Known for his guitar slinging, Bill Toms wants his new album to carry a lyrical message: “hope, compassion and the idea that actions speak louder than words.”
That may be an appropriate message during these tragic COVID-19 days. Recording of the album, Keep Movin’ On, by Bill Toms & Hard Rain, began in February 2020 and then continued remotely when the pandemic struck throughout the country.
“I would record over loops and send to my producer Rick Witkowski,” says Toms, who has released 12 solo albums and was the lead guitar player for Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers. “He would play drums or have our drummer Bernie Herr come in. The guys would get the rough versions and send in parts. It was fleshed out that way.”
Keep Movin’ On contains nine songs written by Toms and a final song, “American Dreamer,” written and sung by blues musician Bubs McKeg and featuring Will Kimbrough on guitar. Though much of the album was recorded remotely, it sounds like the full Hard Rain band, including a three-piece horn section, charging forward together in the studio.
The band, which often elicits musical visions of Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, consists of Steve Binsberger on keyboards, Tom Breiding on guitar, Tom Valentine on bass, Phil Brontz on saxophone, George Arner on trumpet, Stephen Graham on trombone and Herr on drums. Toms’ gruff, expressive vocals and guitar are featured on every song, and Witkowski and other guest musicians contribute guitar, bass, strings and vocals.
“The influences are wide and deep,” Toms explains. “I was influenced by Bruce, Tom Petty and the Clash. Then, always a student, I explored deeper into blues, rock and roll and soul. My first love is soul music. My older sisters always had Motown, Stax and Atlantic Records playing — and British pop, of course.”
Toms says he loves Southside and his Jukes, but he was more influenced by Otis Redding and the Memphis Horns, the legendary horn section of Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson who backed Redding, Isaac Hayes and Wilson Pickett and played on numerous Stax Records albums.
“Listen to Otis Redding’s song ‘Chained & Bound,’ and it pretty much points to my idea of using horns,” Toms says.
I ask him whether Keep Movin’ On’s seventh song, “Walk in My Shoes,” is a nod to Joe South’s 1970 hit “Walk a Mile in My Shoes.”
“Interesting thought,” he responds, “but, no, that song was a reaction to our political and social climate for the past few years. It seems very hard for people to understand the struggles of others until it affects them. The greatest gift you can give is to understand how others feel.”
Toms played in Grushecky’s band 1987 -2006, and his favorite Grushecky album from that time is End of the Century.
“Joe is a great songwriter and also a very dedicated, disciplined musician,” Toms says. “I learned that discipline and focus from him and to play every gig like it’s your last.”
Toms, who grew up in Pittsburgh and now lives about 10 miles from downtown, began playing guitar at age 15.
“After I played trumpet from the age of 8, a girl said, ‘You’d look good playing guitar.’ Being shy and introverted, that was enough for me. Plus, I loved music.”
Toms has many favorite guitarists but names four that have been influential.
“Chuck Berry is where we learn; Keith Richards for rhythm and color and all the in-between-the-note stuff; Pops Staples for how to play soul, and Albert King for how to bend a note.”
I ask Toms the immortal deserted-island question: What three albums are his favorites that he would want with him if marooned for a lifetime? He says Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ Damn the Torpedoes, Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge Of Town and the Clash’s London Calling.
Toms says the best concert he attended was one by Bob Dylan on November 10, 2019, at Robert Morris University’s 4,000-seat UPMC Events Center in Pittsburgh. He attended the show with his wife, two daughters and a son-in-law.
“I felt like I was passing something to the young ones — like teaching them Shakespeare,” Toms recalls. “The band was top-notch, and the show included the song ‘Lenny Bruce,’ which is rare to hear, and one of my favorites, ‘Simple Twist of Fate.’ Like any person who picks up a guitar and writes a song, I was influenced by Bob Dylan. His manipulation of words always fascinated me. Seeing him in person, you see the presentation and phrasing are a gift, not to be taken for granted. It was gratifying to see my kids getting it.”
Another best-I’ve-ever-seen concert for Toms was the Band in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the 1990s. He opened the bill with Grushecky and the Houserockers.
“Just watching Levon Helm from the side of the stage was a dream,” Toms recalls. “Meeting Levon, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko was amazing. They are beautiful souls.”
The concert that influenced Toms most as a musician, though, wasn’t headlined by a big name.
“Right after I started playing guitar, a band of older kids played at our school for an assembly,” he says. “Because of them, I was hooked. I still see one of the guys every so often and tell him I’ve been cursed ever since. By the way, he’s a lawyer.”