The Undiscovered: Tom Dionne

Michigan fingerstylist Thomas Dionne submitted his 1999, all instrumental, fingerstyle guitar CD What The Heart Knows, a soulful acoustic recording delivered straight from the heart of the artist. The bluesy "Carmen L. Lucky" is a delightful inclusion on Dionne's CD, which overall, contains sufficient stylistic variety to maintain listener interest from beginning to end. The strings seem to speak on tracks such as "Halibut Madness", from its harmonic, almost harp-like opening to its reflective and cinematic verses. Perhaps a soundtrack for life in Northern Michigan, or simply good music in its own right; in either case, fans of evocative fingerstyle guitar should give Dionne's CD careful consideration.

Thomas has been playing music since he was a teenager in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Starting on an old Stella guitar and a Mel Bay chord book, he began playing along with old Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four, Ian and Sylvia and Tom Rush records. He later began playing out all around Southern Michigan. Thomas then taught himself to read music and studied music theory. Influenced by players such as Ry Cooder, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Leo Kottke and Stefan Grossman, he gradually developed an interest in instrumental guitar and decided to focus on fingerstyle.

Dionne plays live often now, and hopes to retire from his day job soon, to concentrate on his music and to record and release more CDs.

Thomas Dionne
United States