{"id":1512,"date":"2012-07-12T12:28:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T18:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2012-07-12T12:28:27","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T18:28:27","slug":"beth-thornley-piece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/2012\/07\/12\/beth-thornley-piece\/","title":{"rendered":"Beth Thornley brings magic to movie & TV soundtracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beth<\/a>Early into a conversation with Beth Thornley<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to forget you\u2019re talking to a successful professional musician.<\/p>\n

Unprepossessing, enthusiastic, and down-to-earth, the California-based singer exudes a charm reminiscent of the girl next door or down the street, which for some Birmingham residents, she was.<\/p>\n

The Magic City native still maintains local ties and appreciation for the musical training she received in her hometown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t listen to the Stones or the Beatles or Dylan until I got out of college,\u201d she said, a nod to the \u201cvery classical background\u201d she grew up in as the daughter of a music minister and a classically-trained singer. Earning a music degree from Samford, she had planned to teach college-level choral music until getting sidetracked by pop. The detour took her to Los Angeles, where she initially stayed on a friend\u2019s couch while working to establish herself as a musician.<\/p>\n

Almost a decade later, she\u2019s performing at clubs, coffee houses, and pop festivals in Southern California, with three independently-produced albums to her credit. Her self-titled debut was met by favorable reviews, and more than half of its songs have been used in film and television soundtracks. Its follow-up, My Glass Eye<\/em> (featuring a haunting cover of “Eleanor Rigby,” the bittersweet hometown tribute “Birmingham,” and the Beth-recommended “Beautiful Lie”), earned for her further accolades and more TV and movie exposure.<\/p>\n

Moviegoers currently have the opportunity to hear the title track<\/a> from her third album, Wash U Clean<\/em><\/a>, when they go to see the adult comedy Magic Mike<\/em><\/a> (currently playing in theaters here in Birmingham<\/a>). Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the firm\u2019s cast includes Matthew McConaughey and Cullman native Channing Tatum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know much about the movie except that my song is in it,\u201d Thornley said recently, adding that she planned to find out with everyone else when she saw the film on opening night. \u201cI don’t even know how the song is going to be used.\u00a0 It could be featured or it could be barely audible or somewhere in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

However the song is used, it\u2019s Thornley\u2019s latest addition to a growing list of movie soundtracks that includes The Perfect Man<\/em>, Between<\/em>, Play the Game<\/em>, and Girl in Progress<\/em>. Her music has been featured in such television shows as Scrubs<\/em>, Friday Night Lights<\/em>, Life<\/em>, Newport Harbor<\/em>, Beautiful People<\/em>, Ringer<\/em>, Suburgatory<\/em>, Jack and Bobby<\/em>, and Paris Hilton\u2019s My New BFF<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate enough to receive phone calls saying, \u2018This is what we need. Do you have something or could you write something?\u2019 I love those phone calls. I wish I could get more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing her sound as \u201cThe Beatles meet Ben Folds meet Death Cab for Cutie,\u201d Thornley embraces comparisons with such established artists, which frustrate other emerging musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music business is so much about marketing. The record companies look to see where the fan base is, which is where they can make the most money. That leads inevitably to new artists being categorized by comparisons to established musicians. But a lot of people like to know who you sound like, and they need to know a little about how you sound. It\u2019s human nature. There\u2019s a comfort in being able to identify someone with a sound you\u2019re already familiar with and knowing right away if it\u2019s your thing or not. If I were famous, I might feel differently, but it can actually give a new artist a helpful foothold.\u201d<\/p>\n

So can digital media. \u201cA few years ago, independent artists didn\u2019t have such an effective means of promoting themselves. It\u2019s been very beneficial for us.\u201d Visitors can listen to samples from her albums, buy CDs, and learn more about her music on her website<\/a>. Individual tracks are also available from iTunes.<\/p>\n

Thornley says she gets back to Birmingham a couple or three times a year to visit relatives and friends and stopped by Silvertron Caf\u00e9 to hear Libba Walker<\/a> sing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the best. And, of course, I made sure I ate some fried okra while I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a>

We all know you’ve gone to see “Magic Mike” already, but did you know that the person who sand “Wash U Clean” was from Birmingham? Buddy Roberts took a few moments to sit down with Beth Thornley and learn about her string of appearances on movie and television soundtracks. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":1513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,38],"tags":[163,1026,439,540,1042,796,951],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-music","tag-beth-thornley","tag-birmingham","tag-interview","tag-magic-mike","tag-music","tag-soundtrack","tag-wash-u-clean"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4PdO-oo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}