An artful musicality and an assuring optimism light up Lucky To Be Me, Tom
Culver's new CD. With a burnished voice and impeccable phrasing, he reinvents
songs from a roster of brilliant American songwriters -- from Cole Porter to
Randy Newman -- but the title tells his truth. "It's how I've got to feel,"
he says, "I'm lucky to do what I've wanted to do all my life."
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Equally at ease with pop, jazz, Latin and samba rhythms, Culver, orchestrated
on record by a cast of world-class players, also displays his own lyrical
savvy on two selections, the tango-inspired "What Became of Yesterday," and
"All in the Stars," with the lines, " But Fate pulls the strings, we're at
its command/Sifting us, it seems, like grains of sand."
As a boy, Tom Culver was mesmerized by the flicking images on the silver
screen as he sat transfixed in the darkness of the small-town South Dakota
movie palaces. Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Donald O'Connor and Dan Daily glided
across lacquered dance floors with their glamorous partners and the die was
cast. "There was never anyone teaching voice or dance there," he recalls,
"but I was in every choral group and high school play -- and the sound of
applause was truly a high."
The Navy offered a ticket from the snow swept plains. After service, Tom
located in Oakland, California and discovered the Bay Area's theater and
music scenes. A succession of record deals with small labels led to a signing
with Dot Records where he cut his first singles. But as the company was
absorbed by international giant, Gulf & Western, it was a tumultuous era of
rock & roll and many traditional pop artists, Tom included, found themselves
out of the mix.
So he reinvented himself in Hollywood as a wardrobe man for film and
television productions. As a set costumer, he dressed a cast of stars, and
was honored to work on Murder She Wrote starring Angela Lansbury. Tom also
penned The Murder She Wrote Cookbook, adding the title of "author" to his
multi-disciplinary résumé. "This was all a big step for that star-struck kid
from South Dakota," he notes.
But the music still echoed. He found a community of like-minded vocalists at
piano bars and clubs in Los Angeles, and thanks to the success of artists
like Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall, traditional pop music was once again
being heard. Tom's audiences understood the nuances of this music as he
performed at intimate venues including Hollywood's Gardenia. "If you sing
cabaret it's like being naked, it's so close," he reveals. And songwriting
offered still another avenue for expressive creativity.
Today, in addition to his singing career, Tom takes jazz and tap dance
classes, and pursues his hobby of photography. Blessed with a vital
physicality, he notes his only vice is a penchant for strong coffee. "The
older I got the smarter I got," he laughs. "The life lesson is about
surviving."
But Tom's story is much more than survival; it's about forward motion -- to
the next song, the next chapter, the next show. "You have to let the past
go," he says, " appreciate it, but don't live in it. It brought us here."
With the realization of Lucky to Be Me, Tom is already moving into the next
chorus of his vibrant, ever expanding life of artistry.
www.tom-culver.com