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Born
and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, TOM LIPS is a gifted
singer and songwriter as well as a creative and dynamic
teller of traditional and original stories and a poet
whose work has appeared in The Fiddlehead
and Descant.
Tom's new CD, "The Devil's Day Off" (Mylodon Music, December 2014),
has been well worth waiting for! Packed with original songs that span
the range from heartbreak to hilarity, it includes longstanding audience
favourites like "Newborn Girl," "The Devil's Day Off," "The Dance That
You Saved Me," and many more.
Tom has written more than
three hundred songs in an eclectic mix of styles, rooted
primarily in the folk genre. Performance credits as
a singer-songwriter include opening for Hart Rouge
and Christine Lavin, appearances at the National
Arts Centre Fourth Stage (including repeated participation in the popular annual "Christmas Goose" concerts), the Alnwick International
Folk Music and Dance Festival (U.K.), Ottawa's West End Well, the SLOWest Coffehouse Series, the Folk
Upstairs Acoustic Series (Perth), The Ottawa
Folk Festival, The Strawberry Moon Festival,
The Great Canadian Theatre Company, Rasputin's,
and numerous contributions to theatrical
productions and storytelling shows, including the "For the Love of Pete:
Stories and Songs from the Life of Pete Seeger" and "And Tell Laura I
Love Her: Stories and Songs of the Early 1960s."
He has performed and recorded with the band Pilgrim
Fire and has been featured on CBC Radio's
national comedy program, "Madly Off in All Directions."
Tom's
first solo recording , a CD entitled "Made of Sky,"
(Mylodon Music, 1999) has won many
friends. Christine Lavin said:
"There's
a terrific new album by Canadian singer/songwriter
Tom Lips called Made of Sky. Tom possesses a deep,
beautiful voice (think James Keelaghan crossed with
Lyle Lovett) and is a masterful singing storyteller.
The production is first-rate, the ballads are soulful
and the funny stuff, is, well what can you say about
lyrics like "if you've got a yen for tall and scrawny
men/all I have to ask of you is, honey, where've you
been?/I'm a skinny white male out here looking for
love." I recommend this album highly and already know
it will be on my top ten list for the year."
Tom's
songs have been featured on recordings by Joan
MacIsaac, Karen
Lahaise, Writers
Bloc, and others. His second CD, "Practical Man,"
released in 2004, once again showed his emotional
and stylistic range, with tender ballads of love lost
and found, rousing gospel and rock tunes, a post-modern
lullaby, a polka about the afterlife, and more.
A
public servant by day, Tom lived for several
years on a biodynamic farm
in Ottawa's Green Belt with his wife (the
farmer)
and two stepdaughters, a Border Collie,
three Highland
cattle, four Shetland sheep, and some
Leghorn and
Chanticleer chickens, not to mention
countless groundhogs,
deer, rabbits, Canada Geese, and other
creatures. He now lives a more urban lifestyle and struggles to keep
potted plants alive. The groundhogs appear to have followed the family
into town....
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Tom
is also an experienced storyteller with a flair for
original or traditional tales of humour and the fantastic.
For more about storytelling, visit the web sites of
the Ottawa
Storytellers and Storytellers
of Canada.
Storytelling
performance credits include:
National Arts Centre Fourth Stage Storytelling Series,
2000 - 2015
The Ottawa Children's Storytelling Festival 2014
The Ottawa Folk Festival, and the Storytelling Festivals
of Ottawa, Toronto, Westport, and North Bay
The Governor General's Residence (Open House featured
storyteller)
The Kingston Art Gallery
Major's Hill Park (July 1st
festivities)
Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton Headquarters
The "Stories from the Ages" series at Rasputin's,
1996-2004 (selections from the Odyssey, the Chinese
folk epic "Monkey," the Mabinogion of Wales, the Iliad,
the Kalevala of Finland, and others)
The Children's
Museum, Canadian Museum of Civilization (Klondike
program, Medieval program)
Storytellers of Canada Annual Conference 2003 (main
stage performer)
Hugh's Room, Toronto
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