Tom Savage has been on the road playing shows from Ontario to Vancouver and back, and that’s not going to slow down his pumped up show at the Whitetooth Brewery on September 27.
He has performed in Golden a few times, and says people might be in for something a little different if they saw him play the last few times he was here.
“I’ve been touring for years and years,” he said, adding that he had a friend that suggested he play at the brewery when he goes through Golden.
Even though the venue is small, he says that since he’s only one guy, he can fit in the corner and fill the room with sound.
It might sound like he’s looping his guitar with pedals, but Savage brings a unique sound with him as he plays rhythm and lead on his guitar, feeding it into different speakers and amps to produce a full sound, adding in elements of bass and percussion with his singing.
“What I’m doing now as far as a live performance, its not your typical singer-songwriter folky guy that’s strumming away on his guitar all mellow and stuff,” he said. “I put on a pretty high-energy live show.”
His music is sure to get people tuned in while they enjoy craft beer on Thursday evening.
“Something I’ve been working on for a few years is to create this big guitar sound. I’m incorporating lead riffs and solos and also playing the rhythm at the same time,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of blues influence in my live show as well.”
In the past, he has had people ask him if he is looping his guitar riffs together, but he splits his guitar off into three signals to give it that feel while playing continuously.
“It’s kind of neat that way,” he said. “It fills out the sound.”
When Savage first started touring solo, he says he was the type of singer songwriter who would play his songs, sitting on a stool. But after a while, he decided to try something that might be a little more entertaining to the audience, incorporating some of his skill level as a lead guitarist into his solo shows.
“It’s pumped up a notch. I am going for a big sound,” he said.
Savage is from Kingston, Ontario, and is described as a triple threat: one part truth telling troubadour, one part death-defying guitar slinger, and one part country blues howler.
Savage’s music pulls from influences like Townes Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen, and even touches on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Wes Montgomery, and Freddie Robinson.
He is described as a writer of country and folk songs, sung in a weathered, emotive voice with a hint of a bluesman’s growl, accompanied by fast and fiery rock and roll guitar licks.
Savage’s on-stage persona has been carefully crafted over more than 20 years of devotion to the composition and performance of song.
He considers himself as a disciple of melody and harmony, and tempo and timbre, “an evangelist preaching to anyone who will listen of the healing and meditative powers of music.”
Listen to Savage pour his heart out on Thursday, September 27 at 6 p.m. at the Whiteooth Brewery. Check out his music online at www.tomsavage.ca.
