Music Man
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Tom’s first acoustic guitar from his boyhood.
Tom Fisch has been a familiar face in Henderson County music since he arrived here from Nashville in 2005. Tom grew up in Albany, NY before heading to Nashville at age 35 to pursue his music career. After 13 years in Tennessee, Tom and his wife, Liz, moved to Flat Rock and he quickly became an integral part of the mountain music scene. Today, Tom is a popular local performer and his promotional material describes his musical style as:
“Tom's music is a bit like describing a favorite recipe. The first ingredient is tasteful acoustic guitar playing second at Tom's rich vocal styles sprinkled in a dash of humor, combined with the heart and soul of an eclectic mix of songs from the great American songbook and the folk-country style. And you've cooked up some enjoyable entertainment.”
Flat Rock Together had the chance this week to catch up with Tom and learn a little bit more about his life, career, and his time in Flat Rock.
FRT: Hello Tom. Thanks for chatting with us today. Can you tell us how you got started in music?
Tom: When I was 10 years old, I won a guitar in a raffle at a high school bazaar where my aunt taught. She was a Mercy nun and I won an electric guitar and amplifier. And that kinda got me started. And then another nun, Sister Timothy, gave me a little nylon string, acoustic guitar. I still have that acoustic guitar in the closet here.
Did music become a passion for you at a young age?
I think it became a passion pretty quickly. Sister Timothy gave me some basic lessons, teaching me a few basic chords. My parents had me hooked me up for guitar lessons at a music store in Albany, but I didn't stick with those lessons too long. Those lessons kind of took the fun out of music for me. Luckily, I was blessed with a good ear and I could pick things up pretty quickly by listening or watching. I learned by listening to what people were doing. I still can't read music to this day, but it hasn't really held me back.
Do you come from a musical family? Was music integral to your childhood?
My dad played trombone in high school, and he had a little combo called the Blue Flames that played at dances but he never pursued it as a career. Then he got married pretty young and the kids started coming along and, of course, he had to support them with a real job. So he never pursued his music.
You say that you can’t read music. How do learn new songs?
Well, if you put a piece of music in front of me with all the notes, it would take me too long to figure out the song. But if you put a sheet of music in front of me with the lyrics and the chord symbols and then let me listen to a recording of that song maybe once or twice, I can pick it up pretty quickly.
You are a singer/songwriter. Did you have training as a vocalist?
I've been singing since I was just a young kid. When I was young - that was back in the days of actual vinyl albums - it was just a matter of picking the needle up and listening to each verse until you've got the song down.
Did you form bands when you were still in high school?
Tom’s first public performance was at an elementary school.
Yeah, I did. I had a band when I was a sophomore in high school called Southern Comfort. We played some school dances but that band didn't stay together and then I was doing more solo stuff. Occasionally I was in duos and trios but I kind of always came back to solo performing. Then in the late seventies and early eighties, I was actually in a country-rock band in upstate New York called Silver Chicken.
Silver Chicken?
(Laughs) Don’t ask where that name came from. It’s too long of a story. But we had a lot of fun.
Do you remember your very first public performance?
Yeah. We lived in a little town called Voorheesville, New York. We did a dance at the elementary school. I don't remember what it was for but I have one picture from that dance that somebody took of me standing up there playing my fender electric guitar. Man, we just thought we had hit the big time.
What did you do with your music after High School?
I never went to college. I just wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I graduated high school then worked retail jobs, but I always played my music on the weekends or wherever I could. My music was just always there.
What kind of solo gigs did have when you're were out on your own?
I’d play in little pubs or coffee houses around the Albany area. As I got older and had been playing around the Albany area for a while, there were a number of places that opened up … bars that were more music type venues. Eventually, I got into playing at colleges, Playing for college coffee houses or lunchtime concerts, or sometimes theater stuff. And I loved that. I was playing for a real audience that came to hear my music in a setting that was really conducive to playing music and listening to music.
Eventually, you ended up going to the musical Mecca of Nashville. How did that come about?
Liz and I were married and she could see that I was getting kind of burned out on the bar scene and I wasn't quite sure what direction to go. I had been writing songs and doing some of my original songs in my performances and sending them to publishers in Nashville. So I went down there and I made appointments with music people and got some great feedback.
When I came back from that trip and I said to Liz, “I think I want to go down there and see what can happen.” Honestly, I was extremely anxious about that decision. I'd been in Albany my whole life. But I also felt like I didn't want to look back someday and think about what could have happened.”
You were in Nashville for 13 years. How would you describe that period of your life?
One of the best times of my life. It was a huge education. I told you I never went to college, but for me, Nashville was like going to musical college. I got to meet some of my musical heroes. I got to write a bunch of great tunes with people I met there. I got to make some great demo recordings and to pitch those tunes around town. It was just a great experience.
How did you end up in Flat Rock?
Liz’s mom lived here in Hendersonville and we would come down here for holidays from New York and later from Nashville. And I just fell in love with North Carolina and particularly this area. And I think every time we came here it just got a little bit harder to leave and to head back to Nashville.
So I started to explore the music scene here in Western North Carolina. And there was one weekend where I booked myself into a few places around Asheville and I realized there was a great acoustic music scene here. I realized there was a lot of opportunity for me here.
Where did you live when you moved to Flat Rock?
We’ve been in our house in Highland Lake Villages ever since we moved to Flat Rock.
That’s a great neighborhood!
Oh yeah. It's such a great neighborhood. Great neighbors. Plenty of green space. My cousin came to visit us a number of years back and he said, “You live in a place where people pay good money to come to for vacation.”
What venues did you play when you arrived in Henderson County?
Before we moved here, I played at the Apple Festival and it was a lot of fun. That actually helped me decide it was time to try Western North Carolina. After we moved, I played a few gigs in downtown Hendersonville. Later I contacted retirement places within a two-hour radius and I’ve developed a bunch of steady gigs at retirement places around Hendersonville, Asheville, Greenville, Spartanburg, Columbia, Charlotte, Hickory, Greensboro and up to east Tennessee. That became my bread and butter with some theater concerts and festivals and stuff like that occasionally.
One of my favorite gigs was a concert series called Summer Music in Flat Rock. They’d close off the parking lot behind the Village Bakery and the artists would perform up on the large deck. Man, that was just one of my favorite shows. It was like my hometown show.
Tom performer from home via live-stream.
The pandemic has been a challenge for everyone this year. How has it impacted your career?
I remember the date. March 12th was when the cancellations started rolling in. I was pretty miserable for the first couple of weeks. But then the idea of a live stream concert came up. I launched mine and anyone can listen to it on Thursday nights at 7 pm. And I call it From my Home to Yours. This week I'll be doing my 30th live stream concert.
I get a lot of great compliments about how people look forward to it each week and how much it means to them as a respite each week from all the stuff that's going on in the world.
What are your plans for 2021?
I've recorded six YouTube videos of one-hour concerts that I'm offering to the retirement places. It's a one hour concert that I call Concerts From Home with Tom Fisch. So that’s a little bit of an income stream. Honestly, I've had to reinvent myself and reinvent what entertainment is in this day and age. It seems like the live stream thing is going to be the way to go for the foreseeable future.
Finally, how would you describe Flat Rock to your friends?
Oh, man. It is just a beautiful place to live and a wonderful community to be a part of. It’s just a special place. I can't imagine being anywhere else.
Read more about Tom at his website, www.tomfisch.com and join him on Thursday evenings at 7 pm for his Facebook live-stream concerts here.
