Allure Artist Management and Band Managers providing music promotion and music marketing

Rockers know band comes with hard work

By Wayne Bledsoe (Contact)
Friday, November 23, 2007

SCOTT LEE/SPECIAL TO THE
NEWS SENTINEL

Members of Thoroughfare are,
from left, Thomas Boyd, Jordan
Beach, Colin Cunningham and
Cameron Cunningham.

Members of the up-and-coming Knoxville band Thoroughfare figure the success of Knoxville bands 10 Years and Copper bode well for a band that’s willing to work equally hard to succeed.“You get out what you put in,” says Thoroughfare drummer Colin Cunningham, surrounded by his band mates at the band’s practice space at the West Knoxville home of Thoroughfare bassist Thomas Boyd.Thoroughfare’s practice room is slightly unusual. A visitor has to take a one-story ride in a tiny elevator in the garage. The upstairs practice room is a little airier and even neater than most.A week before the release of the band’s first full-length CD, “As Yet Unborn,” the members of Thoroughfare, Boyd, Colin and his keyboardist brother Cameron Cunningham, vocalist Jordan Beach and bassist Thomas Boyd, sit on a couch in the practice room to discuss the group’s past and future.

he group began in 2004 when the founding members were all students at Farragut High School. “At first we were kind of an acoustic-type band,” says Colin.And, sometimes it was only a rhythm section that patrons at the now-closed Europa Cafe heard while they dined.“It was $50 for as long as we could possibly play,” says Boyd. “We had maybe three original songs and five covers. Then we’d just jam.” “That’s when they called me,” says Beach. “After two hours of bass and drums.” Other members came and went, but Boyd, Beach and Colin Cunningham stuck together and added Cameron at the beginning of 2008. “We were auditioning for guitarists, but he made it as a keyboardist,” says Beach.

The original group recorded a five-song EP, “Portrait of a Daydream.” The band also began touring regionally and opening for a number of larger acts, including Uncle Kracker, Hurt and the Breakfast Club in Knoxville. “And Bo Diddley opened for us,” adds Beach. That was actually an ill-fated date at the Bronson Motor Speedway festival in Bronson, Fla. The band ended up sleeping in its van and trailer the night before the show, and Diddley simply wanted to go home early. It was much more satisfying to perform a show for Lenoir City High School a little closer to home. Likewise, the band traveled to Philadelphia, Pa., to record tracks with producer David Ivory (who has produced The Roots and Erykah Badu) before returning to Knoxville to record the bulk of the album with Knoxville producer Travis Wyrick. “The main difference in this and everything we’ve done before is that every single member of the band had input into making these songs what they are,” says Colin.

In 2006, the group signed with Allure Entertainment for management, and manager Ken Cavalier plans on pushing “As Yet Unborn” to rock and even adult contemporary radio. “We believe this album has a lot of potential,” says Cavalier in a phone call. The band plans a national tour in spring 2008. Cameron is still a student at Farragut and will be unable to participate in the tour, so Andy Wood and Matt Brewster, friends who are in the Knoxville band Down From Up, will fill in on the gigs. The members all look on the band as that it involves a lot of hard work. If Cameron misses few shows before graduation, he’ll be ready as soon as the cap and gown are history. “We’ve already played to thousands of people,” says Cameron. “If you add up everyone we’ve played to.”

"I want to see you get your A's up," said T.I. He was a few minutes into his midnight set at the Apollo Theater, the second of two concerts he gave on Thursday night. A crowd of people put fists up, with two fingers pointing down. They were anticipating the number that was starting, "A.S.A.P." And they were also paying tribute to T.I.'s hometown, Atlanta.

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

T.I. in the second of his two sets at the
Apollo Theater on Thursday.

When T.I. first declared himself King of the South, it sounded like yet another hip-hop boast. But this year some listeners may be wondering whether T.I. was being modest. Never mind "Southern"; he is the dominant rapper of the moment, simultaneously a mixtape hero and a bona fide pop star. His recent album, "King" (Atlantic), is a strong contender for hip-hop album of the year, and it sold more in its first week than the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album.

He showed why during Thursday's energetic but bare-bones performance: there was no stage set, and there were no surprise guests, but T.I. did fine with neither. (The show was partly a warm-up for his appearance at the annual Summer Jam concert, to be held at Giants Stadium tomorrow.) He uses his sing-song drawl to round the corners of his rhymes, controlling pitch and rhythm so precisely that he sometimes seems to be repeating one