Studio recording of Songwriter in the House released

On December 1, 2016, Retrograde Music released Songwriter in the House, the studio recording of Tom’s MAC-nominated solo cabaret debut show. In addition to Tom’s lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and ukuleles, the album features Sean Harkness on guitar, Jon Burr on bass, and Justin McEllroy and Peter Millrose. Jon Burr also designed the album cover and mastered the tracks. Peter Millrose was the recording engineer.

Order a copy of the CD or mp3 downloads at CDBaby:

Songwriter in the House at CDBaby

Tom produces four shows in December

Two at Urban Stages, A Bulldog Christmas Carol (December 10) and Circles (December 11), and two different songwriter showcases at the Metropolitan Room on December 19. All of them featured at least one song by Tom, and in Circles, Tom led a trio of singer-songwriters in a guitar-based songwriters circle.

Both A Bulldog Christmas Carol and Circles were outgrowths of the Harvard-Yale Cantata. Megan Loughran directed and assembled a talented cast of young Yalie performers (herself plus Mallory Baysek, Sam Bolen, Nate Janis, Zina Ellis, and Miles Jacoby) singing songs written by Yale graduates. Alex Ratner was the musical director. The first part of Circles, the Circle of Life, was an expansion of one of the rounds from this year’s Cantata, featuring Peter Lerangis (Harvard ’77) and Kim Oler (Yale ’76) performing a nine-song set emphasizing the passage of time. Then Tom, Tina deVaron, and Jo Kroger performed a nine-song set of their songs. Finally, things came full circle with a group version of “I Chose Right” by(Yalies) Richard Maltby & David Shire. Tom directed Circles.

Tom formed The New York Songwriter’s Alliance at the suggestion of Bernie Furshpan, managing partner of the Metropolitan Room. A group of ten regular members and several more sometime attendees have been meeting twice a month since last April, and on December 19 the Alliance made its public debut with two programs of new songs.

Alliance members whose songs were featured were John Forster, Anya Turner & Robert Grusecki, Jeffrey Harris, Bobbie Horowitz, Jennie Litt, Paul Rolnick, Lawrence Rush, Alex Rybeck, Steve Sieck, Tracy Stark, and Tom Toce. Bob Levy was dubbed an honorary member and one of his songs was performed. Kip Dennis and Nicholas Levin are members whose schedules did not permit them to take part. Some songs were performed by the writers themselves. Other songs were sung by Dale Davidson, Kevin Dozier, Eric Michael Gillett, Sally Mayes, and Marissa Mulder. Tom produced and directed the showcases.

The Harvard-Yale Cantata II at Feinstein’s/54 Below!

On Thursday, September 8th Tom produced and directed the Second Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata, which Victoria Ordin called “wildly entertaining” in her Broadway World rave review. Check out this review:

Review of The Second Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata

Yale won again, 32-31.