David Thom Archives - Bluegrass Today

Same Auld Lang Syne from Don Rigsby and David Thom

Don Rigsby and David Thom have released a first single from their upcoming New Territory album, due January 10.

It’s a song sure to stir memories for those who followed pop music in the early 1980s. A hit for the late California singer/songwriter, Dan Fogelberg, Same Auld Lang Syne quickly became a staple for every acoustic musician working the clubs and hotel lounges around the country. The song has had remarkable staying power; you’ll probably hear it the next time you encounter a singer/guitarist playing solo or in a duet at your favorite watering hole.

Fogelberg wrote it as an autobiographical vignette, what he had said was a true story about running into an old love in the store on Christmas Eve, and the two of them retracing their lives in all their maudlin glory ’till dawn.

Though not truly a Christmas song, Same Auld Lang Syne is often played during the season on pop and country radio, and with this new Rigbsy/Thom release, it can have a life on bluegrass radio as well.

Don sings it with a sense of the loss the song engenders, saying…

“I have loved this song since I was a teenaged boy. I always wanted to find a place to record it and this seemed like the right time.”

In addition to Don and David, artists featured on this album include Peter Rowan, Randy Kohrs, and Tim Crouch.

Radio hosts can download Same Auld Lang Syne now from Airplay Direct.

David Thom and Don Rigsby

California bluegrass singer David Thom and Kentucky warbler Don Rigsby are headed into the studio soon to record an album of duets.

The two first met in a Flatt & Scruggs tribute band assembled by banjoist Bill Evans for a California tour in 2012. Don and David became fast friends, and Rigsby toured with The David Thom Band when they traveled in Kentucky and Michigan later that year.

The two have been in discussions about a duo project since that time.

Now studio time is booked for early March, with hopes of a release later this year. No word yet on material they plan to record.

We’ll share whatever else we can learn.

Bluegrass at SXSW

David Thom, California bluegrass guitarist, mandolinist and singer, will be performing at a number of ‘unofficial’ showcases during the South By Southwest conference, held annually in Austin, TX next week. Unofficial parties are held throughout Austin during the week of the conference, and are sponsored by a wide range of companies. Most of the parties are free to the public, making them as attractive as the sanctioned conference performances, which carry a substantial ticket cost.

Thom will be performing with his band, the David Thom Band, and working as a sideman for two other acts while in town. The DTB show will be on Friday, the 15^th at the Waterloo Ice House.

He’s also going to keep us posted as to whatever bluegrass component of this gigantic international music, film and media extravaganza he can find, as well as reporting on the general mayhem in the streets.

David says that you can find more details about his SXSW schedule on his web site, and asks everyone to tell their friends in Austin that there’s Golden State bluegrass coming to town!

Bluegrass for the Rockaways

California is about as far from New York as you can get in the US, but people there were as struck by the personal tragedies following Tropical Storm Sandy as were the rest of us who escaped unscathed.

A group of California bluegrass artists have come together and donated tracks from their various recent albums to create a special project release, Bluegrass for the Rockaways, with proceeds going to benefit those affected by the storm and its aftermath.

Contributing music for this album are The David Thom Band, Bill Evans, Laurie Lewis, High Country and Kathy Kallick. A total of 15 tracks are included, which are available for a donation of $10 or more. Other bonus items are offered for larger donations.

David Thom was the driving force behind this effort, which he says he was inspired to start after seeing the news reports from the hard-hit Rockaway Peninsula last month. He quickly found other like-minded West coast grassers, and the project was in the works in no time.

If you would like to sample from some of the finest bluegrass in the Golden State, and support relief efforts in New York at the same time, you may want to investigate Bluegrass For The Rockaways.

See full details online.

Don Rigsby to tour with David Thom this summer

While finishing up his next album, a Ralph Stanley tribute project, Don Rigsby is working as a hired gun this summer. In addition to shows with Big Country Bluegrass, Don has signed on for a string of dates with The David Thom Band in July and August.

Thom and Co. will be out promoting his latest CD, That Old Familiar, released late in 2011. Well known out west from his work with the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, and his own band, David will be spreading his music over the southern and central parts of the US this summer.

Shows with Don on mandolin and tenor vocal include:

July 27: Salt River Acres BG Fest – Shepherd, MI
July 28: Bell’s Brewery , Kalamazoo, MI
August 2: Founder’s Brewery – Grand Rapids, MI
August 4: Willie’s Locally Known – Lexington, KY
August 5: TBA – Lexington, KY

You can find more details online.

Flatt & Scruggs Tribute Band live online

What are you doing for Earl Scruggs’ birthday on Friday?

Earl turns 88 on January 6, and banjo players worldwide will bow towards Flint Hill, NC to pay homage to the man who brought 3 finger, bluegrass-style banjo to the forefront with Bill Monroe in 1945.

Concert Window will celebrate the event with a live online broadcast from The Flatt & Scruggs Tribute Band at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, CA.

The Tribute Band features many of northern California’s best bluegrass musicians, including Bill Evans (banjo) and David Thom (guitar) performing the repertoire of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys. For Friday night’s show, Don Rigbsy and Kathy Kallick will be joining the Tribute Band on stage.

The concert will be cybercast in stereo HD starting at 11:00 p.m. eastern (8:00 p.m. pacific). Concert Window charges $3 to view a single show, with monthly subscriptions offered for $8.99.

Find all the details online.

Don and Kathy will join the Tribute Band at a number of shows this weekend in California. For more information, visit Bill Evans’ site at www.billevansbanjo.com.

That Old Familiar – David Thom

Besides being a regular correspondent for Bluegrass Today and a West Coast Bluegrass Ambassador, David Thom is also a performing artist who has released yet another fine album, That Old Familiar, on Swollen Records. Recorded at Lewietoons Studio in Berkeley, CA, this Laurie Lewis production is sure to please fans of traditional bluegrass.

Since its foundation in 1996, the California-based David Thom Band has released numerous projects. In fact, their latest effort is both a mixture of new material and songs taken from previous set lists that have been used by the group. The eleven song set includes three pieces from Thom’s own pen, as well as an interesting mixture of previously recorded tunes by other popular artists within the genre.

This version of the Emma Smith tune, Don’t Neglect The Rose (made popular by Larry Sparks), has a wonderfully sparse arrangement, proving that it’s not always what is played, but sometimes what isn’t, that makes a song work. Other somewhat obscure pieces like Kenny Baker’s Windy City and Allison Krauss’ Two Highways (written by Larry Cordle and performed here at a slightly slower tempo) have also been included. The record’s Gospel selection is the familiar sing-along song The Little White Church by Eugene Wellman.

David has chosen to dedicate That Old Familiar to the memory of Jon Mask, the founding mandolin player for the David Thom Band, and is joined by a fantastic cast of supporting musicians. Featuring a sort of California “Who’s Who,” Laurie Lewis has assembled a fine selection of pickers to perform on this project including Bill Evans, Tom Rozum, Mike Witcher, and Todd Phillips, just to name a few.

Thom’s talents of song writing, guitar playing, and singing are all on display throughout this 37 minute listing of tracks. In fact, the light and bouncy title track That Old Familiar, the instrumental Fifth Third, and the familiar-sounding song When I Hear Your Name are all songs which he has written. His melody-driven lead guitar playing shows up best in his kick-off to Windy City.

For more information regarding Thom’s music and to check his performance calendar, you can visit his band website at www.thedtb.com.

That Old Familiar from David Thom

Our own David Thom has just released his latest album, That Old Familiar. It includes a handful of his compositions along with arrangements of some familiar numbers from both the bluegrass and country music catalogs.

Of course, David isn’t really “ours” in any real sense. Sure, he is a regular correspondent for Bluegrass Today, but Thom has been a staple of the California bluegrass scene for a good many years before we launched. He is known for performing with The David Thom Band, as a fine singer, songwriter and guitarist, and as a west coast bluegrass ambassador.

The record was produced by Laurie Lewis, and features a bevy of California bluegrass luminaries like Bill Evans on banjo, Tom Rozum on mandolin, Mike Witcher on reso-guitar, and Todd Phillips on bass listed among the credits.

David has agreed to allow us to share audio from a few of the tracks included on That Old Familiar.

Windy City Rag: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/windy_city.mp3]

When I Hear Your Name: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/hear_your_name.mp3]

Home Is Where The Heart Is: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/home_is_where.mp3]

Hear more samples in iTunes or at CD Baby.

BandRx for your Facebook page

About 6 months ago somebody high up in the biz told me, “If you don’t have a MySpace account, you’re missing it. When it comes to a web presence for bands and musicians, MySpace has all the credibility.” I hadn’t looked at or updated my group, the David Thom Band’s, MySpace page in over a year. I was seeing much more traffic and interactivity through our Facebook page.

I kept quiet about my opinion (a rarity) and assisted them in getting their MySpace and YouTube pages set up. Six months later, the battle is clearly over, and Facebook came out the winner in the social networking world. But for a band, it doesn’t stop at Facebook. Using Twitter and hash tags are now a must, as well as a maintaining a website; in addition, an up-to-date online calendar.

There are companies out there that can help you consolidate all of your online promotional efforts into one interface. Outfits like ReverbNation offer their ‘one-stop shopping’ solution, but to me it feels clunky, and at the same time, relies heavily on subscription-based ‘widgets’ that seem like anyone’s guess as to their effectiveness.

BandRx is one that seems to be on the right track. They offer an app for Facebook users, as well as an event/tour date plug-in, both of which are gaining major traction in the online community. According to their press office, “Nearly four million active users are on board with both products, right behind household names Spotify, Pandora and Vevo.”

Here are the capabilities of BandRx, as listed on their web site:

Banner Image – Upload a banner image to display on your tab.
Audio/MP3s – Add audio MP3s to your tab for users to listen to.
Videos Module – Add videos to your page from YouTube.
Upcoming Events – Display upcoming tour dates and events on your tab.
Page Wall – Display recent posts you’ve published to your Page.
Info Module – Display your band’s info and/or social media links.
Store Module – Display your band’s merchandise and/or releases on your tab.
HTML Module – Display custom HTML content on your tab, such as a promotional banner.
Twitter Updates – Display recent band Twitter updates on your tab.
Email Collection – Display a button prompting users to join your mailing list.
User Comments – Allow fans to comment within your tab using the Facebook Comments plug-in.
Live Streaming Event – Display an embedded live video player for streaming events.
Contest Module – Easily create a contest within your Facebook Page.

I am most interested in checking out the Store and Live Streaming Event modules. Maybe the latter will allow talented acts to avoid the lonesome bar scene in the years to come?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFIEtMmt2Sw

That Old Familiar from David Thom

California guitarist, bandleader, and Bluegrass Today contributor David Thom tells us he has just finished mastering for That Old Familiar, his new solo project. The CD is being produced by Laurie Lewis out of her Berkeley, CA studio LewieToons.

David says that he thinks the new record should appeal to a wide variety of grass fans.

“The album will have everything, from classic bluegrass and originals, to a couple country songs, and of course some hardcore bluegrass and Gospel.”

Recording with David were Todd Phillips on bass, Tom Rozum on mandolin, Paul Shelasky, Laurie, and Chad Manning on fiddle, Patrick Sauber on banjo, and Michael Witcher on slide guitar. He expects a street date of November 1st.