Tom Attah is a blues musician and published academic, based in the UK.  

 
Combining the raw power of Son House with the dense hypnotic rhythms of Howlin’ Wolf and the barrel-chested roar of the old blues shouters, Tom’s live shows take audiences on a journey from the Delta to the Download.

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Dr Tom Attah is a practising musician and academic. His Ph.D. was awarded by University of Salford. His research interests include the effects of technology on popular music, particularly blues music and blues culture.

Tom’s teaching and blues advocacy includes theatre and festival performances, workshops, seminars, lectures and recitals delivered to learning institutions, artistic communities and blues dance specialist events in the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, Russia, and the United States. 

As a guitarist and singer, Tom performs solo, with an acoustic duo and as part of an electric band.  Tom's solo acoustic work includes his own original Blues compositions and has led to performances at major music festivals around Europe, including major stages at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, and Blues Autour Du Zinc.  

Tom's original music commissions include composing and performing the music for the HandelHendrix permanent exhibition in Mayfair, London, and Tom's multiple national radio appearances include performances and documentaries for BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, and Sky Arts.

Tom's journalistic writing is regularly featured in specialist music publications including Blues In Britain magazine, and his original research papers and book reviews  are published in several international peer-reviewed  journals.  

Publications:

Attah, T. (2022). “I Been Studying rain”: what do we hear when we listen to the blues of Robert Johnson? M. Alleyne,  L. Burns, W. Moylan  (Eds.), Analyzing Recorded Music: Collected Perspectives. New York, Routledge.

Attah, T. (2022). The boy can’t help it: Little Richard’s disruption and re-construction of black male screen performativity. K. Fairclough & J. Wood (Eds.), Pop stars on film : popular culture in a global market. London: Bloomsbury.

Attah, T. (2020). To make purple, you need blue: Prince as embodiment of the postmodern blues aesthetic. In M. Alleyne & K. Fairclough (Eds.), Prince and Popular Music - Critical Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Life. London: Bloomsbury.

Attah, T. (2018). I thought I heard that up north whistle blow: the role of Manchester and Leeds in the development and dissemination of blues music and blues culture. In E. Mazierska (Ed.), Sounds Northern - Popular Music, Culture and Place in England’s North. Sheffield: Equinox.

Sanjek, D. (2018). Stories we could tell: putting words to American popular music (T. Attah, M. Duffett, & B. Halligan Eds.). London: Routledge

Check out the press kit for more information.