cPrescott has a thriving music scene. Every day there are bars, clubs, theatres, churches, open-mic nights and other venues hosting musical acts from the nationally known to local talent. For every singer and player seen on stage there are many people behind the scenes. Aside from the technical folk there’s the promoter, the person with the connections, the management skills, and the unique ability to navigate and balance the world of both the artists and the businesspeople. They’re the liaison between art and commerce, doing the hard work of actually bringing the entertainment to the stage. For the past few decades in Prescott there’s been no greater musical promoter and advocate than Tom Agostino.
Shortly after Tom landed in Prescott in 2002, he launched and hosted The Folk Sessions, a public radio show on KJZA-FM. The show ran on the radio from 2002 to 2021, when the station was sold. It transitioned to a Soundcloud podcast and ran another four years, till 2024. As a tireless advocate for acoustic music here, The Folk Sessions also became a concert series, and Tom became a central figure on the local music scene.
Originally aired at various times on Saturday nights, Tom and his co-host, singer-songwriter Alexa MacDonald, featured their own studio performances and music by the best of Prescott’s local talent as well as nationally recognized acts. Soon The Folk Sessions began producing First-Friday concerts at the Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Hall. Tom says, “Live music unites a community,” and has worked diligently over the years to bring live acoustic music to Prescott.
Tom is a promoter, but he’s a player first, which uniquely informs and enhances his sensitivity as the liaison between the artist and the venue. As a performer he’s played all over Prescott, often with his wife Christa, a singer and guitarist, and sometimes with their granddaughter Savannah Rose. Music unites communities and families.
Born into an Italian-American family in Brooklyn, Tom’s first instrument was the electric bass, a gift from his father, but he discovered it was difficult to play bass and sing at the same time, so he switched to guitar. He still has a bass, but it sits in the corner with his electric guitar, mostly unplayed, his Guild acoustic guitar getting the most stage and studio time. Music was a huge part of his home-life growing up, listening to classics of the era, Sinatra, etc. With an artistically supportive family Tom was comfortable following his musical path, as was his younger brother, a successful performance artist in New York City today.
Tom spent 1970 and 1971 in Detroit, where he studied at Wayne State University. Not especially academically inclined, he went to work for an organization called Open City, where he was essentially a social worker, working the streets advocating for the poor and homeless. The building where Open City was housed had a basement that doubled as a rehearsal space, where Ted Nugent and Iggy Pop could be heard practicing at night. It was in Detroit where Tom produced his first concert and really began his musical career.
After Detroit and a couple of years in Toronto, Tom moved to western Canada, where he produced and played a lot in the Vancouver area, including what he remembers as his worst venue ever, a logging camp, where he played acoustic guitar after the strippers had left the stage. He played in a Canadian band that was invited to play a festival in California and discovered he really liked the place, the weather especially, and after returning to Canada after the festival he turned right around and moved to California.
In Los Angeles Tom worked in graphic design and had his own company doing work for broadcast marketing. Later, in Prescott, he continued some graphic design work for Yavapai College, and he did all the marketing and graphics for The Folk Sessions and a few other local clients. Christa is also a graphic designer, running GMG Arts here in Prescott, and still retains a few LA clients. (I work with many graphic designers, including Christa, and I’ve always been happy with how she’s presented my photography.)
In LA Tom also became a music promoter and artist-and-repertoire guy. This refers to the department of a record label, publishing company or independent organization that’s responsible for scouting talent, artist development and managing the creative and commercial aspects of an artist’s career. He was an event producer and did the advance work. He produced everything from a one-ring circus to the utterly huge Us Festival, which in 1983 featured a who’s-who of major music acts of the time. Tom recounted that “In LA everyone’s got a demo tape — the waiter at the restaurant, the pool guy, the doorman, everybody — and the scary-funny thing? They’re all good!” Yes, the talent pool is deep, but talent needs a lot of drive, and connections, including a good promoter.
Moving to Prescott in 2002 he expected his music career was over, but he wasn’t quite done after all. He met Warren Miller, the education director of Sharlot Hall Museum, who was involved in the Prescott Folk Festival, who asked Tom to emcee on one of the stages. Through the Folk Festival Tom was introduced to a new radio station, KJZA. At the time KJZA aired two locally produced music shows, Two-Lane Blues and Coyote Radio Theater and he was asked to produce a third, which became The Folk Sessions.
Thanks to Tom’s time both on stage and behind the scenes he’s had the opportunity to meet many contemporary musicians, spend time with them and get to know them. These are the people who provide the soundtracks of our lives, and to actually spend a little time with them is rare and enlightening. Some are eccentrics, some are geniuses, some are jerks, and most are just normal people like you and me who just happen to have amazing jobs. Tom says: “Getting to do a radio show in Prescott for over 19 years was a truly awesome experience and I got to meet an incredible amount of wonderful, talented, quality musicians, artists and community leaders. We brought some amazing musicians and events to town. I am very grateful to the folk friends we made along the way.”
Unlike some anti-streaming musicians (Neil Young and Donald Fagan come to mind), Tom has no real issues with modern streaming music versus owning a physical copy. He understands how the listener, the “music consumer,” has changed over time and the average listener doesn’t really care about “audiophile” quality. They’re more into speed and convenience. Of course there are exceptions like the hardcore vinyl-record people, but Tom’s view is that’s on the listener. Most original music recordings these days are top-notch. Ironically, as an ex-music radio host, he says he still gets demo tapes nearly every day, many of the CD and even four-track cassette-tape variety!
Tom has seen many changes in the Prescott music scene over the years. We’re seeing fewer A-list acts coming because he isn’t actively courting them anymore. To fill the space he’s leaving, someone will have to step up and be the musician’s advocate and promoter. Prescott is a Western town and so much of the prevailing music here is of the folk/acoustic, singer-songwriter variety, with some blues or country-western flavor. Aware of local preferences, we did have a laugh realizing there likely won’t be many synth-pop or progressive bands playing Prescott. You’ll hear more twelve-strings than Moogs around here!
Essentially he put on one to two concerts per month for 22 years. Now he’s moved to pop-up concerts for certain select acts. He’ll be playing more than he is promoting these days. He’s ready to mentor someone who wants to continue the local music promotion he began over twenty years ago. And that’s the tough question; will anyone continue what Tom has begun? The Prescott music scene has changed dramatically over the past two decades, the old rules no longer apply and we’re still making up the new ones as we go. It’s hard to predict where the music industry is going and just as difficult to foretell where the local scene is going.
A typical question I always ask creatives is, “Any advice for the up-and-coming musician?” It’s a simple question with difficult answers. Tom acknowledges that the road is long. Play, practice and rehearse. Learn the craft. Rise above the “living-room concert” status of a small town and hit the road, move to a more musical mecca, or both. You’ll need relentless drive — and a good promoter!
Tom took the long road from New York to Canada to California to Prescott. And we’re glad his musical journey brought him here, because without him and The Folk Sessions Prescott’s music scene would not be as dynamic as it is. Tom is truly Prescott’s official Godfather of Folk.
