Artist Profile: Tom Townsley Band

Tom Townsley has been playing the blues for over forty years. He first entered the CNY scene as the harmonica player and co-frontman of The Cold Shot Blues Band, which won the Northeast Regional Seagram’s Wine Cooler Talent Search in 1987 and placed second nationally for their original “Take Me To Chicago.” The guitarists from that version of the band, Todd Fitzsimmons and Morris Tarbell, join Townsley on the stage today. Townsley’s next band, The Backsliders, went through several incarnations over the next twenty years. Their 1998 CD Moonlight Worker was the top seller in CNY that year and was picked up by Germany’s CrossCut Records for international distribution. Townsley, Fitzsimmons and Tarbell have shared the stage with Muddy Waters’ alumni Jimmy Rogers and Pinetop Perkins, and they’ve opened for many of the major blues acts to come through CNY in its blues heyday. Townsley has since released a number of solo CDs featuring his original songs. He also helped to promote the blues during his 26 year stint hosting WAER’s Sunday Night Blues and as a writer for Blues Revue magazine. Townsley will be reunited with his blues buddies on our main stage for a show you won’t want to miss.