Meet Alan Tompkins of Bluegrass Heritage Foundation

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Tompkins.

A native of the farming and coal mining country of western Kentucky, Alan grew up steeped in the sounds of classic country, gospel, and bluegrass music. Like many others, he first sang in the country church he attended as a child.

His mother, an accomplished singer, piano player, and piano teacher, encouraged him to play piano by giving him lessons for a few years. But as soon as he got his hands on an old Kalamazoo electric bass, the piano lessons were over!

He played and sang with several bands, and was the bassist and a singer in the worship band at his home town church in Madisonville, Kentucky. There he learned from many talented musicians who had played and recorded professionally (or later would).

He moved to Dallas in 1983, where he would earn MBA and law degrees at SMU. His career kept him busy for the next two decades, but the musical fire never burned out.

After befriending Texas country artist Deryl Dodd, his desire to play live music again roared to life. His love of bluegrass, the music of his home state, motivated him to learn banjo, upright bass, and other instruments used in traditional bluegrass.

He had the privilege of sharing the stage with many talented musicians and singers, including GRAMMY® winner Rusty Goodman of the Happy Goodman Family, ACM New Male Vocalist Nominee Deryl Dodd, National Heritage Fellow (and Texas fiddle legend) Jim “Texas Shorty” Chancellor, John R. Bowman, Kenny & Amanda Smith, Steve Huber, Ron Stewart, Gerald Jones, Nate Lee, Steve Rhian, and many others.

It was a thrill for him to produce and record his solo album, entitled No Part of Nothin’, in 2012. The cast of players and singers on the project hold dozens of IBMA and GRAMMY® award wins and nominations among them. The list includes many of his musical heroes, including Sam Bush, Deryl Dodd, Kenny & Amanda Smith, Ron Stewart, Stephen Mougin, Gerald Jones, Greg Cahill, Ned Luberecki, Mike Bub, Randy Kohrs, Brad Davis, Nate Lee, Bobby Davis, and Steve Rhian.

He is the founder and President of the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation, a non-profit 501c3 charitable organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of bluegrass music in America. The Foundation produced and distributed Fanning the Fire, an award-winning documentary short film about bluegrass music that has screened in more than 20 film festivals across the United States, in 2011. He’s also a proud graduate of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Leadership Bluegrass program of 2009 and served as the Committee Chair from 2011-2014. He received the IBMA Momentum Award for Industry Involvement in 2015, and presently serves on the IBMA board of directors and the board of the Foundation for Bluegrass Music.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Most Texans aren’t familiar with, and don’t think they are fans of, bluegrass music – until they hear it. We sometimes have a hard time getting people to pay attention when we explain that we present incredibly talented award-winning artists who play bluegrass. But when those people come out to one of our events and hear bluegrass played live right in front of them by serious musicians, they get hooked! We’ve had to work hard over the past 10 years or so to build a base of folks who want to come out and support live bluegrass, but we’ve kept after it, little by little every day, and made great progress.

One of the most enjoyable things about bluegrass music is that the musicians and the fans are truly like family. I know of no other genre of music where almost every artist comes out to greet the crowd, sign autographs, take pictures, and generally socialize after a performance – but they do in bluegrass! And about half of all bluegrass audiences also play a bluegrass instrument, so there’s a definite connection between the performers and artists. That connection was one of the big things that drew me in to the bluegrass music “family” – bluegrass folks know how to make you feel at home.

Please tell us about Bluegrass Heritage Foundation.
The Bluegrass Heritage Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2008, exists to preserve and promote the heritage of bluegrass music in America. We focus on presenting bluegrass music and bluegrass music festivals in Texas. We’re managed by an all-volunteer staff that loves to make bluegrass music happen in Texas. We work to educate people about our favorite kind of music in many ways, such as programs and workshops, public performances of bluegrass music, and the Bluegrass Heritage Radio Show. Because of our partnerships with cities around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, many of our bluegrass music festivals are free with no ticket required.

Our most important effort is our Play It Forward!™ free bluegrass instrument lending program for young people. Working with bluegrass associations and music teachers, Play It Forward!™ the program helps to foster music literacy and performance skills in deserving young people (ages 8-21) who want to learn to play bluegrass music by providing no-cost access to the primary bluegrass musical instruments – mandolins, fiddles, banjos, guitars, and resonator guitars.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.BluegrassHeritage.org
• Email: info@bluegrassheritage.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluegrassheritage
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bgheritagefndn

Image Credit:
Bob Compere
Derrick Birdsall
Nathaniel Dalzell
Alan Tompkins

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