Archie Thompson: finding the soul in country music, and vice versa.

Archie Thompson’s music-intensive life is back in full swing after being derailed by Covid for a couple of years. His trio, The Archtones, plays weekly three-hour sets at Eddie V’s Prime Seafood in Seaport Village on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and they bump that up to four hours on Saturdays. He’s still doing the Jazz Vespers on Sundays at the First Presbyterian Church downtown, where his band performs 30 minutes of blues, jazz and gospel music before the service begins. Further, he has recently released two albums of original material: one focused on old-school soul, and the other exploring the wide-ranging roots of country music.

However, the recent writers and actors strikes did throw a wrench into his film and TV licensing endeavors. Thompson’s music has been placed in TV shows such as Archer and films like The King of Staten Island. But 2023 was slow on that front — until a song that he considered to be a bit of a throwaway (“My My My Little Baby”) was suddenly being heard by the millions of people streaming the Bill Burr film Old Dads.

“The movie was number one on Netflix and had 30 million views in the first week and another 20 million after that, and I don’t know what it’s up to now. That was great, and really kind of a fluke, too. I had done a batch of ‘50s-inspired tunes four or five years ago for my publisher. We had submitted for a video game that was set in a post-apocalyptic world. In the game, the bomb went off in 1957, so everything was stuck in the ‘50s. They wanted a ‘50s tune, and I did one and it turned out really good, and they really liked it — but they didn’t use it. After I did it, my publisher was like, ‘You should do a whole batch of those.’ So I cranked out like twelve that I did really quick.

“At the end of the project, I was like, ‘I need a doo-wop with a Frankie Valli sort of vocal on it.’ From concept to being finished was probably three hours. I sang in this really dumb voice, and I sent it off to my publisher. My wife and I would listen to that song and just laugh and be like, ‘That is so silly.’ Of course, that was the one that got placed in Old Dads, which is probably going to be my best-paying royalties. We got a really nice placement. It plays in the movie for over two minutes. Hopefully, that will help make up for the fact that we didn’t get many other placements last year.”

On the album front, Thompson’s Raw Soul: Vol. 3 is a gritty take on classic soul, gospel and R&B music in which he cedes most of the lead vocal duties to local singers he admires, people like Dave Stanger and Ed Graves. (Don’t go searching for volumes one and two, as Thompson says they currently exist only “in my mind”). The album was nominated for a San Diego Music Award for Best R&B, Funk or Soul Album. He tackles all the vocal duties on the country album Permanently Gone, backed by a band he has christened 94 West.

Though he’s mostly known as a lounge guy, Thompson says he grew up with country music performed by the likes of Buck Owens, George Jones, and Loretta Lynn, and is very comfortable playing in the genre. The Archtones even play Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash songs in their lounge sets. “Real soul music has a lot of twang to it and a lot of country to it,” he says. “To me, it’s just not all that different. It’s just subtle differences that really define the genres. So, what I wanted to do was go on this trip and kind of hit all the bases. Some classic country. Some vintage country. Some spaghetti western. Some real Memphis-sounding stuff. Some Tex-Mex and some soundtrack-y stuff.”

Thompson wants to put together some shows to showcase Permanently Gone live this year, and already has plans for a follow-up that will focus more on soundtrack music. He also has new soul songs in the works that may land on Raw Soul: Vol. 2 as that series reverse engineers itself. “I would like to put out a jazz album, too. The trio is so tight. We have been playing for so many years together. So, maybe a country, a soul and jazz album this year. It’s fun to jump genres. I love it all.”