Farm-Out! Records press release... On behalf of Farm-Out! Records, I am thrilled to announce that our little side project that went waaaay over in time in budget was finally completed with one last track repaired/remixed/and remastered this very evening...Weighing in at a substantial 39 minutes and 37 seconds, the ten song album of antique music is prou...dly showing its teeth when it smiles back at me. JMT - Oldsmophelia Volume I LAURA Johnny Mercer/David Raskin c. 1945 BYE BYE BLACKBIRD Mort Dixon/Ray Henderson c. 1926 SUMMERTIME George Gershwin c. 1935 YOU'D BE SO NICE (To Come Home To...) Cole Porter 1943 IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO George Gershwin c. 1935 SINCE I FELL FOR YOU Buddy Johnson c. 1948 LIMEHOUSE BLUES Douglas Furber/Philip Braham c. 1922 BLUE EVENING covered by Glen Miller And His Orchestra OLD CAPE COD Claire Rothroch/Milton Yakus/Allan Jeffrey c. 1957 WITCHCRAFT Carolyn Leigh/Cy Coleman c. 1957 More in the month leading up to the official release on September 3rd... Farm-Out! Records, a pioneering micro-indie label, was loosely formed by Johnny Thompson in 2006, presumably to pay himself handsomely to record his 350 plus original works, and since then has served as a developmental springboard for his students and select regional artists. Formal releases by Farm-Out! Records thusfar include... "Scratch-Indentured" (2008) "It's A Johnny Thompson Kind Of Christmas Magic Feeling vol. 1" (2008) "Scottsville Conservatory Sampler" (2009) "Horrow" (2009) "It's A Johnny Thompson Kind Of Christmas Magic Feeling vol. 2 - Now That's What I Smell Christmas!" (2009) "Oldsmophelia Volume I" (2010) Formal releases by Farm-Out! Records can be found at Scottsville Conservatory, Blackbird Boutique in Scottsville, The Great Escape Records and Comics in Bowling Green, cdbaby.com, Amazon, Napster, and iTunes... SIT AND STARE WITH JOHNNY THOMPSON (CD-release party at Greener Groundz in Bowling Green on September 3rd) Though not entirely certain as to the start-end times, this show is the proposed goal of a cd release party for Johnny Thompson's "Oldsmophelia Volume I", an album of ten jazz standards as interpreted via the sensory portals of JMT. The evening will consist of scaled down live versions of the album's songs, as well as a wide variety of antique music performed as solo acoustic guitar and voice...originals by request only. http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/2010/10/04/the_amplifier/music/doc4ca0b42633b74195591612.txt Concert Court: Johnny Thompson Oldsmophelia Volume I CD Release Party @ Greener Grounds By Pennman Monday, October 4, 2010 6:05 PM CDT It was a full house, both inside and out on the patio, for Johnny Thompson’s CD release party tonight. Thompson’s latest, Olsdmophelia Vol. I, the follow-up to his ever-so-enticing Horrow, is a nice collection of vintage jazz standards performed as only Thompson could perform them. The tunes are as familiar as the back of your hand yet certainly not your father’s Olsdmobile (sorry for the reference) as Thompson puts his unique spin on things. Oldsmophelia is certainly a very different genre than what we were treated to on the bluesy, eclectic Horrow, but his distinctive playing style is prominent on both CDs. The CD is well-produced and performed with a full band, but tonight we heard Thompson’s solo renditions of the CD’s tunes, just the man and his acoustic guitar. It was a rather informal performance even though Thompson did something he said he had never done before; play an entire CD in its’ entirety. So although he often said a few words to introduce the songs, he did not do so emphatically. So the feeling was more like a rapid fire, one after the other, here they come vibe. So the jazz chords were flying, fingers were up and down the fret board, and Thompson’s mellow vocals with some very delicate inflections (so delicate you needed to be paying attention) crooned out the classics. And the audience was receptive, for the most part (always a few who are just there for dinner). The outdoor patrons were interested enough to reopen the door every time the wait staff closed it. Now that’s tenacity! They were rewarded for it with such classics as “Bye Bye Blackbird” (with the oft-deleted introduction), “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So” (two Gershwin classics), “So Nice to Come Home To”, “Since I Fell for You”, “Limehouse Blues” (with its’ nice Oriental influences – the movie did tie into Chinatown in a major way), “Old Cape Cod” (a Patti Page classic), and “Witchcraft” (perhaps a bit of Mr. Sinatra in Mr. Thompson). Perhaps a sure test of how good a collection of songs is over time is the number of big stars who cover them. Well, plenty of big stars have covered these songs. They are indeed classics. Aaron Holder came up and played some tunes when Thompson was done with Oldsmophelia. Mr. Holder is one of Thompson’s star students at the Scottsville Conservatory. They then played together, which made for a nice ending to the evening. You can find Oldsmophelia, Volume I (and probably Horrow as well) at the Great Escape Records and Comics in Bowling Green, as well as through CD Baby at myspace.com/johnmjohnnythompson. Give your ears a treat and pick one up soon, especially if you’re a jazz fan or might like to be. The Johnny Thompson – Oldsmophelia CD Release Party was at Greener Groundz on 9/3/2010. PROGRESSION The Quarterly Journal Of Progressive Music - Autumn 2011 JOHNNY THOMPSON Oldsmophelia Volume I 2010 (CD 39:38) Farm-Out! Records Nostalgia/Jazz/Avant-Garde Rating 11 Now, for something completely different...and old...in a newfangled sort of way. It's hard to tell exactly what Johnny Thompson had in mind with this collection of whimsically re-arranged jazz tunes dating from 1922 ("Limehouse Blues") through 1957 ("Witchcraft"), other than a bit of offbeat fun. Some of these ditties you'll recognize at least by title, including the Mort Dixon/Ray Henderson classic "Bye Bye Blackbird", and the Gershwins' "Summertime". But that might be where familiarity ends thanks to Thompson's quirkily imaginative, cabaret-style re-interpretations. His voice sounds near androgynous and full of strange affectation. The instrumental liberties are similarly out of left field, including careening strings on "Blackbird" and unusual keyboard flourishes brought to "Summertime". Some of these I'm hearing for the first time so forgive me for not knowing exactly where Thompson applied his changeups and detours. But suffice it to say that most of the instruments driving "Limehouse Blues" didn't exist 89 years ago, or that it originally ended with 30 seconds of gong strikes. Without a doubt, the most unusual album I've heard yet this year. - John Collinge (Publisher/Editor Progression Magazine)