Bill Toms, Tom Breiding On The Road Promoting Their Music
By Julie Toye
For The Herald Standard
Bill Toms easily earned the reputation in 2006 as being Pittsburgh's hardest working and most traveled musician, in addition, certainly, to already being known as one of its most accomplished and artful song writers and performers.
In late 2005 after releasing his fifth CD, "The West End Kid," Toms took his guitar that the airlines lost twice in baggage and his music on the road to other states and Europe to meet new audiences. Sometimes, he traveled alone for solo acoustic shows, with one or two other musicians or with his full, mighty electric band, Hard Rain. No matter where he played, Toms, the former 20-year lead guitarist for Joe Grushecky, met receptive audiences who wanted only to know when he was returning.
Indeed, Toms’ schedule is a hectic one. He can be in New York City's Greenwich Village one night, the next in Pittsburgh, on to Europe for a few weeks and then off to new audiences in Tulsa, OK or Nashville, TN. The level headed, down to earth Toms likes it that way. A couple times, he also took a bus of dedicated area fans on the road with him and Hard Rain to New York City for their shows there.
"I feel I am doing what I was meant to do - travel around and communicate with an audience. I tend to think of it as Vaudeville. You play one town then move to the next. This is where I feel the most comfortable," he said when asked about life on the road.
Toms' run down of his itinerary for 2007 appears to be even busier for him than last year was. Life on the road in 2006 led to writing more songs for a new CD. He has just about finished recording three of that new CD's songs.
"Tom Breiding is producing most of it at his Amerison Studio. I will also do some recording at Studio L as well," Toms said. His last CD was produced at Rick Witkowski's Studio L in West Virginia.
Toms refers to the new as of yet untitled CD as being a "very organic record," featuring a lot of acoustic instruments, in contrast to the electric rock band sound of "The West End Kid".
"I think it will be a more powerful CD in its lyrical content," Toms said comparing the new unreleased CD to his last project, "The West End Kid."
Impressive lyrical content has always been one of Toms' natural artistic strengths. He is known for being a positive person who wrote in his website journal that he prays daily for things such as world peace, the end of hunger and cures for diseases. He is known to state the importance of teaching children not to have prejudices. His hope as an artist may involve making a name in the music industry for himself, but he acknowledges that he prays daily to be a better husband, father and friend.
For Toms the year 2007 will also mark the long-awaited reissue of another CD, the highly critically acclaimed and sold out 1997 release, "My Own Eyes." It includes his and Hard Rain's acoustic and electric songs that are some of his fans’ favorites and often requested at live shows. Connellsville native and former Zippers and Hard Rain guitarist, Vinny Q, appeared on it.
"I will be reissuing 'My Own Eyes' in about a month," Toms said of the CD that includes tunes such as the title track, "Mona Lisa Smile," "Don't Ever Say I Let You Down," and "Made In America," a song that some music fans believe features some of the most hauntingly pretty guitar work ever recorded locally. A DVD is also being produced that Toms said should be available for release in the spring.
In upcoming weeks Toms will be appearing in New York, Missouri, New Jersey and Nebraska, as well as his weekly gigs around Pittsburgh. He and Hard Rain and Eighth Street Rox saxophone player, Phil Brontz, are scheduled to return to play additional dates in Italy and Spain.
"Phil and I will be heading back to Europe in May. We will play about 5 dates in Italy and a show or two in Spain. I will be hitting the road throughout 2007, promoting "The West End Kid' and the DVD. I look for an even busier year this year," Toms said.
On Sunday, January 14, Toms and Hard Rain guitarist Tom Breiding will perform at the Christian W. Klay Winery in Chalk Hill from 1-3 PM. The two songwriter musicians met about 8 years ago. Toms said that the two share the "same vision and appreciation of songs."
Breiding joined Toms' band, Hard Rain, and often plays weekly or biweekly duo acoustic shows together around town with Toms. Prior to joining Hard Rain, Breiding was named the top acoustic performer in Pittsburgh in 2000. He has released eight solo CDs.
After teaching school for 18 years, Breiding now devotes full time to his music. When he is not performing in the greater Pittsburgh area or touring with Toms, Breiding spends time in country music capital, Nashville, TN, co-writing songs and trying to establish himself in that genre.
In addition to producing Toms’ new CD in progress, Breiding has been in his Amerison Studio finishing up work on his ninth solo project. Previous projects include the fan favorite CDs “Two Tone Chevrolet,” “Time To Roll,” and “Guitar and Pen.”
“All I’ve been listening to for the past 6 months has been bluegrass music,” Breiding said of the influence that prompted him to recruit bluegrass musicians to record with him. He plays all guitars and banjo on the CD that he hopes to release in another 3 or 4 months.
Breiding says that the songs on his upcoming CD are “significant to the times and events of the coal fields of West Virginia.”
“I love so many different kinds of music. There are so many directions that I’d love to go in in music,” Breiding said.
“I would love to do a traditional country record. Whether I do or not is another story,” he said before laughing about how all the different types of music he plays “keeps things interesting.”
Though Breiding no longer teaches school, he occasionally is found on stage at school assemblies to present a musical educational program to students that focuses on coal mining towns and eras. Some of the songs on his upcoming CD are included in this school assembly program that he said is received “very positively” by the students who learn about their local history in an interesting and fun way set to music.
Through radio interviews at being a guest on W W V A’s “Jamboree in Studio” and National Public Radio’s “Car Talk,” Breiding’s music has sometimes reached exposure in 17 states in one broadcast.
“When you reach people you’ve never played to before, it’s a wonderful thing,” he said. He added that traveling solo, duo with Toms, with his own band or with Hard Rain gives “hope for me to continue doing what I do as a writer.”
For 2007, both Toms and Breiding hope only to reach even more people to promote their music through live shows and recordings. No doubt, they will continue to reach more new audiences and continue to write some of the area’s best music that keeps older fans coming back for more. No doubt, they’re probably already planning where they will travel in 2008 to meet even more new audiences.
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