Bridgeport Arts Council continues Summer Jams 2014 with live music tonight at Bridgeport City Park. From 7-9:30 p.m., The Tom Batchelor Band will perform. 

 

"Come out and enjoy the music and the beautiful late summer weather," said Bridgeport Arts Council member/Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth. 

 

The Tom Batchelor Band mixes together a blend of reggae, rock, funk, ska, and country to deliver a mixture of musical styling with deep roots. With influences that include Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Max Romeo, Bad Brains, The Rolling Stones and Toots and the Maytals, The Tom Batchelor Band brings a rhythm and style ready to be consumed by everyone, especially those who want to dance.

Tom started playing music when he picked up the trumpet in 5^th grade then progressed to guitar in high school.  While a graduate student at West Virginia University, Tom got together with some of his friends and created the popular Morgantown-based band Rasta Rafiki.  The group proceeded to release 3 full-length albums, Eco Geo, Cousins, and Stream of Consciousness and toured 175 days a year, regularly sharing a bill with many of the reggae band’s touring America in the 90's. Live shows took the band all over the eastern United States and as far west as Colorado.  Rasta Rafiki participated in Peter Gabriel’s World of Music and Dance, and the Grass Roots festival.  Two Rasta Rafiki songs, including a song Tom wrote called “Elm Tree”, were featured on the soundtrack to the motion picture, National Lampoon’s Last Resort, starring Corey Feldman and Corey Haim.

As the members of Rasta Rafiki went their separate ways in the late ‘90s, Tom joined up with another band, The Recipe, touring with them for several years and contributing original material to their CD, Night of the Porch People. 

As the millennium came to a close, Tom joined up with some of Morgantown’s best and most successful musicians to bring together The Tom Batchelor Band.  Tom Batchelor takes center stage on guitar and vocals, with John McConnell on drums, Gregg Thurman on bass, Glenn Rowsey on steel drum, Robert Staggers Shank on horns and Cloud Shorty on keyboards.

So far, The Tom Batchelor Band has released the self-produced album, Runes, and Moon vs. Mars, their newest work.  Moon vs. Mars includes 10 original songs and will be released on Friday, March 21^st, 2014. 

A party to celebrate the release of Moon vs. Mars kicks off at 10pm Friday, March 21^st, at the newly opened Jameson’s Pub & Eatery, 374 High Street, across the street from the Historic Metropolitan Theatre in downtown Morgantown.  Everyone’s welcome to come enjoy food and refreshments while previewing tracks from the Moon vs. Mars CD performed live, along with other original songs and covers from some of the band’s favorite artists.