Ural Thomas Will Headline Revolution Hall on His 85th Birthday

Portland’s reigning king of soul music Ural Thomas turns 85 next week and he’s ready to party.

Thomas will mark the big day by headlining a set with his band the Pain at Revolution Hall on Dec. 21. Rattlesnake Mama and The Get Tight will open and Johnny Franco and His Real Brother Dom will host.

At the show, Thomas will be presented with the city of Portland’s proclamation that his 85th birthday, Dec. 21, is “Ural Thomas Day.”

“Ural Thomas has demonstrated to his community how to live as an artist, friend, mentor, father and husband, through a life led with supreme love and kindness,” says the proclamation, which was a collaboration with the mayor’s office, the city’s Office of Arts & Culture, Mississippi Records and The Pain.

Thomas was born in Meraux, La., on Dec. 21, 1939 and moved with his family to Portland during World War II. He kicked off his 70-year career in the music industry as a regional star in the ‘50s and ‘60s and spent decades out of the spotlight before coming back a decade ago with Ural Thomas and The Pain. According to the proclamation, Thomas was Portland’s earliest soul music export, signing a national recording contract and working alongside James Brown and Otis Redding.

To round out the festivities, Thomas will also release a new vinyl record, Nat-Ural, featuring “intimate and obscure recordings from the Ural Thomas archive,” according to Albina Music Trust, who will be co-releasing the record with Mississippi Records’ Cairo imprint. Nat-Ural includes an LP of previously unreleased solo recordings from the early ‘90s, a book of interviews and photos, a 7-inch bonus record, a fold-out newspaper, poster and five postcards.

Newspaper articles (one originally published in The Oregonian, and one faux article) included in Nat-Ural detail a period around 1980 when the city tried to condemn him as a squatter in his scrap-metal and lumber home he made on North Michigan Avenue that he calls “The House of Entertainment.”

“The declaration of Ural Thomas Day by the City of Portland marks a change in the city’s attitude towards citizens who operate outside of its systems, and as a greater apology by the city to its artistic and freewheeling citizens who have felt the sting of bureaucracy during earlier eras of the city’s history,” reads the fold-out newspaper included in Nat-Ural.

Ural Thomas and the Pain: Ural’s 85th Birthday Celebration at Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St. revolutionhall.com. 8 pm Saturday, Dec. 21. $35. All ages.