The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
9/5/03
Jack Hill
"Musician just getting started with 'tons of songs'"

Singer-Songwriter Sara Thomas is figuring out the music business while she figures out life itself.
Born in Little Rock and reared in Benton, Thomas has been writing songs since she was 21. Five years along, and she has begun to let others in on what she has done. A 2000 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a degree in communications, Thomas did some singing while in college as part of a duet, Bev & Sara, along with Beverly Blann.
The two women, who sang on occasion at J.R.'s Ballroom in Fayetteville, would do originals and their versions of songs written by Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel and other Lilith Fair-era singer-songwriters. The duo toured a bit, ranging as far afield as San Antonio, and once opened for Pat Green.
A year ago, she recorded and released a homemade five-song EP produced, engineered and played on by a fellow local singer-songwriter, Greg Spradlin, whom she is still thanking. She released it on her own label, Withoutanh Records, named for the lack of an "h" in her first name, she notes.
"Greg ended up doing a lot more work than he thought he would," Thomas recalls. "He did an excellent job on something we tried to do as quickly as possible to send to the folks at South by Southwest. But it was to now avail. I'm still feeling all this out, the music business. I still don't know how all this works.
While listening to some Johnny Cash music, she came up with an idea for a song, "Watch Me Drink," and upbeat song which she wrote through the eyes of an alcoholic. Ideas flowed initially from journal entries she had written, or ideas that came from watching television.
After graduating from college, she lived for a time in Hawaii and sang there in 2002 at the Pearl Harbor celebration on the Fourth of July. She has a state job to keep her in guitar strings for the time being as she learns about rounding up gigs and recording songs. Even private parties are within her scope of interest, and she refers potential fans to her Web site, www.sarathomasband.com.
Besides the Lilith performers, she's also fond of new women singer-songwriters Tift Merritt, Sarah Harmer and Kathleen Edwards.
For her show tonight, she will be accompanied by percussionist Dave Hoffpauir, lead guitarist Steve Hudleston and bassist Chris Michaels (sometimes bassist Jay Gentry is in the lineup, she adds).
She and her band have played around town, opening shows for Brave Combo, Lucero, Patrice Pike, Cary Pierce and Iris Dement at the first Oasis Renewal Center festival in April. Other gigs have been at Dizzy's Grill in Benton, The Poet's Loft in Hot Springs, and, in Little Rock at The Coffee Beanery, The Living Room and Juanita's. She also competed at the Acoustic Showdown at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.