Communiqué
Paul Thorn’s Mission Temple Fireworks Revival | Saturday, August 3 at 9 pm
< < Back to paul-thorns-mission-temple-fireworks-revival-saturday-august-2-at-9-pmPaul Thorn performs Southern gospel music with the Blind Boys of Alabama and the McCrary Sisters
Inspired by his recent old-school gospel album Don’t Let the Devil Ride, PAUL THORN’S MISSION TEMPLE FIREWORKS REVIVAL features the Tupelo, Mississippi native and his crack band – along with five-time Grammy Award-winning icons The Blind Boys of Alabama and gospel singing quartet the McCrary Sisters – in an evening of gritty, soulful and raucous Southern gospel music.
The concert special also includes powerhouse New Orleans trombonist David L. Harris and rising Americana singer Bonnie Bishop. Known for his muscular brand of bluesy, rocking roots music, Thorn has often touched on spiritual themes, while also penning tunes about those on the fringes of society. Raised in a Pentecostal household by his preacher father, gospel was the only music played in the family home.
Thorn found secular music and later released seven albums of “rootsy” Americana rock on his own. Every song in this concert film, with the exception of the finale “Mission Temple Fireworks Stand,” is a meticulously curated traditional gospel tune, re-discovered by Thorn and his music director and manager Billy Maddox. Their reverence for the African-American gospel styles of the ’50s and ’60s goes beyond mere nostalgia.