Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Wednesday 15th June, 2016
John Thorn is a very familiar face around the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, accompanying many of the big international stars on piano every year. This year,
John Thorn - Background Boy, allows him the opportunity to present just a few of the multitude of his own songs.
A few came from Looking for Lawson, Thorn's settings of nineteen of the poems of Henry Lawson, some from his five musicals, and a good few more on top to complete a packed programme of music. He finds his inspirations in a wide range of sources, including his ragtime tune in response to the Roaring Twenties, the influence of various other composers, as well as writing for various shows and other projects.
He is already renowned in Adelaide as an excellent pianist and accompanist and, following his performance last year of Looking for Lawson, those few who were able to get tickets have been aware of his fine singing voice. This year he has reinforced his position as a songwriter and singer with this wonderful performance.
Plaintive ballads, witty comic songs, jazz tunes, and more sit side by side in this wonderfully varied collection, but it also comes with surprises. There was the sound of a trumpet in one, but Thorn let it pass without comment. In another song, a female voice joined in. It belonged to his special guest, Michaela Burger, who was sitting at one the tables in the audience, microphone in hand, then joining him on stage for a duet.
There was still another surprise to come as he brought his daughter, Bonnie, onto the stage to sing a couple of songs, pointing out that she was also the off-stage trumpeter. Talent, it seems, runs in the family. Bonnie thorn has a distinctive and expressive voice that is ideally suited to his songs. Hopefully, we will see more of him in his own shows in the years to come.
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