Tj Wheeler is an original but his music is steeped in musical styles that go back hundreds of years. Tj transports audiences of all ages to times and places where their imaginations can vividly and vicariously experience the rich history and soul connections of Blues & Jazz power.
It dawned on me…since the original songs inspired or collectively written with my various students from my BITS (Blues in the School programs) were so much a foundation of the NH Cares grant I applied for, that I should at least offer you some rough solo demos I recorded of them at my home. Most of these were written over the course of the Pandemic. The final product will be a FULL Band revue in a live concert (in conjunction with the NH State MLK Coalition) which will be filmed and made available to local community television stations, such as PPMTV in Portsmouth. It will also be made available for schools, churches, libraries, retirement homes, correctional facilities, Civil & Human rights and Arts & music orgs, etc. Other video examples are listed here on my homepage, as well as under the video page. Hope you enjoy them!
Video samples for my recent grant application:
We Learn to Sing Again
Inspiration for the song below came from recently doing a virtual residency at a school, which shortly before I started, had lifted a two year moratorium on the students singing to prevent the spread of the Pandemic. I listened to the students thoughts and reflections over the last 2 + years and later that evening turned it into this song. Two things that struck me the most was 1) a 6 yr. old child confessing that “I forgot my manners & how to treat my friends” & 2) how they said that they literally forgot how to sing! There wasn’t one iota of resentment, or blame in any of their reflections, which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for a broad segment of so-called adults. God bless the child that’s got his own. Children teach your parents well.
Also, here is a link to my page on the Music Museum of New England website, which I was honored to be recently admitted to.
