ENTERTAINMENT: Beth Thornley

By Buddy Roberts

Early into a conversation with Beth Thornley, it’s easy to forget you’re talking to a successful professional musician. Unpretentious and enthusiastic, the California-based singer exudes a charm reminiscent of the girl next door or down the street, which for some Birmingham residents, she was.

The Magic City native still maintains local ties and appreciation for the musical training she received in her hometown.

“I didn’t listen to the Stones or the Beatles or Dylan until I got out of college,” she said, a nod to the “very classical background” she grew up in as the daughter of a music minister and a classically-trained singer. Earning a music degree from Samford, she had planned to teach college-level choral music until getting sidetracked by pop. The detour took her to Los Angeles, where she initially stayed on a friend’s couch while working to establish herself as a musician.

Almost a decade later, she’s performing at clubs, coffee houses, and pop festivals in Southern California and working on her third independently-produced album. “We’ve started recording,” she said early this month. “I hope to have it finished by fall. I’ve written nine songs. I’ve got one more to go.”

Her self-titled debut was met by extremely favorable reviews, and six of its songs have been used in film and television soundtracks. Its follow-up, My Glass Eye (featuring a haunting cover of Eleanor Rigby, the bittersweet hometown tribute Birmingham, and the Beth-recommended Beautiful Lie), earned for her further accolades and more TV and movie exposure.

Speaking by phone from her Los Angeles home, Beth expounded on aspects of the music-making process, the music industry in general, and memories of her hometown.

How she describes her sound: “The Beatles meet Ben Folds meet Death Cab for Cutie.”

Where you may have heard her music: In such television programs as Friday Night Lights, Life, The Hills, and Newport Harbor. “I’ve been fortunate enough to receive phone calls saying, ‘This is what we need. Do you have something or could you write something?’ I love those phone calls. I wish I could get more of them.”

Coming soon to a theater near you: One of her songs is part of the soundtrack for the upcoming film Play the Game, scheduled for a summer release. A romantic comedy starring (according to Variety) Paul Campbell, Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, and Marla Sokoloff, the film is about “a single guy who teaches his widowed grandfather how to hit on girls.”

On the business of music: “It’s so much about marketing. The record companies look to see where the fan base is, which is where they can make the most money.” That leads inevitably to new artists being categorized by comparisons to established musicians, which some find frustrating. Beth’s view is different. “A lot of people like to know who you sound like, and they need to know a little about how you sound. It’s human nature. There’s a comfort in being able to identify someone with a sound you’re already familiar with and knowing right away if it’s your thing or not. If I were famous, I might feel differently, but it can actually give a new artist a helpful foothold.”

Music online: “The Internet is great for people like me. A few years ago, independent artists didn’t have such an effective means of promoting themselves. It’s been very beneficial for us.” Beth’s website is www.beththornley.com. Visitors can listen to samples from her albums, buy CDs, and learn more about her music. Individual tracks are also available from iTunes.

On writing, recording, and performing: “I like all of them for different reasons, but if I had to choose among the three, performing is the most fun. Sitting down and writing a song is the most difficult. Recording, I guess, would be my third favorite. Each one taxes a different part of me.”

Specifically on writing: “In conversation with a friend, I said something about one of my songs being about somebody else. She said, ‘Beth, all your songs are about you.’ And she’s right. You can’t write a song from somebody else’s perspective.” An example is Double Wide, a track on her My Glass Eye album. “It’s about a restaurant I once worked at. The character in the song isn’t me, but I wrote it based on the experiences I had that summer in Birmingham.”

Singer-songwriter style: “Jeans and t-shirts during the day. Pajamas as soon as the sun goes down (if I’m not going out), and in the mornings I do my first bit of writing in my bathrobe. I used to feel badly about that until a very successful songwriter (Beth Nielsen Chapman) who was speaking at a songwriter’s convention told a story about how when she got a call from Willie Nelson’s people (saying) that he would like her to write a song for his next album, she stayed in her bathrobe for three months until she finished writing the song.”

Besides writing songs and singing: She plays keyboard and accordion and is learning guitar. “I play a mean megaphone too. I use it a lot in shows.”

Her greatest accomplishment: “I guess I’d have to say my albums because they represent the work I do. But it’s not about the finished product as much as it is how I got there. Even though I love music, the writing of it is a discipline. Sticking with it and getting the albums done marks a long and, at times, very difficult journey. Surviving my early days in L.A. was something too.”

Her cover of Eleanor Rigby: “It’s a tribute Lennon and McCartney out of the utmost respect for what they wrote. The Beatles wrote good, solid pop music with great lyrics. I listen to them a lot. They’re the best, and I’m amazed at how well-constructed and how beautiful a song (Eleanor Rigby) is. I hope people like it. I did it my way, and if it succeeds, the quality of the writing has more to do with it than my singing. Credit also has to go to my producer, Rob. I just showed up and sang it.”

About Birmingham: “Birmingham is a great little big city, and the music there is amazing. From classical to rock and roll to pop to singer-songwriters to traditional choir singing, it’s all right there in Birmingham.”

About Birmingham, the song: “I wrote the lyrics (about five) years ago and showed them to my producer. He read them and said, ‘I want to write the music for this.’ Usually I do both, but he really, really wanted to do it, so I said okay. But he’s so busy that the music didn’t get written for three years.”

About the lyrics to Birmingham: “Normally, I wouldn’t say anything, but since I wrote it about my hometown, I thought I’d say a couple of things about it.”

Gotta hear Long Libba sing –“Libba Walker is an amazing local artist in Birmingham. I love hearing her sing, and I always try to find out where she’s performing when I come to town.”

Bitter vine, it beats a line – “All the kudzu” – covers all that could have been. What’s not forgotten gets ignored – “Like in all cities and all places, there are things we’d rather forget.”

And it’s in the blood and in the mud where the light turns red in his hand – “That refers to the statue of Vulcan. I think they took the light out – I wish they hadn’t – but he used to have a light in his hand that would be green or red. Red meant that someone had died that day in a car accident on an Alabama highway. Fortunately, it was usually green.”

Been a long time since yesterday, since the water and dogs had something to say. And it runs so deep and cuts so wide. Be a long, long time to the other side – “This refers to the riots in the 60s with the water hoses and the dogs. I cringe every time I see footage of it. It is a painful and sad and disgraceful piece of Birmingham’s history.”

The wounded pride gets baked inside the cakes of the WMU, and we know what’s said when we turn our heads but don’t know what more we can do – “WMU is the Women’s Missionary Union who (obviously) do good works. There are a lot of good people in the South working very hard to do good things all the time to help people and advance society. Sometimes the South still gets a bad rap in spite of the fact that they are an intelligent and culturally-diverse people. I was never in the WMU and am not a member and am not representing or endorsing them. But I remember all the ladies’ groups at the churches I went to, and they are a part of my history.”

Midnight comes without a breeze – “It’s hot there in the summer! But I love it, and I miss it. I love Birmingham and the hot, humid summer nights, the crickets, the Southern mystique. I tried to capture some of those things in the song, as well as some of the city’s struggles.”

Coming home: “I get back to Birmingham two or three times a year. I love coming back and having grits for breakfast.”

The last time she was here: “I was (in Birmingham) for my mom’s birthday, which is mid-April. We celebrated by going to dinner with some friends. Also while I was there, I went to hear Libba Walker sing during brunch at Silvertron. She’s the best. And, of course, I made sure I ate some fried okra.”

Her interests outside of music: “L.A.’s a big movie town, so I go to the movies a lot. My cats – I have two. I’m taking a hip-hop dance class. I like to hike and take walks. I like books. Surely I’m a lot more interesting than I’m beginning to sound.”

On her reading list: The Great Gatsby, East of Eden, Gould’s Book of Fish, and a biography of Genghis Kahn.

Is it helpful for a songwriter to be an avid reader? “Absolutely. I have ideas all the time while I’m reading. I come across things that I think will be a great subject for a song or a great angle for a lyric.”

If a restaurant offered the Beth Thornley Special, what would it be? “My mom’s fried okra, black-eyed peas, and fried corn. There’d probably be some French fries on the side. And a brownie sundae and lemon icebox pie for dessert.”

Her favorite indulgence: “Car trips. I love car trips. And watching Judge Judy. And sipping Clase Azul. A good massage. And band rehearsal. And three-hour dinners in Paris. And morning coffee. And chocolate.”

Her greatest fears: “Drowning comes to mind. Losing the people I love. Forgetting to wear pants on stage.”