Tommy Joe Smith

I have been around music my entire life. I grew up in the days of the cassette tape and regularly heard Johnny Cash, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Waylon Jennings.

Once I was able to start making some of my own musical choices, those included Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Another early musical influence was John Stamos. (yes, you read that correctly) Uncle Jesse from the t.v. show 'Full House' could play guitar and piano and was an actual drummer for The Beach Boys. (that's why they were always on Full House)

In 1996, I started 6th grade band as a percussionist. Throughout junior high and high school, I was a member of Beginning Band, High School Band, Jazz Band, and Marching Band. But my favorite was playing before school basketball games and during half-time, because that's where we played songs that were on the radio.

This is also around the time that my dad showed me a few chords on the guitar at my request after discovering The Buddy Holly Story.

After graduating high school, I spent a few years in Louisville, Kentucky training to be a professional wrestler, but once returning to Oklahoma, I quickly began acquiring musical instruments and equipment.

In 2011, I and four other guys started a red-dirt, southern-rock, country band called Oklahoma Six-Gun Saints. We spent two years performing live and recorded an album. When the band members decided to go their separate ways, I dug into performing covers on acoustic guitar and piano and began spending many nights watching a local Dueling Piano show to expand my song repertoire and knowledge of audience participation.

In 2016, I began writing songs of my own and opened a private recording studio. Sand Dunes Recording Service encompasses recording and production of my projects, as well as for outside clients, specifically singer-songwriters and duos.

I continue to perform live gigs, at festivals, and attend notable songwriting events, including a workshop at The Church Studio in Tulsa, OK, a Pitch to Publishers week with Barbara Cloyd in Nashville, TN, and a songwriter's weekend with Rock N Roll royalty Jerry Phillips (son of Sam Phillips) at Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis, TN.