T.O.M. is a Guyanese-American whose musicality was nurtured in early childhood while his father rehearsed with his bands such as The Oracles, The Jet Stars, and the Cannonballs. Legend has it some knew he was destined to be musical soon after he entered this realm from my mother’s womb and got a good box from the attending nurse when he didn’t immediately cry. Apparently, he let out such a wail that it moved the nurse and many in the ward to tears, and not all of laughter.

T.O.M.'s musical journey, however, was almost a case of the road not taken. He received his first guitar at 5, but it was destroyed in a freak accident the very next day when his older sister and her friends used it to play Rounders, and it was until age 17, when walking by a pawn shop that a guitar in the window called to him. He bought the guitar, started teaching himself to play, and hasn’t stopped playing since. He also started piano lessons as a child, but begged his parents to stop because the teacher used to lash his fingers with a wild cane or ruler if he played any wrong notes. It’s amazing that he goes anywhere near a piano now. But, when the music calls, he answers.