Have Yourself a Brooding Lo-Fi Christmas

Now available on CD Baby  you can purchase my 2011 Ep, Living Room Session.  This record is what the title indicates : songs recorded in my living room. Me, my guitar, and one microphone recorded live off the floor. Truly lo-fi. I love the simplicity of this recording and may revisit this production style in 2016.  So, if the holiday season gets you down, with its rampant consumerism, credit card debt, and surfacing of deeply-hidden family issues, my record may just cheer you up.

I kid. Actually, I really enjoy Christmas, though I could do without the materialistic aspects of it. Which strikes me as funny as I write this because I am asking you to buy my record! 

But, on that subject, I was reading a post from a friend online the other day, and she said that the best gifts are those made by independent artists. This is so true! Whether it be music or art, or even furniture, supporting those who are making their own way with their craft has a real impact. First, the financial benefit for the artist. Second, the money goes straight back into the local economy. Third, the social message it sends. I support the arts. I support community. I am not a slave to the corporation by giving gifts made of pieces of plastic that have been shipped over from China.

So, swing on by CD Baby and download Living Room Session. Six songs of dark, brooding, lo-fi, anti-folk goodness. What could be more Christmasy than that!

1. The Less You Seem To Know -  a psychotic breakdown in a big box store 3000 miles from home
2. Par For The Course - about getting old ( the title is in tribute to my late grandmother. Par For The Course was one of her favourite sayings)
3. A God I Can Call My Own -  an agnostic gospel song
4. Bleed That Pig -  raping the planet is just no good
5. Lonesome Highway - a dark secret, a hidden past, a fork in the road between calamity and redemption
6. Never Been Seen -  quite possibly the saddest song I've ever written about what else, mortality 

Tom Savage - Performance and Interview on CFRC Jam Sandwich

For those of you in Kingston ( or Ontario and Quebec I believe ) that have cogeco cable tv, the station is now airing the half hour segment I did for the CFRC Jam Sandwich.  Please take a moment to check it out. You can watch it on demand!

I currently do not have cable ( or a TV for that matter) so all I have seen of it is this youtube clip.

CD Release Concert This Friday is Also A Book Launch

Come out on Friday, October 24th to celebrate the release of my new solo album. Very proud of how this record turned out and it's already receiving some great reaction from across the country.We'll be playing the songs from the album live for the first set, then we will break out the epic jams for the remainder of the evening.

Kevin Bowers' will open things up with a reading from his new book " Travels For The Seriously Curious". 

$10 suggested donation or PWYC for the cash-strapped, under-employed. The Show will take place in The Wine Cellar at The Mansion. Show starts at 7:00 PM.



About "History Of A Common Man" 

It has been eight years since Tom Savage last put out a solo studio recording. An artist who follows where the muse takes him, Savage spent much of the last decade rolling down Canadian highways with his rock and roll trio, playing it loud and proud, and producing a Canadian Country-Rock classic in the process with Tom Savage Trio's 2008 release, The County Line.

History Of A Common Man continues Savage's exploration of Folk, Country, and Americana genres. From the teenaged lament of Skinny Kid to the under-medicated psychotic ramblings of Take The Wheel And I'll Steer, from the road-weary musician in Rougher On Me to the tear-drenched Country of All Over You, History Of A Common Man finds its stories in people who live on the margins. Outsiders looking for their place in the world.


Have a listen to "History Of A Common Man" on Soundcloud. Please click "Like" and share.






About " Travels For The Seriously Curious"

Take a ride through the Bible-Belt, catch authentic blues music in a Mississippi juke joint, drink Budweiser with a member of the KKK, argue the merits of Wal-Mart and evolution with a radical Mormon. Go to a surreal cowboy party and attend an authentic striptease, canoe over drowned cities and find Puritan ghosts in high-lonesome harmonies. This trip is for anyone with a romantic soul that feels hemmed in by the day-to-day world of institutions, politics, relationships, and jobs. Travels for the Seriously Curious challenges limitations and romances potential by applying the process of creativity to the pen, the road, and to life. It pulls on the tangled knot of fear and prejudice that twists in the heart, and rolls out a map of the America that shapes us.

Weddings, Barmitzvahs, House concerts....

I'm currently booking a Canadian tour for the fall and I am looking to enlist some help in securing venues for performances in various cities/towns. If you are interested, or if you know of anyone who would be interested, in hosting me for a house concert, or to perform at a coffeehouse, church basement, backyard BBQ, tailgate party in a parking lot, sports bar wing night, old-tyme saloon, wedding, funeral, Barmitzvah, birthday party, book club, songwriters circle, etc., etc., please do let me know. And let your friends know. And let me know that your friends now know what you know.

It would be very much appreciated. This is my first solo tour in quite some time, and I am seeking out different types of venues to perform in. With TST,  we had a pretty good circuit going, but it was quite dependent on "bringing the noise" for the most part, so a lot of those venues won't be appropriate for the show I will be touring.

We are in the process of recording my new solo album right now. They are a fine collection of songs, and I am really excited about the outcome of this work. To be honest, it's the most jazzed I've been about a creative project in a long time. I think it's going to be something special and I can't wait to get out on the road and share it with all of you this September.

Here are the dates I am looking to fill and the general location I am going to be. Thanks for your continued support!

Tue. Sept.  9   - Sudbury,ON

Wed. Sept. 10 - Wawa, ON      

Mon. Sept. 15 - Regina, SK

Wed. Sept. 17 - Red Deer, AB

Thur. Sept. 18 - Edmonton, AB

Sat.   Sept. 20 - Fernie, BC

Sun.  Sept. 21 - Osooyos, BC

Mon. Sept. 22 - Vancouver, BC

Wed. Sept. 24 - Salmon Arm, BC

Crowdfunding Update

We were so close! We actually had all of the funding in place, but due to an internet glitch, the last transaction didn't go through. That means my profile was deactivated, and I have to start over again. Extremely frustrating!

On the positive side, you guys really came through for me, and I am extremely grateful and overwhelmed by the support you have shown for me and my music.

If you've purchased a part, go to the new profile I've just set up, and re-purchase those parts. You will not have to pay any money. It just assigns those parts to my profile. Let's get this thing done, so we can get on with the business of recording a bunch of really cool songs!

Contribute now to Tom Savage's Sellaband Campaign

Naked Songs 2 : This Thursday at the Mansion

I'm looking forward to this gig. I'll be trying out a few new ones that look like they are destined for the new record. Hope to see some Folks out!

Here's the facebook event .

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NAKED SONGS 2

A songwriter's circle curated by Megan Hamilton. This is the second instalment of Naked Songs, and it's a stacked line up.

Doors: 7:30pm, show 8-10pm
$8 at the door (come for dinner!)

Short version: enjoy some songs, stories and *sarsaparilla early on a Thursday. The food is pretty great, too!

Detailed description: What is a song? How do you make a song?

The premise behind Naked Songs is to present the songwriter's material in it's most raw form so that you can focus on the words. Often, production values play such a key role in a song that it's easy to lose the poetry or the value of the words.

Storytelling and discourse about the writing process between the artists is encouraged, as is audience participation and questions. All 4 artists will be on stage at all times save for an intermission somewhere between the 45 minute to an hour mark. The show will last 2 hours, and each songwriter will play in turn until the show is finished.

Artists may come prepared with songs, or may decide to go with the flow and let the previous work inform what they play. New material is appreciated as are old favourites.

The second instalment has a killer line up once again:

Megan Hamilton: http://www.meganhamiltonmusic.com/
Listentojayharris: http://listentojayharris.com/
Rae Corcoran: http://www.youtube.com/user/Hustlerae
Tom Savage : http://tomsavagetrio.blogspot.ca/

FMP Session : A Country Music Locomotive Chuggin' On Down The Line

Fiddle player Kevin Davidson's country home, on the outskirts of The Outlet, was the perfect setting for us to lay down tracks for what will be the debut record of The Foley Mountain Playboys. Keeping it simple, we just set up all in one room and ran through the songs...well, maybe it wasn't quite that simple, but I'll spare you the technical details. Anyway, we are all excited about what we were hearing through the headphones, and can't wait to make these songs available to you.

Bonz wore a most appropriate shirt for the occasion.

The band has definitely developed a sound, and for what it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in sheer locomotive force. Every musician is performing their function to keep the machine moving, and it's the most fun I've had banging on the ol' acoustic guitar.Yeehaw!!

Look out for this record to be released in March 2014.

Story Behind The Song : Train Keeps A Rollin'

Many of you, who come out to see me play live, will undoubtedly be familiar with the song, "Train Keeps A Rollin". I'd say it has become one of my most popular songs over the past couple of years. It actually just filled the dance floor the other night at The Red Lion in Belleville. Good beat? Check. Sing along? Check. Jam-ability? Check.

It is interesting how this song came to be. In fall 2011, I booked a show at an old train station in southern Ontario. One condition of the gig was that I had to perform a train song. Now I could've performed "Freight Train" by Fred Eaglesmith, or "Mystery Train", or any other number of train songs, but I decided it was an opportunity for a songwriting exercise. 'Train Keeps..." predates the 2012 Song-A-Week Challenge by a couple of months (not sure of the exact date, somewhere around Oct. or Nov. 2011) but it was approached with the same spirit as the challenge.

I was pretty excited when I wrote the song, and really stoked to perform it at the train station gig the following Spring. About a week before I was scheduled to perform, I get a call saying they are going to have to cancel, due to lack of interest in their concert series, and low attendance at the previous few concerts. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed. After all, I wrote the damn song specifically for this show! That feeling didn't last long though because I realized that, if I hadn't booked the show, I would never have written what turned out to be, one of my most popular songs.

Consequently, that train station show goes down as the most important gig I never played!

Pick up your copy of "Train Keeps A Rollin" here.