: $28 (proceeds benefit the North County Community Services Food Bank)

Info: (858) 481-8140 or bellyup.com

Web: earlthomasmusic.com

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