Hear Josh Thompson’s Nostalgic New Drinking Song ‘Daddy Had a Beer’
Tipping back a beer has been a long-running theme in the music of Josh Thompson. Having grown up in the hard-drinking state of Wisconsin, the one-time concrete worker scored his breakthrough in 2010 with the song “Beer on the Table” and, most recently, co-wrote Jason Aldean’s latest Number One single “Any Ol’ Barstool.” Today he traces that barley-and-hop fascination back to its origins with the first track off his new album, “Daddy Had a Beer.” (Listen to the song below.)
The loping song, debuting today on Rolling Stone Country before tomorrow’s release of Change: The Lost Record, opens with Thompson’s earliest memory of seeing his father drink when Thompson was still only an infant. He paints a portrait of a hard-working but loving father with an ever-present beer in his hand, although “one too many was one he never had.” Yet there’s a cautionary undercurrent to those memories, as it’s eventually revealed that Thompson’s father has passed away.
“It’s the first song I wrote in my house here in Nashville, and it takes me back to growing up with my parents,” says Thompson, who moved to Music City in 2005. “That’s what makes it special to me.”
Making up for lost time is the order of the day for Thompson on Change: The Lost Record. The self-released LP’s songs, several of which were released in EP form two years ago on Change: The Lost Record Vol. 1, date back to his brief tenure with RCA Nashville, after label changes had him shuffled out of Columbia in 2011. Thompson is currently on the road and will perform a show in Georgia this Saturday.