Robert Thurman – Burning Daylight
Self – Released
https://robertthurman.bandcamp.com
17 tracks – 39 minutes
Robert Thurman (a.k.a. Randy Thurman) was born in 1965 in a small rural town in southeast Tennessee. At age 12 he heard Jimi Hendrix, which inspired him to become a vocalist. At age 14, he started working at a local radio station and started his first band as a vocalist. He continued as a vocalist in several subsequent bands. At age 21, he heard Joe Satriani’s Surfing with the Alien album and his interest in the guitar surged. He quickly learned the basics and spent every spare moment practicing.
A sudden health crisis changed the direction of Randy’s life and music forever, leaving him primarily housebound and captive within his own home for three years. Instead of focusing on the things he couldn’t do, he concentrated on the things that had always been his passion and refuge, and one of those things was music. This time of trial ultimately steered Randy’s music towards the blues – one man with one guitar on a journey.
The album consists of 15 original songs and two covers. As stated, the album is a solo effort with Robert on acoustic guitar. The sound certainly reflects a raw, homemade style bouncing back to the old front porch style recordings. The album opens with “American Jesus Blues” telling us to “get happy all night long” and declaring the American Jesus wears ” a suit and an Armani tie… driving a Mercedes…wearing body armor with a gun in his hand…send that money to make a pledge”. Obviously not expected lyrics but certainly pointed words about some religious leaders today. He declares I have the “Blues This Morning” and “will probably have them all today”. On “Burning Daylight” he proclaims “Thunder and lightning mark my path, sure someday I will feel his wrath”. “Ofermod” is a bouncy upbeat instrumental.
“Angel” opens and closes with a recorded news report about disasters and in between Robert sings of an Angel that “rides the ridge of the devil, toxic she rides it for all she is worth”. He then elaborates on many personal and worldly problems but concludes he “Might as Well Say Alright”. Robert tells “Ready for the Fire” “is a song about a woman who found herself in a very difficult situation, this is a story of what might have been” in a story of domestic violence. On “Nervous Blues” he is “praying those old blues go away”. “People that ain’t had it don’t know what it means.” “You get down on your knees and pray for relief.”
On “Never Ending Sky” he states “My daddy was a snakebite …raised on red clay and barbed wire”. “Confinement Blues” reflects “sitting in this small room makes time stand still, it will rob you of everything that you are, rob you of your will”. On “Lump of Clay” he determines “At times I feel like I cannot take no more, just about to lose my mind. Imagining things that heartache brings looking through heavy eyes”. The first cover and the longest song on the album at 3:45 is Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Ground Hog Blues” which seems to have been recorded in an enclosed location incurring a slight distortion or echo in his vocals.
“Time and Again” addresses “how everyone said the world is going to change. From where I sit it stays the same”. He is “So Far from Home” as he says he is “in a place where no one will mourn my death, not a single soul to cry”. Bo Diddly’s “Who Do You Love” is the second cover on the album. But Robert’s version with growling vocals and driving guitar while carrying the same lyrics, leaves it virtually unrecognizable from the original. In “Small Town Blues”, “nothing every changes here dreaming the same old dreams”. He ends the album with “One Last Breath” with the sounds of a storm rolling in with a spoken story of the history of his family and of himself.
The album’s 17 songs in 39 minutes clearly demonstrate that many of the songs are shorter than two minutes. But Robert makes do with the structure of well thought out and complex lyrics in every song. His vocals are somewhat gruff but nonetheless enticing, dragging you into every thought that he fires out. Foremost he is a folk style storyteller flashing back to similar acoustic guitar artists from the 60’s, but the stories do cross over into the blues frequently. Perhaps the modern references to Americana music best fits the album. It is an interesting listen worth your time. However, I do not know how to tell you to seek it out. He has no website, nor can I find any social presence or opportunities to buy the album from traditional sources. His album might be on streaming services, but as I do not subscribe to any, I cannot confirm or deny that possibility.
