Tom Callahan
Tom Callahan is a veteran performer whose first public performance was with the Piarist Boys Chorale in 1961. As a musician, Tom has played solo and in both local and touring bands. Tom plays several instruments including guitar, banjo, bouzouki, mandolin, tinwhistle, bodhran, and keyboards. His signature instrument is the 12-string guitar, which he has played since the age of fifteen.
Tom's unique voice is rich, powerful, and expressive and his music is captivating. Tom's audiences are often inclined to join in on a rousing chorus of a pub favorite, or touched by the powerful emotion from within his songs.
Although he specializes in Irish ballads, rebel tunes, and pub songs, each performance has a few surprises--some rock-and-roll, American roots music or just about anything unexpected.
As a performer, Tom has shared the bill with touring artists such as Brendan Nolan, Bill Craig, Beth Patterson, Kevin Sullivan, Guinness, Frank Emerson, Harry O'Donoghue, and others. He is a regular performer at Buffalo's premiere Irish music venue, The Shannon Pub, and also appears regularly in Rochester, Batavia, and other towns in Western New York. Recently, Tom has performed at the Dayton Celtic Festival and the Amherst Scottish Festival. He has also appeared at the Fort Erie Celtic Festival, The Olcott Celtic Festival, and the Rochester Irish Festival.
Tom is also an accomplished songwriter. Among his own published work on his first CD, Celtic Song and Story (as lead of the trio originally named Iad Fein), Tom wrote and composed The Streets of New Orleans and The Eleventh Hour. His new CD--Irish American--features eight of Tom's compositions.