Guthrie Thomas

Guthrie Thomas (1952–2016) was an Americana singer-songwriter, producer and record label executive.

Born Andrew Lynn Herring on January 6, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas.

His family eventually settled in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he married Beverly Ann Hawkins.

She sued for abandonment and divorce in 1970 and remarried a year later.

Thomas left school before completing ninth grade.

In the early 1970s, located in California and credited as Andrew Herring, he played college and community venues as a country-folk artist.

He claimed at the time that, at age 17, he moved to North Carolina to study guitar with Doc Watson.

A reporter for The Topanga Messenger recalled meeting him in 1970, "living under the Topanga Center bridge" and grieving for his wife and newborn child, who he claimed recently died in a car accident.

He spent much of his time practicing guitar in order to fulfill what "his late wife believed he should be: a musician."

Thomas claimed that he met Woody Guthrie when he was four years old, when Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott passed through Oklahoma on a cross-country trip.

He later described this story as a "blatant lie."

He adopted his stage name as a tribute to Woody Guthrie and Dylan Thomas.

Thomas recounted his career origins to the press in different ways.

A more recent autobiographical statement on his now-defunct website described living in Rhonert Park, California in 1973, teaching guitar classes at a local college.

He introduced himself to Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who was playing a concert nearby, and persisted in developing a friendship with him.

Elliott hired Thomas as a road manager.

Through Elliott, he was introduced to Bob Weir, Arlo Guthrie and Hoyt Axton.

With these connections, he launched his professional career.

Thomas released his first album Sittin’ Crooked in 1974, produced by Raynold Gideon with Larry Hirsch.

Elliott contributed liner notes.

"It’s not necessary to use words of praise. Guthrie first dazzled me in Colati, Calif. With his lightening fast fingerpicking and abalone guitar. He’s a might good okie songster and a great road buddy in hotels with truckers, cowboys and whores," wrote Elliot.

Critic and DJ Jay Meehan observed that the album paid close homage to the styles of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack.

"If anything outshines the hot licks and the poetic lyrics, it is the sheer potential housed within the man," he said.

"His next one is bound to be a barn-burner."

By this time, Thomas had relocated to Los Angeles.

He resided with girlfriend Virginia Vick, who was supporting them while Thomas attempted to land a recording contract.

An advertisement at McCabe's guitar shop connected Thomas with a new musical collaborator, Marc Edelsen.

The two worked together on many subsequent albums.

Later that year, Ramblin' Jack Elliott was invited to perform at KMOR, a radio station in Murray, Utah, by DJ Jay Meehan, host of the Mellow Country radio show.

Thomas, then acting as Elliott's road manager, was in Park City to perform as well.

Thomas joined his friend in the studio and the short concert included the two trading songs on air and playing together as station personnel recorded the performance.

After the concert, Thomas asked the station for a copy of the recording and in 1975 released the album Dear Ginny on private label Rarer Records, with both artists listed on the cover.

The first side of the album was recorded in Los Angeles and included Thomas solo and with Marc Edelsen, while the second side consisted of portions of the KMOR concert with Elliott performing, accompanied by Thomas.

Thomas sold the LP at live concerts.

Elliott was reportedly unhappy with this unauthorized release.

Only 500 copies were pressed.

In 1975, Thomas began working with producer Nick Venet and engineer Andy Macdonald at the Record Plant.

The album Guthrie Thomas I, was released on Capital Records later that year.

"The most remarkable new talent of this year and one of the finest of this decade," said a review in The Times.

After releasing two albums on Capital Records, he started his own label, Eagle Records, and self-released and produced numerous other artists in the 1980s.