Artist description Studio favorites.An eclectic mix of all styles of songwriting.Bluegrass featured heavily.

Music Style blugrass

Musical Influences frank zappa

Similar Artists Pete Seeger,Dave Grisman andJerry Garcia, Richard Shindell

Artist History I live in Schuyler VA.and perform in central VA. I play with several local and regional outfits.

Group Members Tom Proutt

Instruments electric guitar,bass,mandolin,resophonic guitar,Acoustic guitar

Albums Halfgrassd and Farm Jazz

Press Reviews Natural. Sometimes it happens that way. It surely seems that the members of Halfgrassd were destined to play together. These guys have got their jam on. Let me start with TJ Johnson – on stage this man oozes rhythm and inventiveness, never doing the same tasty lick twice. TJ’s vocals are impressive whether they are sweet high harmonies, or mind-boggling tongue twisters. Tom Proutt is the most relaxed and fluid guitarist in the universe, or at least this solar system. Tom sings and plays as if he always has known how to do it, and how to do it well. And now to Mr. Joey Damiano. When watching and listening to Joey play, there is no doubt you are seeing the happiest man alive! Quite simply, Joey’s deep pocket bass approach is the glue that binds the whole “natural” good time together. So snap in the CD and have a listen for yourself. Better yet, after you hear the CD, go out and catch these guys live! Joe Mead Charlottesville, VA Do you wanna know what’s really fun? Take off your shoes, put up your feet, and put on Tom Proutt’s new disc, Farm Jazz. Or get some good produce, crank up the stereo, and dance around your kitchen while you cook. Or just drive down the road to it, surrounded by Virginia gold and Virginia music. Tom Proutt has backed up a lot of local artists over the years in performance and on recordings. I’m proud to hear him step out of the shadows and share his own quirky take on the 21st century. Farm Jazz is funky, there’s no getting around it. The lyrics put out some convoluted ideas (which is sort of what being a grown-up is all about), but the music’s like ringing a bell. The disc is bracketed by more traditional bluegrass songs, opening with “Killer Sallie”, about Tom’s stray dog, and bringing it home with “Bill’s Dream” about listening to the other musicians in a band. Don’t let the first song lull you into thinking, Oh this is just another great bluegrass album. Between those two songs is a broad range of genres tied up with a big blue bow by the instrumentation. First “The Remains of Billy Guy” tells in a sort of swing style the sad story of what happened to a famous doo-wop singer once his form of music passed away. Then there’s “Our One True Aficionado”, a vaudeville-style satire on, I think, watching a friend go through a life change (best use of a cowbell since high-school prom in Texas). Proutt’s forte as a songwriter is to use everyday images and small, common incidents as port keys to the big questions of human existence. “Carpet of Rags” starts off quietly with a chronology of American carpet makes: “carpet of rags, carpet of pile, carpet of shag, carpet of bombs”. For packing such a wallop, the song stays gentle and removed throughout, like someone looking out a plane window as it flies over Southeast Asia. This song made me seriously contemplate organizing an anti-war concert so that artists could voice their feelings about our current situation. Both anti-war songs on this album are right in the great tradition of American protest songs. “Oh Mama Won’t You Ring My Bell” reminds me of “If I Had a Hammer”, but sends a conflicted, modern message—“bring back the troops, we’ll give ‘em hell” and outrage that they shot our spy-plane down. To me this song expresses the internal conflict of modern warfare as “the world is turning un explained”. Don’t think for a minute, though, that this is a didactic disc. Farm Jazz rocks from beginning to end; it’s almost fun to think about our problems through Proutt’s eyes. Clever wordplay keeps the listener from getting too bummed out. Written from the point of view of a guy who died of a drug overdose, “Apply the Brake” observes that there’s no one there his age, that they’ve made a grave mistake. The humorous lines in this one almost disavow the profound lesson. While Proutt continues to hold America accountable for her actions in the world, he deeply appreciates the beauty of our country and the splendor of ordinary life here. “Autumn in New England” is a hymn to the vibrant change of the season. The rhythm is the wide, slow swing of a scythe, yet the build welcomes the quickening of life after summer. “Road to Appomattox” translates an episode from American history into the singer’s emotional experience. In a few quick strokes Lee signs his name to end an epic war; a musician keeps on strumming as he accepts being rejected by another artist, or replaced by something better. You may not agree that the two events are synonymous, but you can’t miss that pain connects them. The sheer virtuosity of the musicianship on this album is astounding. Although the instrumentation is bluegrass, the range of music is broad. Proutt himself is a consummate guitar player in any style (there’s a reason he’s supported all the musicians in Central Virginia all these years). The instrumental cuts on the CD tell their stories as clearly as the vocal ones, particularly through the wild mandolin of TJ Johnson and the wailing fiddle of Dan Sebring. As with a jazz ensemble in a smoky basement, each instrument is allowed to step up and solo before sinking back into the maelstrom. In the spirit of full journalistic disclosure, I feel obliged to write that I have known Tom Proutt for many years and have received many tomatoes from his garden. That said, listening to Farm Jazz makes me proud to be an American. So far an individual artist can still speak his mind exclusive of the industry and give a lot people a lot of joy. Dorothy Smith Scottsville, VA September 2003

Additional Info Rock N Fish Studios

Location schuyler, va - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).