As a local musician and radio show host, Thomas knows his way around the microphone
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Lexington music lovers may be familiar with DeBraun Thomas’ voice – not only his singing voice, which you may have heard during one of his numerous gigs over the years with music projects Relic Delic, Memory Lane Gang and the Smithdogs, but also his radio voice, which he has broadcast weekly for years as the host of WRFL radio show “Crunkadelic Funk Show.” A recent University of Kentucky journalism graduate, Thomas recently put the weekly radio show on the shelf in order to focus on juggling his music along with three part-time jobs, including a recent appointment as Assistant to the Operations Manager at local NPR affiliate WUKY.
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No Static at All: Thomas is the Operations Manager at local NPR affiliate WUKY.
“Apparently all three of my jobs are very, very connected – I work with kids and I work with drunk people,” he said with a laugh, referring, respectively, to the work he does at the after-school program Boys & Girls Club as well as at the bar, restaurant and music venue Willie’s Locally Known. “At Willie’s, it’s very much similar to what I’m doing at WUKY, in that I do a little bit of everything.”
Thomas said that working with kids helps keep him grounded, and keep his ego in check.
“Playing in bars and going out – it’s very easy to get lost in all that,” he said. “Working with children kind of humanizes things and brings me back to reality, because you may think you may have a little bit of an ego when you’re out, and then a kid tells you ‘Hey Mr. DeBraun, you smell bad.’
“When I graduated school and I started working at the Boys & Girls Club, I told myself that I was no longer going to have a job that was not meaningful in some way,” he added.
Thomas’ accomplishments at WUKY include spearheading a weekly segment called “Local Music Mondays,” which highlights a different local musician each week; the segment, which airs on Monday mornings, has become an increasingly popular feature on the station’s website. Thomas says his goal with the weekly installment is to increase the station’s connection with the local music scene, as well as to increase public awareness of Lexington’s array of talented musicians.
“I’m really trying to make it very diverse and not just focus on a particular genre,” he said. Recent artists featured have included Justin Wells, from Fifth on the Floor; hip hop artist Shiesty Khrist; and blues rock guitarist Eric Cummins.
Another feather in Thomas’ public radio cap is hosting and producing an hour-long program called “The Unghosting of Medgar Evers.” The multi-media piece, produced at WUKY and available for public radio stations across the country to pick up, centers on a collection of poems that Kentucky poet laureate Frank X. Walker wrote about Evers, a civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1963, set against a backdrop of carefully curated songs from that year. Historical context provided by University of Kentucky professors Everett McCorvey and Gerald Smith are woven throughout the piece, which Thomas calls a “soundscape of 1963.”
“There’s only one song on the entire thing that was released after 1963, but it was recorded in 1963 so I let it slide,” Thomas said. “It’s basically a tribute to a man who doesn’t necessarily get the credit that he deserves.”
Thomas – a Menlo Park, Calif., native who says he originally got into radio after learning about funk and soul icon Sly Stone’s history as a disc jockey – manages to find time to devote to his own music, playing regular gigs with local acts the Smithdogs and Memory Lane Gang and recording his first solo album at Shangri-La Studio. A longtime disciple of funk, soul and blues, Thomas says he’s been trying to expand upon his style, a task that has been encouraged through playing regularly with any number of talented local musicians, including Memory Lane Gang bandmates Daniel Mohler and Smith Donaldson.
“Daniel and Smith are so good at what they do that half the time I’m trying to keep up,” he said. “They’re constantly pushing me to break this wall open. I think it’s made me a better musician to have to think about things in a different way, and I’ve also done a lot of growing up in the past two years.”
“This town is full of guitar heroes – if you’re a guitar player, this is a great town to try to learn from people,” he added, rattling off a list of local role models that includes Tee Dee Young, Willie Eames and Ben Lacy. “Everyone has kind of rallied around helping me get better.”
Thomas, who will perform on New Years’ Eve at Cosmic Charlie’s with locally organized Parlaiment Funkadelic tribute act Freak of the Weekend, recently took a few moments to answer a few questions for us.
What are some of your favorite places in Lexington?
I love playing guitar and writing in the Arboretum; Tee Dee’s on Monday nights; that house on the corner of Richmond Road and Richmond Ave (it just looks really cool); any stage in town I get the opportunity to play on; the view of the Lexington skyline from the 18th floor of the Patterson Office Tower.
What do you feel is the best kept secret about Kentucky?
Kentucky has a rich history connected to the Civil Rights movement. For instance, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s brother Alfred Daniel “AD” King was a pastor at Zion Baptist Church in Louisville ... There was a march in Frankfort in 1964 that was peaceful; Dr. King gave a speech there.
Then there’s the connection between Kentucky and Jackie Robinson – not only was (teammate) Pee Wee Reese from Louisville, but Albert Benjamin “Happy” Chandler was the second baseball commissioner in the MLB, and was commissioner when Branch Rickey signed Robinson to the Dodgers in 1947.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
My name isn’t LeBron – ha! I have always had this obsession since I was a child of knowing about the lives of random celebrities. When I would learn about a new person I would ask, “Are they dead or alive,” followed by, “How did they die?” Usually among my friends I’m the first to know when a celebrity passes on. I know, I am morbidly weird.
What are you now listening to?
My iPod is full of funk, soul, blues, jazz and reggae right now. The top three albums I’ve been listening to are: Allen Stone’s self titled album, Donny Hathaway’s “Live and In Performance” and Jonny Lang’s “Turn Around.”