Tom Armstrong I’m a fingerstyle guitarist, songwriter, singer, composer, father, luthier. I’ve been playing guitar for 38 years. I started playing on a cheap acoustic at the age of 9. I remember sitting and rocking back and forth in the ol' lazy boy listening to the Sears' Stereo Console to The Beatles, The Troggs, Momma's and Poppa's, Sesame Street, The Monky's, Nat King Cole, The Yard Birds, The Turttles, The Stones, Moondog, Donovan, Cream, and The Rat Pack. Later I could not get enough of The Who, The Doors, T-Rex, Led Zepplin, and Debussey. Then all that great old incidental music of all those old TV shows. A couple of my favorites? Get Smart, Route 66, Pink Panther, Bugs Bunny, Hogan's Heroes, Combat, Rowen and Martins Laugh In, the sound track to Lord Of The Flies. I remember ditching high school to practice for hours at home. I picked up Fredric Noad’s Solo Guitar, jamming with friends, and the endless search for that ellusive 4 finger can. I joined the Navy when I was 20 years old and found myself improvising blues, folk rock, jazz blues, and an eccentric kind of improvised classical while visiting the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, and China. Played in many of those ports get'n high on beer, food, and culture. Seems like ACDC, Van Halen, The Clash all came out about that time. At 30, after getting married and having kids, I went to the Lionel Hampton School of Music on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID. Besides studying classical theory, performance, percussion, and independently studied of character theme music for incidental composition. I met a pretty good network of people and formed friendships that are important today. I worked on 2 different plays at Washington State University. I composed, arranged, and performed on Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams and Getting Out by Marsha Norman. Both directed by Terry Converse at WSU I also worked with a Choreographer "Shelly Werner" in 3 different pieces for dance theatre. I played lead guitar and wrote for the rock band The Consequences here in Seattle and worked with Pamela Sackett of Emolit. I play a very diverse fingerstyle, improvise, write, arrange cover tunes, and constantly keep my eyes open for eclectic people with diverse sounds. Study kabbalah and have a day job.
Website: www.myspace.com/tomarmstrong
GMP Profile URL: http://www.globalmusicproject.com/Yetzirah
Seattle,US