Biography

Bassist - Vocalist - Songwriter - Recording Artist - Producer

Over the past 27 years, Dave Pomeroy has become a prime example of the Nashville music scene's increasing creative diversity. Consistently on the cutting edge of musical and conceptual innovation, Dave has established himself as a world class bassist, performer, writer, and producer.

Dave has played electric and acoustic basses on over 400 albums with a diverse range of artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Willie Nelson, Elton John, Emmylou Harris, Peter Frampton, and The Chieftains. He has played on Grammy-winning recordings with Kathy Mattea, Alison Krauss, Earl Scruggs, and Guy Clark, and has performed in concert with Steve Winwood, John Fogerty, Dr. John, Patty Loveless, Mose Allison, and many others. His TV and video work includes appearances with Chet Atkins, Earl Klugh, Eric Johnson, Dickie Betts, and Vince Gill. He has recorded in the studio with world-renowned players such as Mark O'Connor, Kenny Aronoff, Jim Horn, Chuck Leavell, and Adrian Belew, and has worked with many top producers, including John Mellencamp, Barry Beckett, Michael Omartian, Bones Howe, and Owen Bradley.

In 1991, Pomeroy was named "Studio Musician Of The Year" by Nashville's Metro Magazine, and his band, Tone Patrol, was named "Jazz Band Of The Year" in 1990 and 1991. In February, 1997 he was voted "Outstanding Bassist" at the third annual Nashville Music Awards, and in July 1997, he was named the first annual Gibson-Tobias "Bassist of the Year". He has been a member of the prestigious Advisory Board of Bass Player magazine since 1994, joining such bass luminaries as Stanley Clarke, Jack Bruce, and Marcus Miller. He is one of twelve studio players profiled in author Jennifer Pierce's book "Playin' Around - The Lives and Careers of Famous Session Musicians", published in 1998 by Scarecrow Press. Dave is also featured in Miller Freeman Books' instructional book, "Modern Bass Masters", by Keith Rosier, released in February 1999. He also contributed a chapter as a writer to “The Bass Player Book”, published by Miller Freeman in 2000.

In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Pomeroy has evolved as a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He has recorded his own songs as an artist with The Scratch Band, Blue Monday, Tone Patrol, Three Ring Circle, and as a solo artist on Earwave Records. He co-wrote the title track of Chet Atkins' 1997 Columbia CD, "The Day Finger Pickers Took over The World", and has had cuts by Don Williams, The Riptones and others. He was musical director and associate producer of Don's "Best Of...Live" album, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, London, England in 1993. Dave co-produced three cuts on blues/folk icon Rory Block's 1994 CD "Angel Of Mercy" (Rounder), which won the NAIRD award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year. He produced 2 CDs for Canadian singer-songwriter Rick Tippe that have yielded six 'Top 20' and three 'Top 10' singles on the Canadian country charts, winning Rick the Canadian CMA "Independent Artist of the Year" award in Sept. 1998. He also co-wrote and produced Canadian Reese Klaiber’s Top 30 single “Cowboy Up”, from the CD Where I Come From, named one of the "Top Ten Canadian Country CDs of the Year" in 1998. Recently he has produced artist projects for Christine Kane, Finnish pop singer Alice, The Neil Scott Johnson Band, and Lorianna Matera.

Along the way, Pomeroy has created a number of Nashville musical traditions as a conceptualizer, promoter, and performer. From 1993 to 1997, Dave's "Monday Night Madness", a weekly show at Nashville's legendary Exit/In, presented an eclectic variety of live music. Dave hosted the show, playing solo and accompanying his many guests, including Duane Eddy, Sam Bush, and Lucinda Williams. Many of these performances were recorded and subsequently broadcast on WPLN's popular "Players and Poets" radio show. From 1987 to 1998, Dave's annual "Blue Christmas" benefit concert for "Room In The Inn", a Nashville coalition for the homeless, featured superb performances and surprise "mystery guests" over the years, such as Trisha Yearwood, Raul Malo, and Steve Wariner. In 1994, the first annual "Basses Loaded" concert, produced by Pomeroy in conjuction with Bass Player Magazine, marked the debut of Dave's All-Bass Orchestra, performing his compositions for multiple basses. This unique all-bass event was an eagerly anticipated highlight of the Summer NAMM convention, from 1994 to 1998. The 1996 show was filmed, and the resulting live concert video "The Day The Bass Players Took Over The World", which Dave produced and directed, is distributed worldwide by Warner Brothers .

In 1996, Dave founded Earwave Records, which released his critically acclaimed solo debut, "Basses Loaded", followed by the "Blue Christmas" benefit CD, a long form concert video of the 1996 "Basses Loaded III" concert, and Tone Patrol's innovative instrumental album "Thin Air", which is also an interactive CD-ROM. Dave's 2003 solo release "Tomorrow Never Knows" has been universally hailed by critics and listeners as one of the most innovative and musical bass albums ever recorded. The debut Cd from Three Ring Circle, Dave's new trio project with Rob Ickes on Dobro and Andy Leftwich on Mandolin and Fiddle was released in March 2006.

In July 1997, Dave’s bass column "Off The Deep End" made its debut in Bass Player magazine. In January 1998, GHS Strings launched a campaign of full page ads featuring Dave in major music magazines around the world. Dave's solo performance at "Bass Day '97" in New York City with John Patitucci, Tony Levin, Billy Sheehan and other bass luminaries, was filmed by Warner Brothers/DCI Music Video, and released worldwide in January 1998 as an instructional video.  In 2005, SWR Amplifiers began running a series of full page ads in music magazines all over the world featuring Dave and bass legend Michael Manring.
 
In 1999, Dave created and hosted "Nashville Unlimited", a radio series produced for Nashville Public Radio, featuring "live in the studio" performances and interviews with a diverse range of Nashville's finest singers, songwriters, and musicians. The series aired on Nashville Public Radio and other regional markets in 1999 and 2000. Starting in December 2000, his annual Nashville Unlimited Christmas Concert has become an annual event benefiting “Room In The Inn”, with an impressive guest list including John Prine, Maura O'Connell, Tim O'Brien, Jon Randall, and the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble. The recordings of the show have aired on local radio stations as "NU Christmas Specials". Earwave Records released a"Best of Nashville Unlimited Christmas Vol. 1 CD" in 2004. Over the past 14 years, Dave has raised over $50,000 for the Room In The Inn homeless program with his benefit concerts.
 

Pomeroy's latest activity includes a busy studio schedule, live shows with the Jon Randall, Jim Rooney, and Three Ring Circle, in addition to his solo gigs, and the continued expansion of Earwave Music and his home studio, The Groove Palace. He has written the foreword for noted music historian Jim Roberts' latest book "American Basses" which will be published in May 2003 by Backbeat Books. In March 2005, Dave began writing a new column for Bass Player magazine called "Retro-Rama", featuring a profile of a different "cool and unusual" bass from the past every month. He has become very active in the American Federation of Musicians, as an Executive Officer of Nashville's Local 257 and also as President of the Nashville Recording Musicians Association.

Transcending stereotypes while respecting and building on musicial tradition, Dave is looking ahead to a bright future in Nashville - and beyond!