Fly, the debut album by local Roots/Country act Kelly Thomas and the Fabulous Pickups, doesn’t get an official CD release celebration until Nov. 18 (in conjunction with a show at Newport’s York Street Cafe), but this evening you can get a sneak peek as the band hosts a special release party in honor of the early availability of Fly‘s downloadable version. At 7 p.m., the Fly listening party begins at the site of the former Herzog recording studios, where historic recordings by Flatt and Scruggs, The Delmore Brothers, Patti Page and Hank Williams were made over half a century ago. The studio space — now home to the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation — is located on the second floor of CityBeat‘s building (811 Race St., Downtown). Thomas and Co. will also perform a live acoustic set following the Fly preview, beginning at 8:30 p.m., which is to be filmed for later airing by the crew from local cable access show City Nights.—- A cash bar and snacks will be available.
Thomas has an extensive discography dating back to her days with Second Sister up through more recent releases, which have included a solo album, a duo album with Ryan Malott, a Gospel album with her Hayseed Tabernacle Choir and this year’s debut by her “Retro-Country” group The Tammy WhyNots. So it’s a little surprising that Thomas’ long running project (and “main band”) would just now be getting around to releasing its debut.
But, from what I’ve heard so far, it’ll be worth the wait, as Thomas assembled a crack crew of local artists to record the album’s 11 original songs (and a live version of The Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden”). The band includes longtime Pickups John Bedinghaus and Jeff Boling, as well as Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra violinist Sylvia Mitchell (on “fiddle” here, of course). Artists who assisted with the recording include Kevin Hogle (500 Miles to Memphis), Noah Sugarman (500 MTM and his own self-titled band), Brad Meinerding (Comet Bluegrass Allstar), David Rhodes Brown (500 MTM, Browngrass & Wildflowers, Warsaw Falcons), Heather Turner and Katie Cook (Tupelo Honey) and Kristen Kreft of J. Dorsey Blues Revival. Mike Montgomery manned the boards during the recording at the local Candyland studio.
Bedinghaus, Boling, Mitchell, Meinerding, Hogle and Brown perform with Thomas for tonight’s “interactive acoustic-ish show,” where the audience will be able to ask questions and make requests. The event is free, all-ages and open to the public.
Fly will be available for download Oct. 8 through Thomas’ site. Those who pre-order before this Friday (here) can purchase the album for $5 (or $8 for the CD version).
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 4, 2011.