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The Vic Juba Community Theatre will once again be the place to be as Canadian supergroup Lunch At Allen’s takes the stage for a night of folk, country, pop and storytelling.
Presented by Shantero Productions Inc., Lunch At Allen’s consists of Canadian talents Murray McLauchlan, Cindy Church, Marc Jordan and Ian Thomas. The group will take the stage at the Vic on June 19 before heading east to Prince Albert on an 11-stop Prairie tour.
Individually, Church, McLauchlan, Jordan and Thomas have written and sung on over 250 million CDs, and have written hits for Josh Groban, Chicago, Bonnie Raitt, America, Santana, Cher and Rod Stewart (Rhythm of the Heart, written by Jordan), as well as McLauchlan’s Farmer’s Song, Jordan’s Marina Del Rey and Thomas’s Painted Ladies, to name a few.
The Source caught up with Thomas on Monday morning to talk about the upcoming show and the joy he’s gotten as a touring musician for 50 years.
“This is a labour of love, this is not a job,” he said.
“Murray, Marc and Cindy are like family to me, so getting together to sing with your friends, it doesn’t get much better.”
Thomas explained the group formed roughly 20 years ago after McLauchlan woke up in hospital with a quadruple bypass and came to the realization “if you don’t use the gifts God gives you, God gets pissed off.”
“He told me he wanted to put together a group with other songwriters where we could all feed off of each other and have more of an interactive show,” said Thomas. “We then got on the phone with Marc. Not only is he a great songwriter, he’s also a wonderful singer. We also knew we needed a female voice and I had just finished a song circle with Cindy Church, so we invited Cindy and the chemistry was ridiculous.”
Speaking for himself, Thomas said there was no way he ever thought he’d still be gigging at 72, but he’s grateful for the opportunity as performing is spiritually uplifting and almost medicine-like for him.
“I remember when I had a partial knee replacement and was out for months, and my mother, who was also a musician herself, told me ‘when you raise your voice in song in harmony, particularly with people who love, your body will follow. It will expedite your healing process’ … honestly, I think she was spot on.”
Aside from the music, Lunch At Allen’s fans can also look forward to hearing countless stories from the road, the recording studio, and everywhere in between from the four members of the group.
“I guess that’s the territory of being an old coot,” said Thomas with a laugh. “We’ve got a lot of silly stories to tell about the bizarre and interesting things that have happened to us over the course of our careers, so it’s always an interesting element of the show.”
Thomas, who wrote Painted Ladies which was released in 1972, said the best part of performing these days is usually the unexpected.
“If someone goes off on a rant, that’s always great fun,” he said.
“Hearing everybody sing Painted Ladies right before your eyes is also amazing.”
“But also, when the close harmony happens in some of the songs, it’s so tight-knit, being a part of that chord as it occurs, it’s just a wonderful moment when you’re harmonizing with people you love; that’s a high point for me every time.”
Thomas also noted it’s even better when the crowd sings along with the group.
“The crowd is invited to sing along,” he said.
“In some respects, this show is a lot like sitting around a campfire with a bunch of your friends. People sing along when they feel like it.
“It’s wonderful as a writer when people sing your songs, and when you do them live and people sing, there’s just something spiritually uplifting about it all.”
Having been in the music industry since the ‘70s, the Source asked Thomas how he’s seen the business change over the years; this is what he had to say.
“The record companies always wanted complete control, and now they have it … there’s no farm teams anymore,” he said.
“If you’re not selling 300,000 units, you’re not welcome. It’s all downloads now, and the record companies own the downloads and Spotify, which you could say is a conflict of interest because they own the outlets as well as the artists,” he said, adding the fact he feels very fortunate to get his start when he did.
“I’ve watched the industry go from crooked to carcinogenic,” he added with a laugh. “There’s always been payola.”
Thomas then talked about a conversation he once had with Billy Joel about Billboard music … yes, that Billy Joel.
“I was talking with Billy about why Painted Ladies and Piano Man stopped at number 27 on the Billboard, both of our songs stopped dead there,” he said.
“Down the road, I found out it costs $250K, which your record company had to shell out to independent promoters to break the Top 20 on the Billboard.”
Thomas’s Billy Joel story is one of the many the four members of Lunch At Allen’s are looking forward to telling the crowd at the Vic Juba Community Theatre on June 19.
Tickets are $72 (tax and facility fees included, additional surcharges may apply) and are available at the theatre’s box office or at vicjubatheatre.ca.
