For some reason, this 1975 biography of Tom Pomposello (here’s the Wikipedia version) was the only artist bio we ever did at Oblivion. (Maybe that’s because Tom commissioned it himself?!) Mostly we did flyers, which we didn’t even do for Blues from the Apple or the Joe Lee Wilson LP.
All that being said, guitarist and FOT (friend of Tom’s) Mike Bifulco did a fabulous job.
OBLIVION RECORDS
MEDIA
INFORMATION
BIOGRAPHY HONEST TOM POMPOSELLO
Thomas Anthony Pomposello (dubbed "Honest Tom" during an unsuccessful campaign for Receiver of Taxes in Huntington, Long Island) has been playing and listening to music, especially the blues, for most of his 26 years. Tom's major objective as a musician has been to absorb as much as possible of the authentic blues style by playing and studying with older bluesmen; and then to utilize this background in putting together his own band.
The turning point in Tom's career was his meeting and eventual apprenticeship with the late Mississippi Fred McDowell. Tom acted as Fred's occasional bass player during the period of 1971 through 1973, and eventually spent a short period with Fred at his home in Como, Mississippi. (Fred's last album, the Oblivion record LIVE IN NEW YORK, features Tom on bass and bottleneck guitar.) It was this friendship which provided the inspiration for Tom’s present musical endeavors.
In recent times, Pomposello has performed around New York, playing bass and bottleneck with such blues luminaries as Louisiana Red, Larry Johnson, Lefty Dizz and the late Charles Walker. Currently, he is fronting his own band--an ensemble which he characteristically describes in this manner: "Blues is the basic ingredient, you see. But I'm trying an approach that is a bit eclectic in regards to the music. A bit of rhythm & jump blues, bop, some traditional and country material, Chicago .. . ah, I guess you just gotta hear it." The musicians Tom has assembled include David Longworth on drums, Michael Altshuler on the electric guitar, Bruce Kapler on tenor saxophone and Kid Avanzini on the bass guitar. Tom divides his on-stage time (somewhat unevenly) between the bottleneck/dobro, electric mandolin, harmonica and vocals.
Besides gigging and rehearsing with the band, Tom remains active in other areas of the blues world. His record store, Kropotkin, stocks one of the best blues catalogs in the New York Metropolitan area. He hosts the Saturday afternoon radio show, Something Inside of Me, on WKCR.FM in NewYork City. He acts as contributing editor for Living Blues magazine of Chicago. He does production work for Oblivion Records.
But most importantly, he has just finished work on his first album, HONEST TOM POMPOSELLO, scheduled for an early-winter-1975 release. An active year of touring with the band will follow.
By Michael Bifulco
CONTACT: FRED SEIBERT////TELEPHONE IN NEW YORK CITY: (212) 222.2485 OBLIVION RECORDS, Inc. Box X, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577
(More on Tom Pomposello and the origins of Oblivion here...)