Out of music for 30 years, dreams of lyrics and melodies starting coming to me in dreams. before I knew, I had produce a demo Rainbows and Angels and then recorded the CD Love Isn't Always. My goal is to license my songs and put glow-in-the-dark rainbows in children's hospital rooms to comfort them.
Thom Stanley
Thom's music career began around the age of four, standing in front of a television singing along with Elvis with his wind-up guitar and Mickey Mouse Club ears. That led to carolling after being dragged to various locations in their apartment complex by his mother.
That was followed by singing in church - being Catholic, there was plenty of room for harmonies to be added to the Latin wailing. When old enough to join school choruses and choirs, Thom chimed in - originally as an alto. At 13 years of age, a 95lb freshman in high school, this was his best chance of being near any female other than a teacher.
After sprouting, he joined his first band with lead singer, Tony Colon already at the helm. The New Centurions were performing around Northern Virginia and wowing young officers at military clubs with "He Ain't Heavy" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." Thom, pressured by his parents and peers left music to play high school football his senior year.
Moving from Woodbridge to Norfolk, Thom Reconnected with Tony. While their musical time together was short-lived, Thom performed with a variety of bands, but with only a handful of guitar players - Richard Cadorette, Bill Piccirillo(sp) and Eddie Berman, the latter of which was the first to entertain Thom's original music.
After leaving AND the Jets, the band led by Berman, Thom worked for an environmental lobby to clean the Chesapeake Bay, got married to MJ Barnett and moved with her to Arizona. After settling near Sedona, AZ, Thom ran into new friend, mentor and business partner, Morrie Horowitz, who brought Thom in to start a new publication, Sedona Excentric. Morrie passed in 1994, leaving Thom to run the monthly satirical publication on his own. The Sedona Excentric is still being published as of March 2013. An online version and expanded world version are available online at ExcentricWorld.com.
In 2010, Thom had some night dreams that brought him back into music, He worked with Gregg Tauriello at the Sweet 16 Studio, who brought in a cadre of local musicians. Along with Ron James (drums), Troy Perkins (bass), Eric Williams (horns) and vocalists Jeanie Carroll and Shondra Jepperson they recorded Rainbows and Angels, along with the guitar riffs of Eddie Berman. Eddie's work is highlighted on the CD. Thom produced the CD as a demo, and now intends to remaster the original and re-release it. In the meantime, he gathered the same musicians, adding Courtney Yeates (strings) and vocalist Susannah Martin to record his 2nd CD again at Sweet 16 Studio. Once again the work could not be completed without sending it to North Carolina for the master guitar work of Eddie Berman. The CD, Love Isn't Always, was mixed and mastered by Kenny Star at Star Tracks Recordings. Jack Hillman came on board to set up the website ThomStanleyMusic.com and Thom is off promoting his latest CD.
Rumor is he is already writing songs for his 3rd CD. Those close to him say he is planning to call it, I Still Believe In Love.