The captivating sense of restlessness in Thomson’s song writing is organic; spending much of his childhood shuffling between Sydney’s Northern Beaches and rural towns between the Central West and Hunter Valley regions of NSW. In late 2013, James followed that innate travelling spirit and went to explore the musically rich regions of the American Deep South.
Unsurprisingly, this journey proved a major inspiration for the 12 tracks on James’ eagerly anticipated second album, Cold Moon. Cold Moon, like James’ first album, was recorded and part produced by Grant Shanahan (Eva Trout, The Honeys and Perry Keyes Band) at Leisure Suit Studios, Spencer NSW.
Thomson, clearly inspired by artists like Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt and Blind Willie McTell caught the attention of the Americana community in both Australia and America, and soon landed supports with ex-Jayhawks singer Mark Olson, Simone Felice (The Felice Brothers) and most recently on a Love Police promoted tour with Nashville-based artists Robert Ellis and Jonny Fritz. His performances on this most recent tour received stellar reviews, with The Music writing “Thomson is a master of understated blues-based country” with the confidence and ability of a performer who “captured the crowd’s attention with evocative lyrics, wonderful finger-picking and a warm rapport”.