‘This week’s buzz bands have already reached the point of perpetually hungover, so the freshest legs I saw on Thursday belonged to an 81-year-old. Ural Thomas, a soul singer from Portland who played in the shadows of Stevie Wonder and James Brown, beamed as he shuffled around Mohawk’s outdoor stage like there was nowhere else in the world he’d rather be.’
‘The best might still be to come, and Thomas is more than ready.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m going somewhere I went the night before,” he says. “It’s always the beginning of my first time. That’s the way I look at my music. Every time I go out I try to make it like I never sang it before. It’s never different, and it’s never the same. I let my audience into my soul.”’
‘Portland soul legend Ural Thomas is back. The octogenarian showman was raised in the Rose City, went off to perform at the Apollo in the ’50s and ’60s, and then returned home, pulling together a band called the Pain in 2013 with whom he’s steadily released music ever since. Ural Thomas and the Pain’s most recent LP, The Right Time, dropped in 2018, and this week, the group announced a followup.’
‘Ural Thomas And The Pain today announce their new album Dancing Dimensions released 3rd June via Bella Union and available to preorder here. To mark the occasion the celebrated soul star has shared an entertaining part-animated video for the album’s irresistible title track and announced a London Jazz Cafe show on Saturday 18th June along with a number of European dates which are listed below.’
