Dave Pomeroy
Encyclopedia
Dave Pomeroy is a United States musician
, known as a Nashville
vocalist, songwriter, and producer (Earwave Productions), but is best known as a bassist
. He has played electric and acoustic bass in the studio for many recording artists in addition to his solo and concert work. He also has written numerous articles and columns for Bass Player magazine, and has contributed as a writer to a number of books about the music business.
In December 2008, Pomeroy was elected as president of the Nashville Musicians Association, AFM Local 257 of the American Federation of Musicians
(AFM) and in June 2010, he was also elected to the the AFM's International Executive Board. Pomeroy was re-elected without opposition to a second 3 year term as Local 257 president in November 2011.
, the son of an American soldier, and spent his childhood and youth in various places. He credits a four-year-long stay in England
in the early 1960s as an early musical influence and returned to the country in the mid-70s, when he moved to London
to play in numerous local bands. In 1977 Pomeroy settled in Nashville. He was hired by rockabilly
musician Sleepy LaBeef
within a couple of weeks and went on tour with him for a year. In 1980 he joined Don Williams'
touring band and stayed with him until 1994. He briefly returned to the band for Williams' comeback tour in September/October 2010.
As a session musician Pomeroy contributed to albums not only by Williams and LaBeef, but also by such diverse artists as Trisha Yearwood
, Emmylou Harris
, Toby Keith
, Neil Diamond
, Billy Ray Cyrus
, Tom Paxton
, George Jones
, Billy Joe Shaver
, Shelby Lynne
, Jon Randall
, Brenda Lee
, Gretchen Peters
, Alan Jackson
, Beth Nielsen Chapman
, Earl Scruggs
, Randy Scruggs
, Duane Eddy
, Allison Moorer
, Steve Wariner
, Asleep At The Wheel
, Matraca Berg
, Kathy Mattea
, Larry Knechtel
, Keith Whitley
, Jesse Winchester
and Alison Krauss
. He is a featured artist on the "Nashville Acoustic Sessions" CD project, with Raul Malo
, Rob Ickes
and Pat Flynn, released by CMH Records in 2004.
In the 1990's Pomeroy created The All-Bass Orchestra, with personnel ranging from 12 to 22 bassists playing the roles of an entire ensemble. The VHS concert video "The Day The Bass Players Took Over The World," released in 1996 by his label Earwave and Bass Player Magazine, with special guests Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Oteil Burbridge and Bill Dickens, brought attention to Pomeroy's concept of "all-bass music" as demonstrated on his solo projects "Basses Loaded" and
"Tomorrow Never Knows." He has raised over $110,000 for Nashville's Room In The Inn Homeless program with his annual "Nashville Unlimited Christmas" concerts over the past 19 years.
Among his most recent projects are Three Ring Circle, an "acoustic jam band powergrass trio" with Rob Ickes
and Andy Leftwich, and The Taproom Tapes, a live recording of collective improvisations featuring 14 of Nashville's musicians, including Jeff Coffin
, Pat Bergeson
, Johnny Neel
and others. He recently produced Restless, the first album of new material by Sweethearts of the Rodeo
in over ten years, to be released in 2012. Three Ring Circle's new CD, "Brothership" was released on ResoRevolution Records in April 2011.
Over the years, Pomeroy has become more and more involved in union work. In December 2008, he was elected president of the Nashville based Local 257 of the American Federation of Musicians, succeeding longtime president Harold Bradley
. In June 2010, he was also elected to the International Executive Board of the AFM for a three-year term. In November 2010, Pomeroy was re-elected without opposition to a second three year term as President of Local 257. HE continues to write, record and perform in addition to his AFM responsibilities.
Three Ring Circle: "Brothership" (ResoRevolution)
For a comprehensive list of session contributions see [ Pomeroy's credits at Allmusic].
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, known as a Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
vocalist, songwriter, and producer (Earwave Productions), but is best known as a bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
. He has played electric and acoustic bass in the studio for many recording artists in addition to his solo and concert work. He also has written numerous articles and columns for Bass Player magazine, and has contributed as a writer to a number of books about the music business.
In December 2008, Pomeroy was elected as president of the Nashville Musicians Association, AFM Local 257 of the American Federation of Musicians
American Federation of Musicians
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada...
(AFM) and in June 2010, he was also elected to the the AFM's International Executive Board. Pomeroy was re-elected without opposition to a second 3 year term as Local 257 president in November 2011.
Biography
Pomeroy was born in ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, the son of an American soldier, and spent his childhood and youth in various places. He credits a four-year-long stay in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the early 1960s as an early musical influence and returned to the country in the mid-70s, when he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to play in numerous local bands. In 1977 Pomeroy settled in Nashville. He was hired by rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
musician Sleepy LaBeef
Sleepy LaBeef
Sleepy LaBeef is an American rockabilly musician.LaBeef stands 6' 7" tall and was given the nickname "Sleepy" from the appearance of his eyes. Born in Arkansas, he was raised on a melon farm and moved to Houston when he was 18...
within a couple of weeks and went on tour with him for a year. In 1980 he joined Don Williams'
Don Williams
Don Williams , is an American country singer, songwriter and a 2010 inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He grew up in Portland, Texas, and graduated in 1958 from Gregory-Portland High School. After seven years with the folk-pop group Pozo-Seco Singers, he began his solo career in 1971,...
touring band and stayed with him until 1994. He briefly returned to the band for Williams' comeback tour in September/October 2010.
As a session musician Pomeroy contributed to albums not only by Williams and LaBeef, but also by such diverse artists as Trisha Yearwood
Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood , is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA...
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Toby Keith
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, Billy Ray Cyrus
Billy Ray Cyrus
William "Billy" Ray Cyrus is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist, who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon...
, Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, George Jones
George Jones
George Glenn Jones is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette....
, Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver is a Texas country music singer and songwriter. Shaver's 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is a classic in the outlaw country genre.-Biography:...
, Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne is an American singer, songwriter and actress. The success of the 1999 album I Am Shelby Lynne led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, even though she had been active in the music industry for some time...
, Jon Randall
Jon Randall
Jon Randall Stewart is an American country music artist. Signed to RCA Records in 1995, he debuted that year with the album What You Don't Know. A second album for RCA, 1996's Great Day to Be Alive, was recorded but never released...
, Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...
, Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters is a singer-songwriter in the folk/country genre. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s...
, Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson
Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...
, Beth Nielsen Chapman
Beth Nielsen Chapman
Beth Nielsen Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, mostly known for her numerous hits recorded by country and pop music performers.-Early history:...
, Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs is an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music...
, Randy Scruggs
Randy Scruggs
Randy Scruggs is a music producer, songwriter and guitarist. He had his first recording at the age of 13...
, Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
, Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer is an American alternative country singer and the younger sister of Shelby Lynne. She signed to MCA Nashville in 1998 and made her debut on the U.S...
, Steve Wariner
Steve Wariner
Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records...
, Asleep At The Wheel
Asleep at the Wheel
Asleep at the Wheel is a American country music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, they have released more than twenty studio albums, and have charted more than twenty...
, Matraca Berg
Matraca Berg
Matraca Maria Berg is an American country music singer and songwriter. She has released five albums: three for RCA Records, one for Rising Tide Records and one for Dualtone Records, and has charted in the top 40 of the U.S. Billboard country charts with "Baby, Walk On" and "The Things You Left...
, Kathy Mattea
Kathy Mattea
Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot...
, Larry Knechtel
Larry Knechtel
Lawrence William "Larry" Knechtel was an American keyboard player and bassist, best known for his work as a session musician with such artists as Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas, The Partridge Family, The Doors, and Elvis Presley, and as a member of the 1970s...
, Keith Whitley
Keith Whitley
Jackie Keith Whitley , known professionally as Keith Whitley, was an American country music singer. Whitley's brief career in mainstream country music lasted from 1984 until his death in 1989, but he continues to influence an entire generation of singers and songwriters...
, Jesse Winchester
Jesse Winchester
Jesse Winchester is a musician and songwriter who was born and raised in the southern United States. To avoid the Vietnam War draft he moved to Canada in 1967, which is where and when he began his career as a solo artist. His highest charting recordings were of his own tunes, "Yankee Lady" in 1970...
and Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
. He is a featured artist on the "Nashville Acoustic Sessions" CD project, with Raul Malo
Raul Malo
Raúl Francisco Martínez-Malo Jr. , known professionally as Raúl Malo, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was the lead singer of country music band The Mavericks and the co-writer of many of their singles, as well as Rick Trevino's 2003 single "In My Dreams"...
, Rob Ickes
Rob Ickes
Rob Ickes is a dobro player. A Northern California native , Rob Ickes [rhymes with "bikes"] moved to Nashville in 1992 and joinedthe contemporary bluegrass band Blue Highway as a founding member in 1994...
and Pat Flynn, released by CMH Records in 2004.
In the 1990's Pomeroy created The All-Bass Orchestra, with personnel ranging from 12 to 22 bassists playing the roles of an entire ensemble. The VHS concert video "The Day The Bass Players Took Over The World," released in 1996 by his label Earwave and Bass Player Magazine, with special guests Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Oteil Burbridge and Bill Dickens, brought attention to Pomeroy's concept of "all-bass music" as demonstrated on his solo projects "Basses Loaded" and
"Tomorrow Never Knows." He has raised over $110,000 for Nashville's Room In The Inn Homeless program with his annual "Nashville Unlimited Christmas" concerts over the past 19 years.
Among his most recent projects are Three Ring Circle, an "acoustic jam band powergrass trio" with Rob Ickes
Rob Ickes
Rob Ickes is a dobro player. A Northern California native , Rob Ickes [rhymes with "bikes"] moved to Nashville in 1992 and joinedthe contemporary bluegrass band Blue Highway as a founding member in 1994...
and Andy Leftwich, and The Taproom Tapes, a live recording of collective improvisations featuring 14 of Nashville's musicians, including Jeff Coffin
Jeff Coffin
Jeff Coffin is an American jazz and alternative rock musician best known as the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. In addition to the saxophone, he plays clarinet, flute and oboe.-Biography:...
, Pat Bergeson
Pat Bergeson
Pat Bergeson is an American guitarist, harmonica player and occasional songwriter. Based in Nashville, he is best known for his live and session work with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett and Suzy Bogguss.-Biography:...
, Johnny Neel
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
and others. He recently produced Restless, the first album of new material by Sweethearts of the Rodeo
Sweethearts of the Rodeo
Sweethearts of the Rodeo is an American country music duo composed of sisters Janis Oliver and Kristine Oliver . The duo recorded for Columbia Records between 1986 and 1991, releasing four albums and twelve singles for the label. In the 1990s, they also recorded two albums for Sugar Hill Records...
in over ten years, to be released in 2012. Three Ring Circle's new CD, "Brothership" was released on ResoRevolution Records in April 2011.
Over the years, Pomeroy has become more and more involved in union work. In December 2008, he was elected president of the Nashville based Local 257 of the American Federation of Musicians, succeeding longtime president Harold Bradley
Harold Bradley
Harold Bradley is a pop guitarist and an American country guitarist.Harold played banjo as a child but switched to guitar on the advice of his elder brother, Owen Bradley. Owen arranged for Harold to tour with Ernest Tubb while Harold was still in high school. After graduation, Harold joined the...
. In June 2010, he was also elected to the International Executive Board of the AFM for a three-year term. In November 2010, Pomeroy was re-elected without opposition to a second three year term as President of Local 257. HE continues to write, record and perform in addition to his AFM responsibilities.
Discography
Recordings under his own name:- Tone Patrol: Thin Air (Earwave), with guests Sam BushSam BushSam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...
, Bill MillerBill Miller (musician)Bill Miller is a Native American singer/songwriter of Mohican heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation, near Shawano in northern Wisconsin....
and Wayne Roland Brown - Dave Pomeroy: Basses Loaded (Earwave)
- Dave Pomeroy: Tomorrow Never Knows (Earwave)
- Three Ring Circle: Three Ring Circle (Earwave), with Rob Ickes and Andy Leftwich (Earwave)
- Dave Pomeroy And Friends: The Taproom Tapes (Earwave)
Three Ring Circle: "Brothership" (ResoRevolution)
For a comprehensive list of session contributions see [ Pomeroy's credits at Allmusic].
External links
- Dave Pomeroy's website
- Three Ring Circle
- Three Ring Circle MySpace
- AFM Local 257
- [ Dave Pomeroy] at Allmusic