Sunday 2 February 2020

Come My Way: The Best of St. Thomas


St. Thomas was the name used by Norwegian folk/alt.country musician Thomas Hansen. He died tragically young in 2007 at the age of 31. He'd taken a combination of drugs, some prescribed, some not, and it seems probable he arrived at his death through an unlucky and unintended combination of the two.  His mental problems had been well-known for several years, something of which he had openly expressed both from stage and in interviews. In his lifetime he released 6 studio albums and one live album. A posthumous album, titled "A Mouse in a Crowded House", consisting of demos recorded shortly before his death, was released in 2016.

The first time I heard St. Thomas was on one of the compilation CDs released by Uncut magazine, back in 2002. The track featured, "Oh I Have Left the Ground", was quite similar to the early/mid '70s recordings of Neil Young, a period of Young I find the most compelling, so I purchased the album it came from soon after. I was also luckily able to see him perform live on stage a couple of times in 2002/2003. 

For this compilation I've picked songs from all studio albums released when he was alive, plus a couple of EPs, and a track he contributed to a Lee Hazlewood tribute album. I decided not to include anything from the posthumous release, to me it's quite obvious most of these songs were nowhere near the finished article and should never have been released. Also missing are any tracks from the "Live in Europe" album, the first draft of this comp did include 3 tracks but I felt they sat uncomfortably with the studio recordings so I removed.

Lastly, thanks to the lovely Sarah who offered some advice/a song suggestion during the making of this compilation. More information about St. Thomas can be found here & here. Info about origin of each track included in download file. Enjoy!

  1. Mysterious Walks (2:39)
  2. Dance to the Disco (4:01)
  3. Twisted Cowboy (3:01)
  4. Oh I Have Left the Ground (3:27)
  5. Ride (3:24)
  6. Be Cool Be Nice (3:23)
  7. Into Your Deep (3:39)
  8. An Artist With a Brilliant Disguise (3:55)
  9. The Mexican Father (3:05)
10. The Railroad (2:53)
11. The Charity Ego (3:23)
12. She Married a Cowboy (3:26)
13. The Present (2:37)
14. People in the Forest (2:45)
15. Sheer Wonder (3:29)
16. Like You Know (3:14)
17. Sugarmilk Coffee (1:56)
18. Strangers Out of Blue (4:06)
19. Falling Down (3:21)
20. The Play (2:42)
21. What Have I Done (2:56)
22. Thinking (2:40)
23. A Long Long Time (3:11)
24. Like the Byrds (3:36)
25. Come My Way (2:58)


 
 

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