Paul Thorn Celebrates the Joys and Realities of Aging on Life is Just a Vapor
Paul Thorn’s Life is Just a Vapor, his 14th studio album, is a testament to the art of writing and performing music for grown-ups by someone who understands what it means to grow older. “I’m 60 years old, and the stuff I’m writing about and singing about is for people that get what being 60 years old is,” Thorn explained in a recent interview. Life is Just a Vapor is about finding life’s pleasures, enjoying them, and not worrying too much. It’s about the routines of life, the power of memory, and the importance of keeping a smile.
On tracks like “Chicken Wing,” Thorn perfectly encapsulates the bittersweet joys of aging: “I’m in the winter of my life / I love my dog, I like my wife / I wash the dishes, I sweep the floor / I keep a 12-gauge behind the door.” The song exudes a quiet contentment tinged with a hard-earned wisdom, with Thorn adding a touch of humor as he reflects on how much life has changed since his younger, wilder days.
Thorn says that “Every song on this album, there’s a message in it of some sort about how to live life.” But those messages are never too heavy-handed; quite a feat for a Mississippi-born preacher’s son. And though the album is full of lyrics that would be at home on a cross-stitched pillow, they never come across as cliché or maudlin. Throughout Life is Just a Vapor, Thorn dispenses advice with a wry smile. The album’s title track declares, “Life is just a vapor / Let’s live it while we can,” while other songs remind us that, “Tough times don’t last, tough people do,” and “Life is good, but it’s not always fair.”
Just when you are thinking that Life is Just a Vapor is all about Thorn sharing his hard-earned life-lessons, he throws in a couple of delightfully oddball songs. I don’t which is stranger, the fact that Thorn penned a song (“Geraldine and Ricky”) about a traveling evangelist/ventriloquist and her dummy, or that it is based on a real person Thorn met as a five-year old. Geraldine and Ricky make a memorable team — “A one-man women and a head made of hickory” – and it’s sad but not surprising when Geraldine dumps Ricky inauspiciously (“Little Ricky was hard to console/when he found out he didn’t have a soul/ Geraldine married a rich dying man/She threw poor Ricky in the garbage can”).
Or “Wait,” a cautionary tale about socializing in the age of Tinder, in which Thorn recalls “The conversation flowed/the chicken got cold/We both agreed Jackson Browne finally looks old,” before sharing his dating advice, “don’t do it all on the first date/leave a little something on the plate.”
But it’s the sentimental, wistful, sometimes elegiac, songs that carry Life is Just a Vapor. “Courage My Love” captures the quiet beauty of enduring love, as Thorn sings, “We’re gonna need two incomes / And one dependable truck / Just a half-acre of your daddy’s land / And a little luck.”
Similarly, “I Knew” is a heartfelt ode to the moment Thorn first fell in love, its simplicity and sincerity making it one of the album’s standout tracks: “I knew the first time I saw you / I knew the first time I touched you / I knew the first time I kissed you / I knew that I’d always love you.”
Life is Just a Vapor trods some of the same ground as James McMurtry’s 2021 The Horses and the Hounds, describing the challenges, and occasional benefits, of growing older. It’s hard, though, to imagine two more disparate personalities than Thorn and McMurtry; where McMurtry seems to have a permanent seriousness, you can almost see Thorn’s smirk on most of this album.
Musically, Life is Just a Vapor leans into Thorn’s signature blend of Americana, blues, gospel, and roots rock. Longtime collaborators, including drummer Jeffrey Perkins, bassist Ralph Friedrichse, and guitarists Bill Hinds and Chris Simmons, provide a rich yet unflashy backdrop for Thorn’s storytelling. Special guests Joe Bonamassa and Luther Dickinson add a touch of guitar firepower.
Recorded in studios across Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the album benefits from the steady, clean production by Thorn’s long-time business and creative partner Billy Maddox and the clear, balanced mixes by Michael Graham. The result is an album that feels intimate yet expansive, deeply personal yet universally resonant.
Thorn is embarking on an extensive tour through June 2025, covering much of the Eastern U.S. His live shows are known for their warmth, wit, and down-to-earth charm—qualities that Life is Just a Vapor has in abundance.
Life is Just a Vapor is Paul Thorn at his best: funny, wise, and deeply human. It’s a collection of songs that embrace the joys, struggles, and quiet triumphs of life’s later chapters, proving that even in the winter of life, there’s plenty to celebrate. Find the music here: https://orcd.co/ptlijav
* Mark Pelavin is a consultant, writer, and freelance music critic living, very happily, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He can be reached at mark@markpelavin.com.
