ABOUT.
Tom Barnes is a full time professional musician from Skaneateles N.Y. specializing in guitar and vocals. With 20 years private teaching experience, 25-30 lesson spots booked weekly, and an average of 200 live performances per year there is not much time to hold down a day job. Instead, days have been spent writing music and learning many other instruments such as mandolin, ukulele, banjo, drums, bass and piano to name a few. All that along with promotions, booking, and recording makes for a full time job. This artist has been full time since the year 2000 which is something most others in the music industry can’t say. Over the past two decades Tom Barnes spent two years as a music major attending Onondaga Community college then went on to perform at many venues around New York State and surrounding areas. Whether it be opening up for a national act, backyard party, wedding, restaurant , or bar- Tom is always asked back. Some longtime regular spots include, Shifty’s, Harborfest, The Lakehouse Pub, Colloca winery, Skaneateles Country Club, Amber Inn, Borio’s , Lakeside Vista and many more.
Currently Tom Barnes can be seen belting out soulful vocal lines while making his Les Paul guitar cry with the Tom Barnes Band. When not with the band or various other duets around the Syracuse, Cortland, and Oswego areas, Tom performs as a solo acoustic act. This solo act is very versatile because of the huge songlist acquired over the years along with the way they are performed. A typical setlist would include original material mixed with songs by Tom Petty, Dave Mathews, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pearl Jam, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Rusted Root, Johnny Cash, Jack Johnson, CCR, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and many more. With the help of live looping this singer songwriter rarely sounds like a soloist. Live looping gives the ability to layer backing guitar tracks and or drums live on stage and then sing and play various instruments while performing as a solo act. Nothing is prerecorded so this is truly what a one man band is. This high energy performer just released a new album “Ramble Mix 2017”; which highlights the remastering of some of his original songs that he has been working on for the past year.