NEW NEWS: Rans Thomas music has made its way onto the small screen. “He Bought the Farm" is featured in the film score for Trailer Park Shark, a 2018 Syfy Channel movie starring Tera Reed and Thomas Ian Nicholas from American Pie. In ealry Jan 2019 "He Bought the Farm" was played on the Cranked Up Country Radio Show in their top 25 countdown of Reverbnation artists. CUC airs on 30+ radio stations across the US and abroad.
BIO: Rans Thomas was raised on a south GA farm in the 70s and 80s. Rans ~ "I grew up listening to my Dad’s records. He played guitar and was into outlaw country which was just breaking out back then with artists like Waylon, Willie, Christopherson, Coe & Paycheck". I was really drawn to that sound and the rowdy, rebellious themes”. At 14 he learned rhythm guitar on his Dad's 1974, Martin D-28.
Age 17 he played live for the first time in a honky tonk on the Ogeechee River owned by D.T. Faircloth who played in Loretta Lynn's band and had released some of his own singles like No Riders and Wanted Man. Rans ~ "Being on a stage for the first time I was hooked and felt right at home in that joint it really was like something out of a movie, an old gas station turned into a bar and full of wild, drunk river billies."
Age 19 Rans wrote his first song, Dirt Rich. Rans ~ "I was riding around our family farm we almost lost during the 80s farm crisis when I realized no matter how broke I was as long as we had that farm I was rich in land. He kept writing and performing while in college at GSU and UGA playing in bars and at parties. Rans ~ "I played solo and with a band we named Barnburners because the barn we rehearsed in burned to the ground. I got locked up for noise disorder playing a house party, had to fight my way out of a few bar gigs and even had to disarm a pistol pulling drunk one night playing a tailgate field party. Those were some wild times".
Later after college with a few original tunes in his portfolio he crossed paths with Stokes Nielson a young songwriter going places with his band The Lost Trailers. Rans ~ "Stokes helped me with song structure and told me I needed a demo of Dirt Rich so we drove to Nashville and walked into a studio. $250 and 2 hours later I had my first Nashville recording".
Rans started writing feverishly and in 2001 he got a break. Rans ~ "When a friend offered to fund my first LP I couldn't finish the writing and get in the studio fast enough. Rushing it was a mistake. Not happy with the album I still shopped it around. A few label reps heard it. They all said you write and sing Ok, quit your job and move to TN. I thought hard about it but couldn’t give up my career in the outdoors. After selling only a few hundred CDs I canned it and walked away from my music for a while".
For 7 years he didn't write as the doused hopes of success with his first LP gnawed at him. Rans ~ "I was still thinking up lyrics in my head I always will, I knew I could write a good song and even fix some of those on my first album. I wanted a second chance but just didn't have that fire in me anymore".
While his music was hibernating his career in the outdoors was flourishing. As a professional land & wildlife consultant he worked with a few country music celebrities and appeared on hunting television shows. Around 2008 Rans started writing again. Rans ~ "I found songwriting again through my love for the outdoors. Having worked in outdoor TV I wrote the parody song TV Huntin Man based on that experience. It was later picked up by the Outdoor Channel they turned it into a music video which aired at their 2015 awards show in Vegas".
Rans met Joe Caverlee in 2011. He played fiddle in the accomplished 80s/90s band Yankee Grey and now plays on the road for Tracy Lawrence. He is also a music producer and avid hunter. Joe helped Rans get back in the studio with his new material. They started working at Riverfront Recording Retreat in Nashville with engineer and bass player Pat Lassiter. Over the next few years Rans cut 13 originals, enough for a new album. Rans ~ "The chemistry with Joe, Pat and their crew of pickers is really amazing. I knew I had found a home among the Nashville Underground for studio work".
In 2017 Rans released his new Alt-country album “GRIT”. Rans ~ "for my new LP I wrote the songs my way, was much more involved in the recording, I took my time and achieved my goal which was only to create an album I was truly proud of". Rans, his wife Molly and son Wynn live in Athens, GA
GRIT is available here at Reverbnation, on iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Art Tracks & Pandora
