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Tom Godleski - Bass and Vocals

Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, Tom’s mother took him to the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival where he developed a love for mountain music. Tom was influenced by the early recordings of music legends Johnny Cash, Doc Watson, John Denver, and later Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. Tom began his musical career at the age of 29 when he and his high school friend, James Hembree, began performing in various country, rock, blues, and bluegrass bands. In 1997, Tom began what would become the bluegrass band, “Buncombe Turnpike.” Tom has had two short stories published. One in The Timber Creek Review, and one in Words of Wisdom literary magazines. He has also written two plays. One called “A Buncombe Turnpike Sunset,” which the band performed on two occasions at the Folk Art Center in Asheville. The other play, written in 2008 is titled’ Fresh Preserves.” The play “Fresh Preserves,” is based on Tom’s 2008 solo album with the same name. This play won the 2009 Scriptfest playwright’s competition at The Southern
Appalachian Repertory Theatre at Mars Hill College. “Fresh Preserves,” the play, was chosen from over two hundred submissions, and was staged at SART in December of 2010. Tom also wrote the song, “Black Sedan’ A music video of the song was produced by Legacy Films. The video was entered in CMT’s very first “Music City Madness” online video contest in the spring of 2007. The video finished in the top eight in the country. Buncombe Turnpike was the only all acoustic band in the competition. Tom is a member of The North Carolina Storytelling Guild. He is a kindergarten teacher assistant at Claxton Elementary School in Asheville, and also owns a small lawn mowing business. Tom's talents are, vocalist, songwriter, bassist, and harmonica player. Tom's other interests are woodcarving, landscaping, writing short stories, story telling, and rock work. Tom lives on the property that his grandfather bought in 1944, the same property where Tom grew up. Tom lives there with his wife, and high school sweetheart Terri. They have a small flock of Shetland Sheep, five dogs, four cats, and their horses, Satchel and Tucker. Terri and Tom have two grown sons, Taylor and Bryan.
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