About Me
(Adapted from the press kit)"When I first started doin' my own music, I resisted my roots. I wasn't interested in playin' "my grandma's music". Then it was said to me, "Boy, you're tryin' to reinvent the wheel before ya' learned how to use it. Play what ya' know, and don't worry - nobody sounds like you."
- JD Thompson.In the world of popular American music, it's not uncommon for artists that reflect their deep traditional influence to be overlooked. It takes a special character with a unique talent to set one man and his guitar apart from the endless hordes of singer/songwriter, and stand out against the grain of modern pop culture. But Oklahoma born and raised songwriter, singer and guitarist JD Thompson is just such an artist.
With stories and a style all his own, Thompson builds on the legacy of America's most influential musical storytellers like Johnny Cash and Woody Gutherie, while combing a lurid intellect and emotive soundscapes with something more carnal, almost bordering on subversive. His deeply spiritual voice and mournful guitar work takes listeners through the backwoods and backalleys of one man's experiences on the fringes of purgatory and paradise.
At age sixteen, Thompson left his home in Grady County, OK (known better as "Hell's Fringe" to history buffs and noir readers). From there, he set off in search of a future in music. For nearly a decade, he travelled across the U.S. and beyond until one fateful Autumn afternoon in Dublin, Ireland when he and legendary producer Lou Adler crossed paths. Thompson was "buskin'", or performing on the streets for spare change when Adler heard him first and picked up a copy of Thompson's home recorded demo. The rest, as they say, is history.
In fact, Adler felt so compelled by Thompson's music that it brought him out of a ten year hiatus, and back to the cutting edge of American music. Within a year Thompson was recording with drummer Joey Worenker (AIR, Beck, Johnny Cash) and bassist/producer Mike Elizando (Fionna Apple, Ry Cooder) and others recognized as the best in L.A. By late 2005, Thompson began recording his first album with Adler scheduled for release this Autumn.
