There is a new CD in town called SALADO.   Local resident Richard Paul Thomas, his friends call him RpT, is releasing his third CD project and plans to have a CD listening party on May 15.

The album features a wide variety of songs including the title cut named after this great village of ours.  You may have heard this song before. It is penultimate song in Tablerock’s outdoor production of Salado Legends.

The song SALADO was written over 30 years ago while Thomas, and his soon to be bride Linda Griffith, were driving to Salado from Houston to visit Linda’s parents.  The Griffith family has lived in these parts since the mid-1800’s.   At the time, Thomas was traveling a great deal on business and, during the long drive, he was thinking about the lives of those early Salado settlers especially the men who drove the stagecoach along the Chisholm Trail.  The song about a stagecoach driver on his last trip home was born from those contemplative wanderings.

In addition to Salado, the songs on the album cover a broad assortment of subjects and musical styles.  RpT plays with some fun musical ideas in Riding on a Train and Retirement Blues along with a variety of eclectic songs in between.  He widens the emotional scope of his songwriting to include concerns for the environment and the people around him.  From Violeta, honoring the life of Chilean Songwriter and Artist Violeta Parra, to a plea to those who choose to ignore the challenges facing our changing planet in Denial, and ending the album with Look at My Hands, he illustrates his depth of feelings about these subjects.

Also featured is a song co-written with long-time Salado resident, Wayne Garner.  Garner had a poem called The Last Goodbye and he asked Thomas to work with him to turn it into a song.  The result is a deeply emotional story of a couple who will never see each other again.

Produced by Chris Gage and recorded at Austin’s Moonhouse Studio, SALADO features an expansive variety of musical contributions from Gage, along with the tasteful vocal support of Kristin deWitt, the spot on drumming and percussion from Paul Pearcy, and fluid base lines from Glenn Fukunaga.   Together, this combo creates an intricate weaving of sounds to help support RpT’s vocals and soaring melodies.

Thomas will tell the stories behind these songs and play the CD in its entirety starting at 3 p.m. on May 15 at the Barrow Brewing Company headquarters located at 108 Royal Street. In addition to the music, you can enjoy the collection of Barrow Beers along with food from the Hecho en Queso food truck.  The event is free.

For more information, contact Richard Paul Thomas at (254) 947-4717 or email to RpT@tbc-group.com.