NEW THOMPSON ARTISTS

TIM STAFFORD, MOLLY TUTTLE, FORREST O’CONNOR and PETE KARTSOUNES

Tim Stafford is a consummate professional, an award winning instrumentalist, prolific songwriter, vocalist, and educator – an everything musician with a longstanding career (25 years) in the award winning band Blue Highway. We appreciate that Tim could hear that vintage sound, warmth and definition of notes in our guitars and ordered a Sunburst Brazilian Dreadnought. He will be using the Thompson as he continues to create and capture the sound of bluegrass, we can’t wait to hear it on a recording. https://timstaffordguitar.com/

Molly Tuttle came by our shop during the 2016 Sisters Folk Festival and took some time to play several of our guitars. This year she decided to order one and the crew has started to build her a Brazilian Rosewood Dreadnought – we want to provide the best tone for her talented fingers. We are extremely happy for her with her win at IBMA for Guitar Player of the Year – a first for a woman player – and wow does she have talent not only as a guitar player, but as a singer/songwriter. We look forward to being along for the ride into her future. The younger generation of bluegrass players is proving to be amazing! https://www.mollytuttlemusic.com/

We are thrilled to announce that Forrest O’Connor recently purchased a Thompson Mahogany Dreadnought and is excited to use his new guitar not only for live performance but also for writing and recording demos with his wife and songwriting partner, Kate Lee. Forrest is a member of the O’Connor Band, whose debut album, Coming Home, recently won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. The album crosses a lot of different stylistic boundaries, and Forrest contributing four original songs to the lineup. It is a family band that also features his wife, his extraordinarily talented father Mark O’Connor, and Mark’s wife Maggie O’Connor. We wish Forrest all the best moving forward with his career and are happy to have another talented young player enjoying the sound of a Thompson. http://www.forrestoconnormusic.com/

A little closer to home Pete Kartsounes, who has been honing his craft for over 20 years in Colorado and all over the world, recently moved to Bend, Oregon. He has recorded and performed with a variety of musical genres from the Jerry Garcia Band to Pearl Jam, Leftover Salmon and Greensky Bluegrass. His band, The Good Time Travelers, call themselves the 2-piece power trio and are not only talented songwriters and players, but fun entertainers! We love having Pete as part of the Thompson family. https://www.petekmusic.com/

Thank you to all our artists for choosing to share our hard work with their listeners. We look forward to hearing how the guitars sound on stage and in future recordings.