Iowa Music Showcase: Other Sources: Iowa Blues Showcase Podcast and the Best of the Blues in Des Moines website

Tom Gary has been part of the central Iowa blues scene for decades.

"Tom Gary is an extraordinarily gifted piano player and singer. He was born and raised in Des Moines where he learned the Blues in high school. He played professionally in college in 1982. Tom moved to Kansas City in 1986 and performed there until 1990 with Lonesome & Dangerous and with John Paul and the Hell Hounds. From 1991-1996 he performed with his own Tom Gary Blues Band in Des Moines and toured with his band in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas. In 1993 he founded the Central Iowa Blues Society in Des Moines. In 1999 he founded the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame in Des Moines. Tom resides in Storm Lake, Iowa where he is an Adjunct Professor of History at Buena Vista University and continues to teach a Blues Series he started in 2005."
(from a Chronicle Times article on The Tom Gary Blues Band)

And he puts all this to good use with a podcast, Iowa Blues Showcase Podcast, and a couple of blogs. One blog, Blues Historian, features the podcast as well as videos and insights that The Blues Historian cares to share. The second blog, Best of the Blues in Des Moines, is actually videos of blues performances in Tom's and my hometown of Des Moines.

Below I've featured an early episode of Iowa Blues Showcase Podcast and the most recent two as of the time of this writing. Below that, I've included the three most popular videos from Best of the Blues in Des Moines.