History Of BlairOutLoud

Stage Life - Est.1993

Early Music Influence and Discovery

Tom started piano in the 3rd grade and kept active lessons all the way up through high school. In 7th grade, Tom picked up the guitar, and after a period of self-discovery, realized that guitar would end up being a more prominent instrument if he pursued music for a career. Vocally, Tom sang in church growing up, led music services, and participated in choral activities in high school and through-out his college years.

During high school, Tom played guitar in a rock/metal act known as Miller’s Tale. For high schoolers, this band made quite a splash on the Atlanta music scene. Teenagers, who barely just received their driver’s licenses, were performing at some of the biggest venues downtown like The Masquerade, The Roxy, and The Cotton Club, opening for bigger bands on the rise, namely the almighty Stuck Mojo.

Rich Ward, the guitar player for Stuck Mojo, was a huge influence on Tom’s playing style and amp tone. Rich took Miller’s Tale “under his wing” so to speak, and got the band opening spots at The Wreck Room, The Masquerade, and on some out-of-town events in Macon and Warner Robbins. After high school graduation in 1995, Tom left the band to pursue college, but Miller’s Tale reorganized as a four piece and went on to make a sizable dent on the regional and even national indy-rock scene.

Niceguy Metal

In the fall of 1995, Tom began his higher education at Georgia State University. He studied computer information systems at first, but something wasn’t right. After a few years had passed, Tom discovered that the School of Music at Georgia State had just began a program where you could major in Music Business. This felt like the right way to go, so Tom completed a degree, graduating in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Music Industry.

After completing his education, he felt a strong desire to return to the stage. After working local jobs to make ends meet, he re-united with some of the original Miller’s Tale members, and this led to a first post high school metal band effort called Niceguy.

Niceguy was an attempt to bring heavy music to the stage, without all the spikes, leather, and ridiculous typical style that gets associated with heavy metal music. Tom wanted this group to have a “normal” look, no filler, just heavy music with a smile. This group performed in many venues around town and did some light travel, but as stronger songs were written, and performances were starting to tighten up, it became apparent that this band had potential to reach much greater heights. After a few member line-up changes, a re-brand, and new management, in 2004, Colossick was born.

The Colossick Years

According to a wiki search, the “Colossus of Rhoades was a statue of the Greek sun-god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name in 280 BC, and named one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. According to contemporary accounts, it stood close to 108 ft tall, the approximate height of the Statue of Liberty”. Sick is a word that the Urban Dictionary defines as “crazy, cool, or insane”. In 2004, Tom and the guys belabored a new name for the group, working from the same mentality of being super heavy, yet being as approachable, fun, and “normal” as possible. Colossick, “so huge it’s sick” became the joke.. but it stuck!

In early 2005, Colossick released a 5 song EP entitled “The Seed” (still available on iTunes, Spotify, etc - digitally released 2007). The band toured extensively on the EP’s release and even shot a video for the song “Crumble Down”. The video, the making-of, and a documentary of the band was released on DVD in 2006 entitled “This Is My Attitude”, referencing a lyric from Crumble Down, as well as a mindset that the band had as they toured and worked to earn their status as a force to reckon with on the local and regional music scene.

This group was never actually signed to a label, however, they were offered a cross-promotional deal with Jägermeister, which allowed the band to tour regionally with stronger advertising, and better tour support. It also presented the opportunity to open up for much bigger national acts that were also on the Jäger roster. 2007 into ‘08 saw Colossick at the top of the their game, touring the east coast, sharing the stage with bands like Hatebreed and Type O Negative, and a climax came in August of ‘08, as the band was able to perform on the Atlanta stop of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, on the Jäger stage. Colossick performed in front thousands of screaming fans opening the show in front of, among others, Five Finger Death Punch, and Machine Head.

The band continued to tour, and towards the end of ‘08, started putting songs together to record a follow-up to their EP. Unfortunately 2009 was a tough year with the downturn of the economy. Colossick found it difficult to tour with gas prices soaring. The band also struggled to pool money to pay for studio time, and as the year passed, each member had to make the choice to get back into personal life to take care of their families, and sadly, by year’s end, Colossick disbanded.

Entering A New Scene

Tom took a job with Apple in 2010, expressing his interest in recording technology and creative software. This job was engaging and afforded Tom a lot of opportunity, however, it eventually affected the trajectory of Tom’s career path in music, although at this time, he was unaware of its intervention.

A few years into the job, an Apple co-worker asked Tom to join a cover band called Jukebox Zero. Having no real interest in covers at this point, Tom reluctantly decided to take a few gigs. (They were a blast!) Since the beginning of 2010, Tom had also participated in a few events with an out-of-state Alice In Chains Tribute called Jar Of Flies. Both of these efforts were meant to be temporary, but they reminded Tom of what was most important: performing on stage was fun and it came natural. He soon realized that he wanted this back in his life regardless of whether it was through an original effort or performing covers of other artists.

Members of Jukebox Zero introduced Tom to a more permanent AIC Tribute based here in Atlanta called Junkhead. By joining Junkhead, Tom met a whole scene of talented cover musicians that in-turn, invited him into other projects. Tom played guitar for a modern hard rock cover band called XVI, as well as a classic rock group that played a lot of biker events, called SMAC. Tom eventually let go of XVI, but up through mid-2018, he remained focused on SMAC and Junkhead until finally throwing in the towel on both groups as he discovered availability for three new opportunities…

2018 Opportunities

1) Beginning in 2018, Tom was asked to play guitar for a new female-lead project focused on 90’s alternative chick rock. You Oughta Know was created to pay tribute to great female rock voices from the 90’s, and Tom’s upfront role on guitar changed as keyboards and electronic elements were added into the mix. The real fun began when Tom invited wife, Amanda Blair, into the group to handle the keyboards and additional vocal duties. This group stormed onto the scene and received a great response as two females led the group front and center. Tom was happy to have Amanda onstage with him at these shows and it fueled later efforts where he and Amanda could play gigs and events together as a duo. (More on that further down).

2) The bass player of You Oughta Know was also a guitar player and leader of a Foo Fighters Tribute Band called Fighting Foos. Tom was asked to join this five-piece, three-guitar powerhouse, performing two and a half hours worth of Foo’s material for each show. This was another amazing opportunity Tom participated in during the band’s 2018-2019 run.

3) And last but certainly not least.. Tom’s third opportunity that cranked up during the year of 2018 (now changed to BlairOutLoud TRIO in 2021) was to join the power-trio party rock band called Leonard Koggins Trio. Friend and former manager of Colossick, Tom Carling, had this simple bar band going for many years with a different guitarist who was the singer. But in 2018, Carling was looking for a replacement. Leonard Koggins Trio, LK3 for short, busted onto the scene with Tom Blair recruited. And to this day, this band continues to receive rave reviews for sound, stage production, song choice, and overall fun. Ask Tom about Lenny Koggins vs. Kenny Loggins… It’s a running band-lore perfect for understanding the comedy and fun factor of the group.

“You’re loud, you’re outspoken, you’re entertaining.. You’re BlairOutLoud!”

2018 was the year that Tom began searching for a way to combine love for all things music: live performance, knowledge, gear review, culture, personal experiences, etc, etc, into a single labelled brand. It seemed daunting, but Tom believed that bringing it all together would allow opportunity to thrive. Tom’s wife Amanda stated the quote above.. and after a little convincing, Tom embraced the BlairOutLoud brand name.

After bringing all social accounts into alignment, Tom created a BlairOutLoud YouTube channel with the purpose of becoming a musician “video influencer”, where he would upload gear reviews, interview other musicians, and create creative content focused around studio workflows. As this effort was just getting off the ground, Tom’s performance schedule kicked into high gear, and the reality of rehearsing, performing, scheduling, writing music, mixing music, shooting video, editing video, and maintaining a family life, all started to falter. Here’s the original trailer for the channel as he was just starting it and developing a strategy:

247 gigs in 2019

By 2019, the live performance schedule was on fire. Tom was performing regularly with You Oughta Know, the Fighting Foos, and with Leonard Koggins Trio every month. And if there was a day during the week outside of the band performing, Tom filled weekdays and weekend dates with BlairOutLoud solo acoustic gigs. Tom’s studio projects, video influencer efforts, and other general free-time was extremely limited. The income was good, but the time investment was a strain.

Tom decided that a re-structuring of that intense schedule would be a top priority moving into 2020. Some internal moves were made within the organization, however, in March of 2020, the world-wide pandemic of Covid-19 took all viable plans off the table. Tom literally lost every single gig opportunity on the calendar almost within one week’s time. This was a sobering reminder that just shifting business priorities around was no longer just an option, this became the only thing that could be done.

2020 WAS.. OKAY.. HONESTLY.. NOT TERRIBLE

Despite the various negative effects of the pandemic, Tom’s gig schedule in 2020 (after March and April) picked back up fairly steady moving into Summer and Fall. You Oughta Know and Fighting Foos did go on hiatus (still are on hiatus). But the Leonard Koggins Trio (LK3) and what we eventually starting called LK3+, meaning the LK3 guys with the addition of Amanda Blair on keys, ended up having a pretty great year, all things considered. And the glue that held it all together, the BlairOutLoud SOLO acoustic gigs, picked back up and were strong to close out 2020. Check out the “Book A Private Party” blog entry!

Kudos to those that hired the band and supported our efforts all through a rough 2020!

Current offerings

So here we are presently in 2023… BlairOutLoud is still a strong promotional tool used to promote Tom’s solo and band events.

Current offerings include SOLO, DUO, TRIO, and BAND under the umbrella of BlairOutLoud!

Most recently, in addition to this website, Tom now has a new BIO page, linking the latest blog entries, video, older articles, and newest links all on the same simplified page: CHECK IT OUT HERE!

The Tom Blair Official Timeline Wiki:

FULL PAGE - COMING SOON! This Timeline will include fun facts and special notes around important years with special milestones including and detailing every project (and members of); solo, duo, full band, original, cover, studio, etc Tom has ever participated in, from 1990 to present!