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Article published Nov 30, 2007 Thunder Thieves to make Maryville debut at Tomato Head
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
When he’s not playing guitar for local rock band The Rockwells, and when he’s not overseeing the day-to-day operations of The Tomato Head’s Maryville restaurant as its general manager, Tommy Bateman has this little project with an ominous sounding title — Tommy Bateman and The Thunder Thieves.
Tonight, the Thunder Thieves make their Maryville debut, performing Bateman’s original compositions and introducing a new outlet for live music in Blount County. It’s a project near to Bateman’s heart, and not just because the musicians — Bateman and his brother Trace (also a Rockwell) on drums; Rockwell bandmates Fred Kelly (on trombone and bells) and Jonathan Kelly (on French horn and bells); violinist and trumpet player Seth Hopper (of Christabel and the Jons); and guitarist/vocalist Dorian Deluca — are performing Bateman’s compositions, in the restaurant he manages.
It’s a way for Bateman to indulge a lifelong love of songwriting and arranging, going back to his days in high school band.
“With The Rockwells, I enjoy letting go of the reins to some degree,” Bateman told The Daily Times this week. “We all work very hard in the arranging process, and Jonathan, Fred, Trace and I have a personal stake in how the songs turn out. But after that, I just get to turn up my amp and rock out, and in that context, I just like to let go and have a great time.
“With the Thunder Thieves, I get something that’s very different. I feel like I’m developing skills that are my strengths as a musician. I’m arranging something I take a lot of pride in, and I seem have a knack for it. I get to write French horn parts and trombone parts and see if they work, and if not, I get to rewrite them.”
Bateman’s personal history as a musician is intertwined with that of his brother and both Kellys. The four have been playing together in one lineup or another since their days in high school. He majored in composition at the University of Tennessee, and ever since he began playing rock music, he’s been writing and arranging songs.
Several years ago, he struck up a friendship and songwriting partnership with J.D. Reager, a musician who drummed for the Murfreesboro Americana band Glossary for a couple of years. Reager and Bateman formed local band The Passport Again, which performed around East Tennessee for a while before Reager moved away.
“We were sort of taking turns writing songs and being co-front men for that band, and we were doing that while The Rockwells started,” Bateman said. “But then The Rockwells would get really busy, and my songwriting would take a backseat for a while. Then, when J.D. moved away, my outlet for songwriting was gone — but it was at the same time that The Rockwells were at their busiest.
“But it’s like a pot boiling over when it comes to songwriting for me. I’ve got to play my songs, and I realized that, at some point, I had to do something or I was going to go crazy. So I thought, OK, I’ll do a solo record. I started working on these arrangements, and I got these people together in smaller groups, but the first time we got together, playing with multiple guitars and all the horns and strings, it basically killed the record.”
That first practice was so electrifying, Bateman said, that the thought of doing a solo record immediately became a secondary concern. He was shocked, he added, by how well his arrangements had turned out, and his fellow musicians were ecstatic about the chemistry they had while playing them.
Thus, Tommy Bateman and The Thunder Thieves were born. Bateman describes the project as “a pit orchestra from a community theater ... meets a chamber ensemble and waxes romantic about (R.E.M. singer) Michael Stipe singing cowboy songs with the Tijuana Brass.” It’s eclectic and dense, thanks to the large number of instruments the band uses, but at the same time, there’s an air of scruffy elegance to the music.
Tonight’s show will feature two songs the band recorded in 2005, as well as a handful of new material that Bateman hopes to have out on a full-length Thunder Thieves record next spring. While the new material features Bateman’s guitar work more so than ever before, he said, the ironic thing is that a basketball injury — sustained during a game on the Tomato Head team of Maryville’s rec league — will prevent him from playing guitar tonight.
Not that the music will sound lacking. After all, when you’ve got a half-dozen musicians on hand to pick up the slack, it only changes the dynamic. The energy, the quirkiness, the outright enthusiasm, will be intact. And if the turnout is good, Tomato Head may host regular shows by local bands, he added.