Tom Skinner (country musician)

Thomas "Tom" Dean Skinner (born January 8, 1954 in Bristow , Oklahoma , † July 12, 2015 in Tulsa , Oklahoma) was an American country singer of the Red Dirt scene.

Life

Tom Skinner grew up in his hometown of Bristow, where he started singing in the church choir . He attended high school there and graduated in 1972. That same year he moved to Stillwater to study at Oklahoma State University. After a few semesters, he dropped out and served on a military airfield in Solano County . He continued his studies in 1978 and graduated in 1982. He also began his music career as a solo artist and front man for the Skinner Brothers Band , which he formed with his brothers. He also started the band Santa Fe with the then unknown Garth Brooks . The band members moved to Nashville , but while Brooks was enjoying great success in his new home, Skinner moved back to Stillwater. There he was subsequently active in a band called The Twanglers .

After two years that he spent in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , he got the chance of a contract with the small label Binky Records in the mid-1990s , which he ultimately took advantage of. So he came to his first publication Times Have Changed in 1996 , followed only a year later by his unplugged album Acoustic Skinner . In 1999, Jesus Took Me Fishin ', his third album for Binky Records, was to follow, but this did not happen due to a heart attack . Skinner, now fully recovered, had been bassist in the Mike McClure Band since 2007 , with whose founder he had been friends for a long time. The Mike McClure Band has produced four albums since joining. Most recently, Skinner had released a new solo album - produced by Mike McClure - in 2012, which he wanted to follow with another. He was also active with Mike McClure's band and his own.

Skinner last lived in Tulsa , where he died on July 12, 2015 at the age of 61.

Discography

• 1997: Times Have Changed
• 1999: Acoustic Skinner
• 2012: Tom Skinner

• See also : Mike McClure Band discography

Web links

• Biography ( memento from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at Binky Records (English)
• Tom Skinner at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} THOMAS DEAN SKINNER. In: oklavoters.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014 ; accessed on July 22, 2014 (English). 
2. ↑ Brandy McDonnell: RIP Tom Skinner: Influential red dirt pioneer passes away. Blog entry on newsok.com from July 12, 2015 (accessed July 13, 2015).
3. ↑ OUR VIEW: Red Dirt pioneer will be missed. In: stwnewspress.com. Community Newspaper Holdings, July 17, 2015, accessed August 7, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Brandy McDonnell: Tom Skinner releasing self-titled LP Nov. 13 on Oklahoma-based 598 Recordings, already has Garth Brooks' endorsement. In: blog.newsok.com. OPUBCO Communications Group, October 26, 2012, archived from the original on April 11, 2013 ; accessed on March 4, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Byeric Woods: Bassist in McClure's band a pioneer in Red Dirt movement , Lubbockonline.com, accessed March 4, 2013