Soul canyons of Tom, the quiet man of St Louis blues

You don’t have to have been burned by racism to sing with soul and passion

The way he tells it, as a boy in the 1950s and 60s Tom Wood never suffered from the St Louis blues.

His mother was an 8th grade English teacher and his dad was a post office supervisor. One way or the other his family had standing in a community where racism burned just around the corner.

But in the year Tom was born, 1954, St Louis had another problem to contend with. It was boiling in the Big Heat.

Temperatures were hitting 117 and roads were buckling, people were ‘cooking’ alive and abandoning their apartments and huddling in the cold cold of their rathole basements.

This heatwave killed hundreds despite the fact that air-conditioning was the new thing on the block.

But the heat was only a two month distraction, St Louis was still burning.

It had been, historically, the auction block of slavery for almost a century and black people still faced segregation, insults and violence.

Indeed, only forty years before Tom arrived in this world the Louis Riots had taken place. They were horrific outbreaks of labour and race-related violence by White Americans. They murdered 150 African Americans in May and July 1917 and 6,000 blacks were left homeless. Their homes burning as they watched.

Then, in the 50s, the black community fought back demanding fair and full employment, affordable homes and equity in health care and education. And it was beginning to work.

Tom’s parents knew all about the troubles but they lived 13 miles away in the railway town of Kirkwood Mo. The town was named after James P. Kirkwood who put it on the map when he planned a new route for the Pacific Railroad in 1852.

And this was the ‘burb’ where Tom grew up happily.

He said: “ My childhood was almost idyllic especially by the standards of today. 
My parents bought a home in Kirkwood Mo and I was able to walk to my grade school and middle school without worry.
“Kirkwood High School is where I received my diploma. But I attended two colleges in the St. Louis metro area where I achieved a degree in Fine Arts.”

But as he immersed himself in the finery of art, something else set him on fire and that was the music he heard in the heat of the night. It put stars in to the revolution in the air. Still though, The Klu Klux Klan were like like terrifying ghost riders in the sky.

But by fighting back and creating the most explosive and exciting music in America the black communities were earning respect.

For instance, the cobbles by the edge of great Missouri where WC Handy slept and rotted after being dumped by his ‘diamond slag’ were as much a draw as Jim Morrison’s Paris grave has become today.

Handy was a travelling man, a womaniser, he had all the credentials of the father of the Blues and he brought the ‘devil’s music’ to the masses.

Decades on Tom moved to Las Vegas, not necessarily seeking fame and fortune, but in so many ways for love.

Tom said: “I’m not an old bluesman with trauma after trauma behind me, but I have had broken hearts. And it was movig to Las Vegas that finally made me a happy man.”

He was reunited with his former St Louis lover from the 70s Tamara … they met up again in 2010 at a reunion of a band called the Homegrown Harvest Band. One of the members was a mutual friend.

Tom said: “I am happily ‘married’ to my lovely, witty, and fun common-law wife Tamara. We live in a deluxe single story home 25 miles north of Las Vegas. Neither Tam nor I have children. We relish  our privacy and home-life to it’s fullest.”

He said: “I work a three day shift as a customer service representative at 
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. My employer is a non-profit
Southern Nevada  Conservancy. I really admire them.”

Red Rock Canyon, 17 miles from Las Vegas, was Nevada’s first National Conservation Area and is visited by more than two million people each year. For decades an old telephone box stood at the heart of the Mojave desert … it was said that it had one phone call ready for any punter who had lost their personal fortune in Vegas. He or she could either phone home or the next station on their journey.

The call was a myth of course. But the phone box was real. Now only the myth remains after vandals over the years wrecked the glass and metal box..

So, why does this quiet, unassuming and caring man stand out in the crowd?

His music! That’s what! It has all the heat and anger of St Louis at its heart and he sings with a fury and passion few can muster outside the world of the blues.

His voice is deceptively gentle and smokey but he understands himself and his vocal ability well enough to coruscate and rough-up listeners in a breath.

Tom said: “I began my solo career as a songwriter in 1981 in St. Louis, building my audience and sometimes playing music 4 nights per week.”

And he uses these decades of experience – and that stunning voice – to grand affect on Boy’s Life which premiered earlier this year:

LYRICS:

One deception then another
when a child lies to his Mother
then another and another
one deception of our Mother
what other Earth can we cling to
don’t be fooled by that TV
use your mute, wisely
kill the monster rape the beast
embrace the thing you love the least
take a break take a breath
tell yourself i aint quit yet
they bring it up they force it in
get us looked like heroin
kill our kids take our cash
they watch me taking out my trash
you know it sucks you know it blows
why pretend like no one knows
open your eyes open your mind
learn to read get off rewind.
> CHORUS 
Nation Building, Life fulfilling, We are drilling, Keep on filling, We are willing, keep on killing
Keep on Drilling, So fulfilling ]
for those who believe war makes sense
think greed is just coincidence 
and more and more incompetence
will be bought with influence
no big surprise here we are
billions spent on an endless war
blame it on stupidity  a lame excuse for history
Or . . one boy’s life.

MORE TO HEAR – (Editor’s comment, have a listen, there is something magnificent going on here!)

Mongomon presents the latest from Singer-Songwriter Tom Wood.
His new song ” Rise ” brings the listener an opportunity to be empowered in the lyrical perspective on strength, and the ability to rise above adversity.

FROM THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE:

Bob and Tom’s art of the sound and the fury… 9/11, lyrics inside – The Leigh G Banks Preservation Society

#bobmori #tomwood #chicago #stlouis #hollywood #9/11 #twintowers #vegas