Tom Ersin (all lead vocals, all guitars, most backup vocals)
Rob Emanuel (drums)
Roger Noonan (bass guitar)
Tom Curry (keyboards)
Dennis Sheridan (percussion)
Tim Jensen (saxophones)
Andy Wickstrom (trumpet )
Melody Anderson (backup vocals)
Influences
Al Franken, Diane Rehm, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Amy Poehler, George McGovern, Robert Pirsig, Tina Fey, Stephen Hawking, Ira Glass, George Harrison, Bart Ehrman, Plato (for a little extra erudition), Stephen Colbert, Gerry Eggan (the most influential school teacher I've ever met), Terry Gross, Albert Einstein, all of the truly anonymous philanthropists, Hillary Clinton, and Rush Limbaugh (just to keep it "fair and balanced")
Oh, you mean MUSICAL influences. Uh, I don't know--Hey I know: you tell ME.
Sounds Like
Let's make this fun. Like I said, how 'bout, you tell ME.
Musicians, like the Jay Gatsbys of the world, are different from you and me. This is the story of a man raised by autoharpists, home schooled (before home schooling was a superstar), and taught to live off the land. Regrettably the land was all concrete and asphalt. In short, he comes from a solid foundation. This son of artists wanted to be an auto mechanic when he grew up. But his parents insisted that first he train as a self-taught rock guitarist to have something to fall back on. Thank God for the wisdom of parents. Auto mechanics didn't work out, and he went on to live a life of inconsistent paychecks, unrewarded creativity, unrelenting pursuit of a dying business, and so much more. He thanks his parents (Sunflower and Tree) every day for their "fall back" advice.
Of course I'm kidding. His father's name was John. All seriousness aside, Tom returned to college later in life. It's much easier that way when you have a job, a wife, a mortgage, and kids to keep you centered. He's so glad he dropped out of Western Michigan University when he was 19 years old--that tough time of no responsibilities to help you appreciate the opportunity you're about to squander. Better-late-than-never, Mr. Tom redirected his creative flow toward his other passion: writing--with a fall back minor in Self-Taught Rock Guitar Studies. Life is a sweet circle. And we're always searching for pi.
WEEKLY PEARL — "All I can tell you is: when the governor calls, I answer his phone." — [George W. Bush, San Diego, CA, 10/25/07 | http://www.thetomweekly.com/TheWWing.html ]
WEEKLY PEARL — "What's a man got to do to get in the top fifty?" . . . reacting to a survey of journalists and scholars that ranked the Monica Lewinsky scandal as the 53rd most significant story of the century — [Bill Clinton, 1999 | theTomWeekly.com]
WEEKLY PEARL — "It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber." — [George W. Bush, 4/10/02 | theTomWeekly.com]
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