Robert Thomas has been around forever, in the musical background, in the shadowland of music publishing and jingle writing. Not fond of the spotlight, Thomas has been content to let others give voice to his songs, others like Joe Cocker, Kenny Rogers, Mister Mister and the Dixie Chicks. Along the way his demo recordings have attracted some of the finest musicians in North America – Barney Bentall, Geoffrey Kelley, The Legendary Hearts, Ray Legere, Jon Arsenault, Grammy winner Eric Marienthal and Quincy Jones go to guitarist, Michael Thompson. Of these, Thomas has shown a predilection for working with Legere and Arsenault, “I find Ray, Jon and I share a musical Karma. If I bring a lyric to them, musical alchemy always follows and the song I imagined invariably blossoms. Co-writes with some people can be a struggle, but with Ray and Jon, it’s always a joy and exciting to see what will happen.”
The sessionmen
Ray Legere has also been around forever, sometimes in the forefront as one of North America’s most decorated and sought-after fiddle and mandolin players, sometimes as a sideman for the likes of Tony Rice, Alison Kraus Doc Watson, Michelle Shocked and Bowfire, and sometimes as a record producer with over 100 recordings to his credit. Over the years, Legere has gravitated to Robert Thomas as his go to writing partner. “Robert is really accomplished. He has an ear for a great song idea and has the lyrical chops to support even the trickiest grooves I throw at him, he’s just a pleasure to write with!” Thomas and Legere do work well together, co-writing the 2025 International Acoustic Music Award winning song “A River Runs Through” one afternoon in Legere’s Sackville studio. “It’s one of those songs that is more than the sum of its parts, says Legere; sometimes a lyric and music fuse to carry a universal message. In this case, how we tend to look back the farther onward we go in our lives.”
Jon Arsenault hasn’t quite been around forever, but he has been around long enough to love Robert Thomas’s songwriting. Exposed to Thomas’ repertoire in the late 80’s by a producer friend, Arsenault memorized all the songs from Thomas’ two demo albums and performed them live in his solo act and later with his backing band before ever actually working with Thomas. Arsenault is highly accomplished in his own right as a producer, multi-instrument performer and session player and as a sound engineer. When the opportunity arose to record a Thomas / Legere demo for publishing, he jumped at it and, when Thomas and Legere heard him play on the demo, the wheels started to turn on the idea of taking Thomas’ song catalogue out on the road as a trio. “Robert and Ray are legends and at first I was whoa, big pressure, but they’re great guys, very welcoming, and we definitely hear this music the same way.”
Out of these beginnings, Robert Thomas and the sessionmen formed in 2022. Their first album, Parallel Lines, and North American/European tour generated over 135,000 Spotify streams, 105,000 YouTube views, an ECMA nomination for “Entertainer of the Year” and a query from JUNO winner Catherine Maclellan about producing their next album. “I thought Robert’s debut album was really intriguing and, when I dug around his catalogue, there were so many great songs, old and new.…I thought we could make a wonderful second album and it has been a pleasure.”
In 2024 Robert, Ray, and Jon went to work with MacLellan and her engineer partner, JUNO winner Mark Westberg to record the new album, “The Way We Roll.” Featured guests included renowned Dobro/Banjo player and IBMA winner Ivan Rosenberg, Bassist Carlie Howell and Danko-Jones drummer, Rich Knox. Thomas was so smitten with Rosenberg’s playing that a spontaneous co-write ensued during one of the sessions – an idea that became “Springhill,” – a haunting clawhammer banjo / voice homage to the men lost at the Springhill mine in 1958. Rosenberg also lent a beautifully expressed dobro solo to the Thomas / Legere co-write, “A River Runs Through.” After release as a single in October, the track went on to reward the band with a prestigious International Acoustic Music Award for “excellence in acoustic music artistry and performance.” Subsequently, the album title track, “The Way We Roll,” a Thomas / Arsenault co-write, generated a music video filmed by award winning Canadian Director Brenda Malley that garnered “Official Selection” and screening status at the Folkstone Film Festival, Folkstone, U.K.
“The Way We Roll” album drops on May 9 and is packed with compelling songwriting and stellar musicianship, the signature of Robert Thomas and the sessionmen in Live performance. Although they’ve been around forever, the future looks exceedingly bright for Thomas, Legere and Arsenault – Robert Thomas and the sessionmen.
