Ball, Tom

He is a guitarist, lutist, harmonica player, songwriter, blues historian and teacher born in Los Angeles, California. He started concentrating on the guitar when he was eleven years old, when he was thirteen he also turned his hand to the harmonica and during his teenage years he was a member of the Terba Buena Blues Band. He lived first in Europe, then South America and then in Asia for much of the 1970s but in 1978 he returned to team up with Kenny Sultan, the guitarist he would be in partnership with until the present day. Together they have recorded numerous concerts and festivals that run into the thousands and have also recorded eight CDs. Outside of his work in collaboration with Kenny Sultan he has been featured on a myriad of television programmes, commercials, movie soundtracks and around 200 CDs of which several are his own solo work as a guitarist. CDs he has appeared on are his 18 Pieces for Solo Steel String Guitar Music, Solo Guitar Music from Films and Guitar Music and also the soundtrack of Hoot by Jimmy Buffett , How about Now by Kenny Loggins, Happy Hour, 20^th Anniversary - Live and Filthy Rich with Kenny Sultan, Be Here Soon by Jeff Bridges with Michael McDonald, Don't Worry 'bout Nut'in' by Clayton Lee, Ride the Restless Wind by Bob Frank and Runaway Train by Chris Cairns. As an author he has written novels that include The Marty McGraw Book, five books of instruction and many published articles on blues history. As a teacher he has been seen giving tuition in the harmonica. His daughter, Shay, is a model and singer.

Sources: