User:Wdenney/Enter your new article name here

Tomi Lunsford Singer, Musician

Tomi Lunsford is a singer and musician from Nashville, Tennessee. Her voice and style defy easy categorization. She has roots in jazz, folk, blues and country stylings, and somehow manages to translate them all in her approach. It has been said that she uses her "liquid soprano to convey meanings beyond the ones contained in her lyrics." She has performed and /or recorded with roots practitioners David Olney, Walter Hyatt, David Ball, Tom House, Delbert McClinton, Steve Runkle, Champ Hood, Hank III, Pat MacLaughlin, and Tommy Goldsmith, among others. Her career began with The Lunsfords, headed by her father, Jim Lunsford, and two of her sisters, Nancy and Teresa Lunsford. She was born in Asheville, North Carolina August 5, 1952. She is the great-niece of famed folk music collector, historian and performer Bascom Lamar Lunsford. He co-founded the venerable Southern Mountain Folk & Dance Festival in 1928 with her grandfather, John Blackwell Lunsford.

Tomi's family is well-known in traditional and country music circles. Her father, Jim Lunsford, was an accomplished fiddle player and songwriter, and an early pioneer of bluegrass and classic country. He played with Don Gibson, Reno & Smiley, Marty Robbins, and Roy Acuff among others. His fiddle break recorded on Reno & Smiley's "Love Call Waltz" is considered by country music historian Eddie Stubbs to be one of the top two or three fiddle breaks of all time. Lunsford penned "Blue Ridge Mountains Turning Green," recorded by Charley Pride and Ronnie Milsap, and "Streets of Gold," recorded by The Cox Family.

Tomi's own professional career as a singer began by working with her father to put demos down for his publisher. She became part of The Lunsfords, the family group popular in Nashville during the '70s and known for their pure blend of country folk and intricate harmonies. Since her father's untimely death in 1978, Tomi has pursued a solo career. Her CD High Ground, released in Germany in 1997 on Veracity Records, was met with critical acclaim in Europe and the U.S., in No Depression, Rolling Stone Magazine UK, the Tennessean, Music Row Magazine, and The Nashville Scene, among others. She garnered excellent reviews from several German publications, including Best Album consideration from Berlin TIP Magazine.