Ural Thomas & The Pain perform at Revolution Hall in Portland.

Over the past decade or so, there has been a revival of 1960s-era funk and soul music that has resulted in a cavalcade of soul singers experiencing a commercial breakthrough in their later years. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Charles Bradley are the two names that most readily come to mind.

At the age of 77, Portland’s Ural Thomas and his backing band The Pain are situated to be the Pacific Northwest’s contribution to this trend.

Originally from Portland, Thomas grew up performing music in church. One of Thomas’ first bands during the 1950s, The Invaders, regularly performed throughout the Pacific Northwest, even stopping in Pendleton once. Throughout the early ’60s Thomas’ vocal group The Montereys regularly performed backup vocals with popular Pacific Northwest garage rock bands like The Kingsmen and Paul Revere and The Raiders. He landed gigs opening for the likes of Little Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding and Irma Thomas.

Thomas eventually moved to Los Angeles in hopes of furthering his music career. He recorded a few singles for the UNI label, including the searing number “Pain (Is The Name of Your Game),” which all ultimately fell flat due to lack of promotion.

Frustrated with the music business, Ural hung up his microphone and took on a string of blue collar jobs around Portland and raising a family. It wouldn’t be correct to say he ever went away as he was steadily writing songs and producing homemade demo recordings.

Fast forward to 2012, the year that Thomas was “rediscovered” by Portland rock drummer (and past Pendleton Center for the Arts Rock Camp counselor) Scott Magee. Magee is perhaps most well known around Portland as “Cooky Parker,” a DJ specializing in spinning vintage soul and R&B 45s. One of Magee’s regular sources for those 45s is Mississippi Records, the Portland-based record store and label that tends to specialize in re-releasing obscure and rare recordings (southern gospel church field recordings, ’90s Portland punk, early theremin recording experiments, Hindustani classical music, etc).

A discussion with Mississippi Records proprietor Eric Isaacson five years ago set into motion the reemergence of Ural Thomas.

“There is a stool in front of the counter, like in ‘High Fidelity,’ where people can sit and geek out about records,” recounts Magee. “In one conversation with Eric I offhandedly mentioned my frustration with music in general. Playing soul music was a dream of mine but I was always doing indie rock. I said to Eric, ‘Wouldn’t it be the coolest thing to be in the ’60s and making these records?’”

Isaacson suggested, “You should play with Ural Thomas. Nobody has ever heard of him.”

At the time Ural was hosting Saturday evening jam sessions at his home in north Portland. When Magee stepped in behind the drum kit there was an instant connection, and the two conspired to start a band. Magee dipped into his extensive musician contact list that he had built from playing music for over a decade in Portland. Hence “The Pain,” named after the aforementioned single from Thomas’ stint on UNI, was born.

Last year Ural Thomas and The Pain released their self-titled debut album through Mississippi Records. The album is half compilation of Thomas’ “hits” from the first act of his life and half new recordings with The Pain, many rearrangements of old songs some covers of 1960s-era soul songs.

The group is ready to move forward with the recording a new album by mining the trove of demo recordings dating from Thomas’s desert years. According to Magee the new recordings will be The Pain’s “first true album, representative of what we are as a band and our connection together.”

Ural Thomas & The Pain play for free on Main Street Pendleton on Friday, June 16.

■

James Dean Kindle is the East Oregonian’s entertainment columnist, the executive director of the Oregon East Symphony and a Pendleton musician. Contact him at jamesdeankindle@gmail.com.