PRESS KIT |
photos by amy dickerson
OR
SONICBIDS |
March 2007 |
Maverick
Magazine
Issue 56 - March 2007 available now.
Molly is featured in this UK magazine.... Dolly Parton is the Cover Feature |
March 29th, 2007 |
MOLLY
ON THE ROAD
The Nashville Rage
"Violinist, in-demand backing musician and singer-songwriter Molly
Thomas crossed the pond last week to embark on her own solo tour through
England. Supporting her most recent disc, Shoot The Sky, Molly's British
run of dates lasts until April 6, with mostly opening slots scheduled
at a variety of UK venues in Berkshire, Brighton, London and other postcard
settings." |
Monday February 19th,
2007 |
Roots
Reunion Live Radio Show Set for March 3 at Saenger Theater
by David Tisdale
"HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Molly Thomas’ inclusion in the
lineup for this spring’s Roots Reunion live music radio show is
both a dream come true and a source of vindication for the Nashville singer/songwriter
and University of Southern Mississippi alumna.
The popular biannual event celebrating Mississippi music styles will be
held Saturday, March 3 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Hattiesburg’s historic
Saenger Theater, where Thomas, a former Hattiesburg resident, has yearned
to perform since her youth.
“I had made up my mind that I wanted to sing there when I was a
little girl, when I auditioned for the Wizard of Oz and was rejected,”
Thomas said.
Thomas will be joined by some of the state’s best musical talent
for Roots Reunion, including Hattiesburg-area blues artists Tommie “T-Bone”
Pruitt and Vasti Jackson on electric and acoustic blues, respectively;
popular bluegrass band Railroad Creek; gospel piano and vocals by Jackie
“Storm” Walker; and the Patchwork String Band delivering classic
early country tunes.
The show will be broadcast live on the Southern Miss campus radio station,
WUSM-FM 88.5. Admission is free.
Thomas, whose musical style is often described as country folk in the
tradition of Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams, said she’s thrilled
to return home to be a part of the Roots Reunion tradition.
“It’s an honor to be included and share the stage with these
talented musicians, especially T-Bone Pruitt and Vasti Jackson,”
Thomas said. “Before I left Hattiesburg, I always went out to hear
those cats play and was always inspired by their music and spirit.”
....read
more |
Monday Janunary 22nd, 2007 |
"Thomas was most effective, raising her voice in hymn-like fashion
to stun the audience into reverential silence as songs from her Shoot
the Sky recording trippingly bounced around the interior walls of the
historic building. A seemingly natural musician, Thomas, who began playing
violin at age 6, can switch from piano to guitar to violin, writing and
producing her compositions into a galvanizing form." |
December 1st, 2005
The Nashville Scene |
"Molly Thomas is an in-demand
violinist among Nashville's alt-rock and Americana crowd whose debut,
Shoot the Sky, is a dreamy, drama-filled album of melodic adult
rock." |
 June
2005
|
Molly Thomas Shoot the Sky
"I'm a fool and your tattoo is on me for good," sings Molly
Thomas in opening track "Blueprint." That lyric sets the mood
for an album that could be a soundtrack for recovering from a breakup.
"Another wasted dream, another wasted man, another wasted day with
you," Thomas sings over somber strings and piano.
The reverb and simple acoustic guitar arrangements of the album recall
early Mazzy Star. Slow, dreamy tunes sustain beautiful
string lines and Thomas' soulful vocals as she sings about loneliness,
forgiveness and a love as addictivea as crack cocaine. "I Hear a
Symphony" is the lyrical highpoint of the album: "In the subway
of a slow dark pain...in the eyes of an old Polish woman on that train...in
the sheets of a big and haunted bed, I hear a symphony." Strings
soar and piano joins in on the mantra of the chorus "You are not
alone."
Got someone to get oer? Pick up a copy of Shoot the Sky and commiserate
with Thomas.
by Mare Wakefield |
July, 2005
Italy |
Roots
Highway, Italy
if anyone can read italian, please feel free to email & translate....thanks!
inserito 06/07/2005
Strano disco questo esordio di Molly Thomas, songwriter e violinista nativa
del Mississippi, trasferitasi a Nashville in cerca di maggiori attenzioni...è
una regola. Dico questo perchè, nonostante si tratti di un lavoro
di classica impostazione cantautorale, con una forte componente testuale,
sembra preoccuparsi poco del potenziale melodico delle ballate e della
stessa voce della Thomas, non così potente ne tanto meno sbalorditiva,
ma efficace nel rendere la malinconia di fondo che accompagna le sue composizioni.
Shoot the Sky è infatti una raccolta di brani dai toni crepuscolari,
nostalgici, per la maggior parte acustici - piano, chitarra e poco altro
a fare da contorno - quasi l'autrice volesse risaltare l'aspetto più
profondo e impegnativo della sua scrittura (Blueprint, Shoot the Sky e
I Hear a Symphony il trittico "unplugged" in apertura). Non
è facile dunque assimilare per intero un disco simile, e le presenze
sporadiche di altri musicisti (tra gli ospiti Matthew Ryan, all'acustica
nella title track e seconda voce nella pianistica Sleep; Mando Saenz nel
duetto di Bad Timing) non allegeriscono la seriosità dell'approccio.
La Thomas è arrivata al debutto dopo numerose collaborazioni, sia
in studio che in tour, con nomi di spicco quali Todd Snider, lo stesso
Mathew Ryan, Will Kimbrough e Mindy Smith: la sua presenza scenica e il
suo violino sono stati molto richiesti, ma evidentemente il ruolo le andava
stretto. Prodotto per conto proprio e registrato in casa, ma assolutamente
professionale nella resa finale, composto da materiale originale, con
la sola eccezione di I Hear a Simphony (Mathew Ryan), Shoot the Sky viaggia
su due binari, privilegiando però l'aspetto più tormentato
dell'autrice. Un timido accenno di batteria arriva solo al quarto brano,
The Easy Side, comunque un lento folk rock che non fa che ribadire le
sensazioni descritte poc'anzi. Affascinate certo, ma anche a rischio di
noia, specialmente se, come nel caso della Thomas, non si possiede una
voce davvero fuori del comune. Non tutte le ballate insomma riescono a
tenere alta l'attenzione: una citazione la meritano forse Bad Timing,
dolce folk in coppia con Mando Saenz, e My Side, con la seconda voce di
Rowland Stebbins. Solo nella seconda parte si affaccia timidamente un
suono più elettrico: Wide of the Mark è il brano più
rock del disco, anche se possiede poca personalità, mentre in Crak
Cocaine è la stessa Thomas ad occuparsi della batteria. Come si
diceva in apertura un disco coraggioso e promettente, ma a momenti un
po' troppo pretenzioso: la Thomas dovrebbe farsi guidare da qualche buon
consiglio esterno
(Davide Albini) |
April 29th, 2005
The Netherlands |
Molly
Thomas - Shoot The Sky
translation:
The amount of female singer-songwriters right now is so big that
we are A) getting a bit tired of it, B) sure it’s impossible to
listen to everything. All this was forgiven however when we came across
an album that cheered us up and gave us the idea that we were really onto
something.
Shoot the Sky from Molly Thomas just such a record. Shoot
the Sky is the debut from this Nashville based singer, but she’s
no stranger to the music business. She can be heard with folks from Mindy
Smith, Matthew Ryan to Todd Snider and is a frequently asked
guest fiddle player and background singer. For this reason Shoot
the Sky is a musically mature record and because Molly Thomas also possessed
the obvious life experience, her debut makes a weathered and lived impression.
Shoot the Sky is an emotional record, full of heartache that’s spread
out over a wide musical pallet. Rock, folk, country, roots. Molly
Thomas can handle it all and sounds as though she’s never done anything
else but that. The musical frame around this album is atmospheric, sometimes
dark and threatening, and suits the emotionally full voice of Molly Thomas.
Shoot the Sky has touches of Lucinda Williams but also
of Tara Angell’s wonderful record. This CD absolutely
deserves to be heard- by the lovers of the aforementioned singers but
actually by anyone who has a warm place in their hearts for exceptional
singer songwriters.
by Jacob Visser
|
Thursday April 28th,
2005
The Tennessean |
She's got the props, the
chops
As so often happens with good musicians in Music City, violinist Molly
Thomas is transitioning from accompanist to a center stage. Thomas and
her violin have been heard onstage or in the studio with Mindy
Smith, Matthew Ryan, Will Kimbrough and other heavyweights, and
her new Shoot the Sky album is drawing not-faint-at-all praise
from some of those collaborators.
Ryan calls her "untouched and singular in her expression,"
while Kimbrough likens Shoot the Sky to something "like
Nico and Lucinda in a slow, quiet catfight" or "like blues meets
New York jaded resignation, yet still soulful. I like this record. It
moves me."
As usual, those guys are on the mark. Thomas' album sounds like nothing
else going on in town. It's distinctly Southern yet not at all "country,"
and she uses the blues as an intimation and a feeling, not as a pattern
of well-worn chords. Hear for yourself tonight at an album release party
at The Basement.
by Peter Cooper |
Monday April 18th, 2005
The University of Southern Mississippi
Marketing & Public Relations |
SOUTHERN MISS ALUM RELEASES NEW ALBUM, STAYS
TRUE TO SELF
Her new album “Shoot The Sky” will soon be available for purchase,
but after a moment’s conversation with Molly Thomas, you’ll
learn quickly that the Nashville singer/songwriter is not for sale.
A University of Southern Mississippi alumnus, Thomas is passionately committed
to staying true to her musical self, and she continues that commitment
on her new album, resisting what she sees as the pressures of the corporate
music world to shape her into an image other than her own. Her musical
heroes – including Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits and Loretta Lynn among
others - follow the same course, in Thomas’ view.
“I’ve always admired musicians who stick to who they are and
what it is that they do, not sellouts. People who aren't afraid of doing
whatever it is they do, instead of what the popular demand is....read
more
by David Tisdale |
| The
Mobile Lagniappe
April 13, 2005 - April 26, 2005 |
Molly Thomas returns to
Mobile for a show at Liquid, April 30
It's a long way from the Gulf Coast to Nashville,
and for singer/songwriter Molly Thomas that journey
comes full circle when she emerges in Mobile April 30
for the debut of her new album, "Shoot the Sky."
Her visits are always sadly sweet.
"I'm glad I made the move, professionally," she
recently said, "but, I still miss Mobile."
Originally from Mississippi, Thomas called the
Port City home for the better part of the 1990s, gain-
ing notoriety in the ranks of local band Slow Moses.
The violinist/guitarist/pianist built a following that
made life easy on the coast.
But Thomas needed more, and Nashville was the
place to find it.....read
more
By Kevin Lee
Arts editor |
| The
Nashville Rage
April 20th, 2005 |
Molly Thomas: Shoot The Sky
You desperately want a bowl of cereal. There’s enough for half
a bowl in one box and half a bowl in the other. So what do you do? Mix
‘em together, throw some milk on top and grab a spoon.
Molly Thomas’ self-produced full-length debut is a bit like that
thrown-together breakfast. Her Mississippi-bred voice is the Cheerios
side of the equation, equal parts plain and plaintive but also fresh and
filling. But the instrumental side of Shoot The Sky, with the trademark
violin with which she’s made music for Matthew Ryan, Will Kimbrough
and Todd Snider, is the Raisin Bran layer, full of texture and crunch
and the occasional flash of sweetness......read
more
- Lucas Hendrickson of the Nashville Rage |
April 18th, 2005 |
USM alum keeps musical integrity
Her new album "Shoot The Sky" will soon be available for purchase,
but after a moment's conversation with Molly Thomas, you'll learn quickly
that the Nashville singer/songwriter is not for sale.
A University of Southern Mississippi alumna, Thomas is passionately committed
to staying true to her musical self, and she continues that commitment
on her new album, resisting what she sees as the pressures of the corporate
music world to shape her into an image other than her own. Her musical
heroes, including Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits and Loretta Lynn, follow the
same course, in Thomas' view.
"I've always admired musicians who stick to who they are and what
it is that they do, not sellouts," she said. "People who aren't
afraid of doing whatever it is they do, instead of what the popular demand
is, not allowing themselves to be molded into whatever someone else might
want them to be. Why not just be who you are?"
Thomas has been shaped by music since she was 3, when she was picking
up on her older sister Susan's piano lessons and copying her performance......read
more
written by David Tisdale |
Jan. 7th, 2005 |
New CD is antidote to Ashlee Simpson
I catch the very end of Ashlee Simpson's appearance at the Orange Bowl
halftime show and wake up the next day wondering: Was the whole thing
as bad as that snippet seemed to me?
Has it really come to this? An ultra-micro-managed property putting on
the facsimile of a punk show, right down to the classic "A"
for anarchy on the drum kit, in this utterly corporate production? And
she's not singing so much as hollering? And hollering badly?
It had to be real. The audience in the stadium didn't even boo when it
was over. It just sort of groaned. And I think: This is not a very promising
start to The Year in Entertainment, 2005. Maybe the lip-synching wasn't
such a bad thing, compared to the alternative.
So I sit at my desk and I take the wrapper off "Shoot the Sky,"
Molly Thomas' new CD, and within a few minutes, everything is magically
getting better. Because without knowing what I needed, I've found it:
A work of wonderful artistic honesty.........read
more
written by Lawrence F. Specker |
Jan. 2005 |
"Shoot the Sky"
REVIEW
I have absolutely no idea who the subject of the withering opening track
Blueprint is, only that it's obviously someone who she knows well and
I'm just glad it's not me. Her voice rises out of the rubble of a devastated
relationship to condemn unequivocally and without mercy.
At times it's almost impossible to hear anything other than Thomas' voice.
It's not that she's louder than anything else but the heartache poured
into songs like Bad Timing is deafening. They are so intense that listening
to them produces the same feelings of guilt as slowing down to rubberneck
an accident. The accident analogy doesn't end there because there's a
great deal of emotional wreckage attached to the album. It's bittersweet,
heavy on the bitter, easy on the sweet.
But Molly Thomas is no little lady, bemoaning her trials and tribulations
at the hands of the wrong kind of man. There's a streak of defiance a
mile wide in her voice and, as a writer, she kicks where it hurts and
with unerring accuracy.....read
more |
Jan. 30th, 2004 |
Molly Thomas, a performer with
Mobile ties, is part of a West Coast tour featuring Starsailor
and Matthew Ryan.
British rock band Starsailor has chosen Matthew Ryan as the opening act
for a leg of its current tour, and Ryan in turn has chosen Molly Thomas,
an artist well-known in Mobile, as part of his backing band. Thomas first
came to attention locally in the mid-'90s as a member of Slow Moses. Later
she continued to perform blues, rock and folk under her own name, solo
and as a bandleader. Aside from songwriting and singing, she's known for
her skill with the violin, guitar and piano. She has lived in Nashville
since 2001. Unfortunately for her local fans, the February Starsailor
tour dates listed on Thomas' Web site come nowhere near the South. The
shows are primarily along the West Coast.Still, the tour promises to provide
Thomas with some exposure outside Nashville. Brian Hart, program director
for WZEW-FM 92.1, said his station has been playing "Silence is Easy,"
the title track off Starsailor's latest album."Starsailor and Matthew
Ryan are both starting to get attention across the nation," he said,
"so obviously this helps her."On the Web: www.mollythomas.com. |
Dec. 16th, 2003 |
A triple threat at Five
Spot When three worthy young artists play a worthy new club,
it's a chance to support a lot of good stuff at one time. Here's tonight's
opportunity of the moment. Songwriter and instrumentalist Molly
Thomas headlines a show at east Nashville's Five Spot, a listening
room/bar that seems to grow more comfortable and focused with each passing
week. Thomas first got noticed in town as a fiddler from Mississippi and
Alabama with background on the roots circuit and aspirations of something
more progressive. She found work with talents such as Matthew Ryan and
U.K. pop band Departure Lounge before making her own EP and beginning
to define herself as an intriguing songwriter perched on the same wire
as Lucinda Williams, Kelly Hogan and Neko Case —
Craig Havighurst, Staff Writer |
Volume 39: Issue34
September 5, 2003 |
.....Singer-songwriter Molly Thomas
takes a markedly different approach: Born in Mississippi, Thomas moved
to Nashville, where she hooked up with talented session players to record
some of her Lucinda Williams-ish songs. |
the daily page madison, wisconsin volume 28, No. 36
September 5, 2003 |
......This month,Wendy
Bugatti will kick off a two-woman tour with Nashville singer-songwriter,
Molly Thomas, a skilled purveyor of heartfelt country
and country-rock who's already drawn favorable critical comparisons with
Lucinda Williams— Tom Laskin |
July 2003 |
Molly Thomas: The violinist of choice for singer-songwriters
like Matthew
Ryan and Will
Kimbrough, Thomas was recently mentioned in a London Times
Sunday Magazine piece on the Nashville music scene as an example of
our city's embarrassment of riches, many of which go criminally unnoticed.
Thomas is also a gifted guitarist, pianist, and songwriter, with a warm
vocal style that's something of a cross between Emmylou Harris
and Bonnie Raitt.— Jonathan Flax
|
June 2003 |
... An EP recorded since she arrived in Nashville suggests
that she's taking her music in some wonderful directions. The 3 songs
on the disc share an underlying warmth that, to my ears at least, represents
a taste of what they used to call blue-eyed soul. To
say she sounds like Shelby Lynne would be unfair; she
sounds like herself. But thanks to Thomas' decision to break her own
musical trail, this demo CD sits very comfortably next to Lynne's breakthrough
work on my shelf.— Lawrence F. Specker
|
May 2002 |
Thursday, 05/09/02--Tonight's Hot Spots
• Molly Thomas has a lot of arrows in her quiver:
piano, guitar, fiddle, songs and a distinctive voice. She steps out from
her role as side-woman and kindly server at 3rd & Lindsley to show
off her own stuff tonight at that very same bar. Based on her three-song
EP, it should be interesting. Catch a newcomer at 9— Craig Havighurst,
Staff Writer |
April 2002 |
Molly Thomas: You
may have seen Thomas guest fiddling with Departure Lounge or Mercy Bell,
but she's a striking singer-songwriter in her own right. Raised in Mississippi,
she spent the mid-'90s in Mobile, Ala., as a member of Southeastern regional
favorites Slow Moses before moving to Nashburg a year ago. Her voice has
an alluring, vibrato-free simplicity, and her Southern-steeped hearn-the-sleeve
material brings to mind a less twangy Lucinda Williams--with not
quite as much vinegar and bit more molasses. Thomas will have
a crack roots ensemble in tow--co-producer/guitarist Jordan Chassan, bassist
Jay Weaver and drummer Paul Griffith--when she plays a 7 p.m. set at 3rd
& Lindsley.— Jack Silverman |
April 2002 |
JONELL MOSSER & ENOUGH ROPE. If you haven't heard Mosser and
her incredible band yet, get ready for a voice that's equal parts Janis
Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday. Her music is thick, warm,
howling and alive. 10 p.m., 3rd & Lindsley, $10. Also, up-and-coming
singer/songwriter/violinist MOLLY THOMAS, who has recorded
with Matthew Ryan, Jordan Chassan and Tim Keegan and whose Lucinda Williams-meets-Bonnie
Raitt style is engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. 7 p.m.
|
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