Tom Stahl And The Dangerfields

The journey to the 2017 induction class into the Buffalo Music Hall Of Fame started back in 1994. In October of 1994 Tom Stahl had back surgery and that forced him to quit his truck-driving career. He had a degree in Communications, but had written a song or two, and with the support of his wife Mary Lou, he decided to continue in that direction. Tom picked up his guitar and turned to music. In early 1995 he went to an open mic at Nietzsche’s in Buffalo NY with four original songs. The organizer of the open mic, Michael Meldrum, asked Tom to come back and do a songwriter showcase in March 1995. In the Spring of that same year, he brought his best tunes out on a debut cassette entitled “I Wanna Be Ignorant”. Now there’s a CD bearing the same name, the same tunes and a generous helping of extra tracks to go with them. The ball started rolling from there. In 1996, Tom came out with his second CD, entitled “The Song Is The Thing”. Over the next three years, Tom released two more original CDs entitled “Hang On” and “Shut Up and Smell The Coffee” with the backing of his band [originally known as the Tom Stahl Band, now known as Tom Stahl And The Dangerfields]. In 2000 they collaborated on the 1st CD bearing that name. The CD was entitled “Nothing”, and was released in 2001. The songs from this CD were featured on the Food Network show, “Food Nation” with Bobby Flay. The band also made special cameo appearances on this show. In May 2002 they released, “At The Tralf” (as Tom so eloquently put it “just in time for Mother’s Day”), a set of live recordings from a December 2001 concert. In April 2003, the band released the 7th CD entitled, “Most Town”. The 8th CD followed in December 2006, “King Of The World”. Tom went back to his roots & recorded an Acoustic CD of some of his favorites along with some new songs in August of 2011. This CD became available for sale in early 2012. The 10th CD entitled “You Are Here, Be Here”, featuring the band was released in May 2014 followed by their 11th CD entitled “This World Right Here” with a release date of July 2016. Tom as a solo artist and with his band mates, has opened for such acts as Three Dog Night, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Loverboy, Joan Osborne, America, Don McLean, Poco, Sara Craig, Black 47, Moxy Fruvous, Tom Cochrane, David Wilcox, Dave Mason, Ron Hawkins [Lowest Of The Low], Artimus Pyle [the original drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd], Blues Legend Buddy Guy, Paul Revere And The Raiders, Leon Russell, Ellis Paul, Martin Sexton, John Sebastian [The Lovin’ Spoonful], Vance Gilbert and Loudon Wainwright III. The Dangerfields have been labeled as R&B, folk, rock, pop, rockabilly, and country. Their sound has been described as a cross between The Eagles, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & the Barenaked Ladies. We call it “Dangerfield-esque”. What everyone DOES agree upon is that this is some of the best songwriting you are likely to hear east of Eden.