American folk and rock music

10 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Political, FOLK: Folk Pop



Details:
I was born and raised in New Jersey and listened to all kinds of music as a kid. "Cousin Brucie", all the way to Bernie Witkowski's Sunday Polka Show, I was exposed to all flavors including Neil Young, Harry Chapin, Harry Nilsson, Pink Floyd, Paul Simon and the Allman Brothers. I also liked to write my own stuff. I moved to Texas in the 70's and started checking out Stevie Ray (before Double Trouble) and Merle, Willie and ironically, Springsteen. I was run down by a Ford LTD in 1975 and spent 13 months learning guitar from my hospital bed. Thankfully, I made a full recovery AND a major career decision. A few years passed and I joined the Navy as a Medic. For six years, I went from delivering babies at a Naval Hospital to living in tents and choking down MREs as an Infantry Medic with the Marine Corps. From screaming babies to drunken bar fights, grenade tossing and sewing up Marines, the experience was incredible! In the late 80's I re-joined civilian life and settled in Southern California. At work in the operating room, I met the members of my first serious band "The Verge" (right there in the middle of trauma surgery). We released tracks and landed "college" air play pretty quickly with "Newport Breezin". We gigged around Southern California for a while but I grew weary of the late hours and became more interested in the songwriting. I penned a few decent songs during that time and did some session work in Los Angeles. I played on a few pop records and one of them garnered a Grammy nomination. I did the Grammy Awards "thing" and enjoyed the pleasure of meeting a few of my music heroes . I remember running up the red carpet (late arrival) at the Garden in New York and hearing the excited crowd yell out: "Hey, who are you?"All I could think of to say in response was.....âIâm Nobodyâ. Ienjoyed participating in the Grammies and Iâm still a voting member although I donât get to L.A. much anymore !
Through the years, I connected with Harry Nilsson and David Gilmour and Gregg Allman. I met people like Skunk Baxter, Little Richard, Willie Nelson and Leo Fender (and joined to fight Parkinsonâs Disease with Leoâs wife, Phyllis). I had the pleasure of meeting Bono, Edge (he played 8 different guitars that night) and Adam (Larry was pretty grouchy). I shared the stage with a few of my heroes but I never really craved the fame or the spotlight (maybe some fortune). In fact, more than a few of my friends used to tell me "Tom, you have a great face for radio". I enjoyed a few small successes with my own music too. I charted with "A Change in Me" and the country novelty track "I'm in a Mess with the IRS" (It was a huge hit in the Netherlands and Germany for some reason) but the royalty money soon ran dry.. The coolest part of making records was hearing my songs coming out of the car radio.
I launched "TomSongs" in November of 2001 as a non-profit Music Therapy "experiment" in support of the 9/11 Families. I have written and recorded dozens of songs since 2001 and I have performed across the USA. I play all of the instruments (for better or worse) and have just started putting a new band together for tour dates in 2007. My music has turned from therapy to advocacy during the past few years and in addition to my ongoing work with the 9/11 Families, I am an active member of Veterans For Peace and my personal goal is to assist in protecting our American Soldiers from unwarranted risk both at here at home and abroad. My other âsideâ project is to protect and defend our constitution from enemies both foreign and mostly domestic. My latest CD project "Brick" is now available for purchase. I gig here and there and I plan to post a calendar soon. I hope to meet you out there on the road and I hope youâll save a beer for me!
Thanks for listening!
Tom Chelston