Hitmaking Halifax-native returns to perform after ten years away

The very first question one has to ask Robert Thomas is perhaps the most obvious — where have you been?

After all, the noted Halifax-born singer-songwriter is finally returning to perform in Nova Scotia's capital city with his back-up band for the first time in a decade — although admittedly, it should have been a little sooner.

“We were all set to tour, as everybody was, at the start of COVID. So we’ve been on hold, and then rehearsing, and then we were set to go in January, then COVID hit again,” says Thomas from his home in New Brunswick. “So it’s been three years of waiting to play.”

Over a career that has spanned more than 35 years, Thomas has spent the bulk of his time living in the United States, where as a songwriter for publishing, he has amassed an impressive list of accomplishments that has included being recognized by the East Coast Music Association, NPR, the Government of Canada and even the John Lennon Song Competition.

Now, the longtime singer, lyricist and composer will be performing at The Carleton with his band, the session men, on April 28 after a storied career and a short pandemic-related delay.

“I said to the audience in Fredericton — we had a full house up there on Saturday — and it was just one of those things that comes out of your mouth, but it was speaking to the truth (that) I’ve been writing in rooms with one person, or two people, or nobody for 40 years,” explains Thomas. “(So) to have even 10 people show up and listen to the body of work that you’ve done over a lifetime, that’s a thrill.”

Thomas won’t just be taking the stage at The Carleton because he has missed playing to Halifax crowds however. After spending more than three decades behind the scenes writing tunes for everyone from the late Kenny Rogers to Bonnie Raitt, Thomas has decided to step into the artist spotlight himself.

As a result, Thomas and the session men have just released a new album titled Parallel Lines and he has set out on a tour through the Maritimes to support the new release.

A collection of new songs in addition to a few recordings of his back-catalogue publishing repertoire, Thomas received some high profile help making Parallel Lines from the likes of Barney Bentall, Acadian chanteuse Lina Boudreau, as well as members of the Vancouver-based folk rock act, Spirit of the West.

“It’s just people you get to know travelling through studios and through those circles over the years, and Barney and the Legendary Hearts guys were always just super nice,” says Thomas about recruiting the Canadian music icons for the recording. “It’s just knowing people and respecting their work, and vice versa.”

For Parallel Lines, Thomas didn’t just enlist the assistance of industry stalwarts either. In fact, when it came time to craft some of the new tracks for the album, he asked his son Selby — who is a Dalhousie University music graduate — to co-write with him.

One of those songs ended up being the album’s closing cut, Twilight.

“It was sort of the song that got the whole thing started. I just kind of walked in the house one day and thought I got more years behind me than I have ahead of me, and the whole lyric for that tune just hit me in one go,” says Thomas. “(And Selby) put just a beautiful, really unique guitar accompaniment to it.”

After years of writing songs and hiding in the shadows, Thomas is excited to take the stage at The Carleton and showcase some of his life’s work, and — perhaps more importantly — bring his songs to life as they were meant to be heard.

“When you are writing for publishing, you are writing for an artist in a different key, or changing the words, or this or that, so it’s never what you intended,” says Thomas. “To hear the stuff come back to how we wrote it and to have anybody listen to it, it’s just great.”

For more information on Robert Thomas show on April 28, visit The Carleton’s website.