Tom Griesgraber picked up the Stick in 1997 and has been actively performing, recording and writing with it ever since. His musical journey actually began on piano though with lessons starting at age 5.
In high school he picked up guitar and majored in guitar performance and composition at Berklee College of Music. “I loved everything about Berklee,” he has reflected, “…but I was one out of literally 1000 guitar players and was focused on guitar music twelve hours a day for several years. When I discovered the Stick at a NAMM show about a year after graduation, it struck me right away that it was something ‘new’; it didn’t quite sound like guitar, or bass or anything else and that was incredibly exciting. I found a used one and bought it right away thinking it would be a side instrument but it pretty quickly became my main focus once I realized what was really possible with it.”
The addition of the Stick in Tom’s musical life has proved most fruitful. With it, he has been performing as a soloist and in duos and trios since 1998, with tours taking him across the US repeatedly and to more than a dozen other countries. He has been a member of The California Guitar Trio since 2021 and has also recorded and toured with his group Agent 22, as a duo with guitarist Bert Lams and as a duo with drummer Jerry Marotta. To date he has released nine solo and group albums and has contributed as a guest on many more including two collaborative albums with RyMo (of the band Slightly Stoopid).
Tom’s performances have also included opening slots for a who’s who list of progressive rock and jazz artists including tours with King Crimson, The Tony Levin Band and The League of Crafty Guitarists and shows opening for Carl Palmer, Stick Men, Steve Morse, The Dixie Dregs, Adrian Belew, Paul Stanley, Andy Summers, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Al Dimeola, Tuck and Patti, Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather, Stanley Jordan, Paula Cole, Asia, Tim Reynolds, Muriel Anderson, Andy McKee, Steve Hackett, Allan Holdsworth, Jean Luc Ponty, Mike Keneally, Geoff Tate, Craig Chaquico, Tower of Power and more.
He has taught at multiple Stick seminars and performed in duos and trios with many other Stick artists including Greg Howard, Don Schiff, Steve Adelson, Bob Culbertson, Glenn Poorman and Jim Meyer and was honored to perform several times with Emmett Chapman.
Tom has also performed four times for Grammy events and on multiple live radio and TV shows including the nationally distributed “Echoes” (120 US stations), XM Satellite radio, affiliates for NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS and many independent stations.
Above all, Tom is just a music fan. “I’ve just always had an interest in trying to do something ‘different’ with music and the Stick continues to help me do that.” He is presently at work on music for a new California Guitar Trio album and composing and recording a Stick based soundtrack for a feature length documentary film, and hopes to carve out time to finish another solo album in the not too distant future.
Connect with Tom Griesgraber
WEBSITE
CALIFORNIA GUITAR TRIO
STUDIO
