Billy Bob goes Mod

Source: http://www.bhamweekly.com


Billy Bob Thornton forms retro trio The Boxmasters


By: Brent Thompson


There is no shortage of actors that have attempted side careers as musicians – Keanu Reeves (Dogstar), Russell Crowe (30 Odd Foot of Grunts) and Kevin Bacon (Bacon Brothers) to name only a few – but few people realize the role that music has played throughout Billy Bob Thornton’s life. In addition, Thornton’s musical career has ties to Alabama that some may find surprising.

“I made my first recording in 1974 in Muscle Shoals,” Thornton recalls, speaking by phone from Santa Fe, New Mex. “I was just a kid and I couldn’t believe that we were really in Muscle Shoals. That whole group of guys – Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, David Hood, Roger Hawkins and Jimmy Johnson – is just incredible.”

On Tuesday, July 29, Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters will perform at Zydeco. The 18-and-over show begins at 9 p.m. Thornton and bandmates Mike Butler and J.D. Andrew are touring in support of the trio’s self-titled album, released earlier this year on Vanguard Records. The Boxmasters musical vision combines a hillbilly-influenced sound alongside the British Invasion “Mod” sound of the 1960s, a mix Thornton describes as “Mod-Billy.” The trio’s latest release features an original CD and a disc of cover songs.

“We’re very proud of this record. Two of the songs on the original side are older songs – I wrote one called ‘That Mountain’ with Marty Stuart about nine years ago and it was on my first solo record. We just Boxmaster-ized it and put it on this record – it just belonged on here. The song ‘Build Your Own Prison’ I actually wrote with one of your countrymen down there, Donnie Fritts. All the rest of the songs were written in the studio specifically for the album. The idea was to write songs about the lower-middle class lifestyle that we all know so well and the problems we all go through. The covers side was really just a tribute to all the people that have inspired us to even create The Boxmasters,” Thornton says.

An Academy Award-winning actor and screenwriter known for his roles in Sling Blade, Primary Colors and Monster’s Ball among others, Thornton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. Off screen, his private life has been a recurring topic of discussion, most notably during his marriage to actress Angelina Jolie. As a musician, Thornton enjoys the live interaction that film acting does not provide.

“Music’s more immediate – you make a record and it comes out fairly soon and then you go out and play for the fans. In a movie, there’s a certain distance between the actor and the audience because you’re never there when they’re seeing the movie. There’s not a real sense of completion when you’re making a movie because you’re doing bits at a time every day, whereas you do a concert and it’s a full thing in one night. But they both have their ups and downs. I find the movie business to be a little more accommodating sometimes,” he says.

Anyone that speaks with Thornton quickly learns that he is a musical historian with a tremendous depth of knowledge and passion on the subject. An admittedly old soul when it comes to music and movies, Thornton finds that technology and the modern media have taken the mystique out of the two art forms.

“I grew up around music as a musician and a roadie and there’s no mystery anymore. If you see HBO’s ‘Behind The Scenes’ and you see an actor sitting there in his costume talking about his role, then it kind of destroys the magic of it. When we were growing up, the only time you saw Jimmy Stewart or Robert Mitchum was in the movie and musicians weren’t all over the Internet and you didn’t know everything about somebody. When you went to a concert, you couldn’t believe that John Fogerty was standing right in front of you. The Boxmasters’ record is out on limited-edition vinyl as well. Just to look at that artwork and to be able to read the lyrics without a magnifying glass is pretty incredible. Vanguard’s a classy old label - it’s a label that I wanted to be on since I was a kid,” he says.

Later this year, The Boxmasters will release a Christmas album that includes original material and Christmas classics recorded in Boxmasters’ fashion. Fans attending shows on the current tour will get a double-dose as Thornton and his band perform two shows nightly.

“One thing that’s important to mention is that we are the opening act - The Boxmasters open the show. We open as The Boxmasters with the whole ‘Mod’ look because that was the idea behind The Boxmasters. So we look like The Kinks or The Beatles and yet we play hillbilly music - the stage set is very Hullabaloo looking. The second show is my solo show and it’s a big rock show. We come out and it’s a little heavier and louder and the songs go on longer. A lot of people ask, ‘How can you do two shows a night for the whole tour as two different bands?’ But when you go out for the second show, it actually feels like another night.”