Tom McFarland passed away on the morning of September 3rd, 2004 at his home near Salt Lake City. He was 59 years old. He is survived by his wife, Sue, daughter, Naomi, and son Tom. Please join us in our grief as we say goodbye to a bluesman, friend and inspiration. Click here to see a couple of pictures of Thomas Riley McFarland speaking at the memorial gathering on September 19th, 2004, which was held at the "New Orleans" in Seattle.

Tom McFarland played the blues ever since he fell in love with the sound in the sixties. You can hear years of nightclub dates in that voice and the way he fingerpicked the guitar. Although he did record an album on Arhoolie in 1977, his very best work was saved for the two albums he recorded on the Flying Heart label. (Take a look at the Flying Heart Catalogue ) He certainly had what one might call a distinctive and personal style. If you have trouble getting his CDs from amazon, you can always mail order them from the Flying Heart Label.

Tom had a nomadic lifestyle in the last decade, residing in Vancouver, Portland, Tacoma, Auburn, Jackson, Terre Haute, Spokane and Salt Lake City. He had several of his songs covered by other artistes. His song Voodoo Garden is on Charlie Musselwhite's Grammy-nominated Virgin Records CD, Continental Drifter. Tom's beautiful ballad, Blue Reverie, was recorded on Biograph Records by Kathy Hart. And Margo Tufo recorded a cover of Just Got in from Portland on her "Live at the Candlelight" CD.

Check out a few of Tom's songs on Music Match, an MP3 site.

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Jan Celts, gefunden auf der "Flying Heart"-Homepage im November 2004