Streams of Consciousness

Notes on the Tunes: It opens with a short, happy, lively swing number with a long title. "The Freedom Threesome Loses a Leg" Word is that it started as a dream while afternoon napping in his 7th floor Paris hotel room after too many nights on the road. It certainly wasn't based anywhere near reality. No, reality comes to light in the second tune about the hazards and hilarity of overdrinking entitled "Kitty Babe" From the woozy piano intro, you know you've stepped into another world. Love and happiness returns in the hot swing number "One Kiss", and then the sultry folky "Someone" expands and affirms that once new love. Track five takes us to a rural setting and our earliest childhood memories of everybody always talking about something. Then it's off to exotic climes for an island vacation for track 6 (complete with a brass section), when Tom asks the musical question, "Where did Papa go?" The title cut is track 7, reminiscent of 50's jazz in dive bars, wondering when are we gonna sail out of here? The 8th track takes us into the pop world with a undefinable choppy funky thing that expresses exuberant love for that special someone first alluded to in the quietude of track 4. Then a country flavored tune remembers an old unrequited love, followed by a blues tune that washes it all away in the river's ritual cleansing waters. An artistic tune come along as track 11, speaking of the solitude, sacrifice, and originality needed to find your creative being and express it. Finally, a farewell autobiographical track about early wanderings along the CA coast and through the Rockies in search of ways to travel farther. This is just the beginning, and so we come full circle. Biography: You are energized because his enthusiasm is infectious. You are entertained because he's a showman, not just a singer/songwriter. You are touched because he lays his soul open, and it's real, honest, authentic. You are amazed because he's a musical chameleon, playing more styles than you can count. Born in rural Virginia, he was raised in an atmosphere of parlor music, thinking everyone sang the day through, always surrounded with music. Mom played piano and sang, Dad sang, brothers and sisters played various instruments. Most nights, you'd find all of them gathered around the piano singing old favorites from the 1800's all the way to the present hits. This set the stage for Tom to teach himself guitar, and an adventurous spirit whispered that he should take it on the road. Practicality said finish college first. So he packed up and left after school to wander the world as a street musician, playing in 36 states and 11 European countries. While abroad, he toured Italy with a backup band, and played various festivals in Europe, most notably the Nyon Folk Festival in Switzerland alongside Joan Baez, John Sebastian, and John Mayall. Love brought him back home, he married and began writing new songs and polishing the ones he penned on the road, performing them at venues throughout North Carolina and Virginia, sharing stages with John McCutcheon, Mike Cross, and John Cephas & Phil Wiggins. A move to Philadelphia brought him to a larger market and studio opportunities. A CD entitled "Streams of Consciousness" and growing number of fans promises he'll be more and more in demand. He's opened for Trout Fishing in America, Patty Larkin, Simple Gifts, Robin & Linda Williams, the Asylum Street Spankers, Roy Bookbinder, Eric Bibb, and Vance Gilbert more recently. He played solo and with a trio called the Jive Five Minus Two, and they released two band recordings entitled "Dem Bones" and "The Troubadours of Troubled Times". A fourth disc entitled "Little Room" is complete, but lacks funding to publish it. You can hear some tracks on My Space. Tom has since moved to the North Carolina mountains to pursue further education and is taking a hiatus from performing. Tom Grant plays and has written songs in various styles of music including: Swing - Blues - Southern Stringband - Old Time - Contemporary Songwriter - Reggae - Calypso Major Venues: Nyon Folk Festival, Nyon Switzerland; Philadelphia Folk Festival, Schwenksville PA; Welcome America Festival, Philadelphia PA; Franklin Park Performing Arts Center, Purcellville, VA; The Point, Bryn Mawr PA; Penn's Landing Winter KidsFest, Philadelphia, PA; Rockwood Museum Ice Cream Festival, Wilmington DE; Shawnee Autumn Balloon Festival, Stroudsburg PA; Acoustic Brew Coffeehouse, State College PA; Mom and Pop's Coffeehouse, Levittown PA; The Minstrel Coffeehouse, Morristown NJ; Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem PA; and countless coffeehouses, restaurants, cafes, bars, streetcorners, subway tunnels, subway cars, surface cars, people's parties, house concerts, and more along the way. ALL of them were major, by the way.