Tom & DeeAnn are both local award winning vocalists. Although not acquainted personally they were connected on social media. When Tom lost his son Jeff, DeAnn messaged him because she has also experienced the horror of losing her son William.

Join with us as Tom & DeeAnn share their common plight in music & their losses.

From DeeAnn's website:

Hailing from a small steel town outside of Buffalo, DeeAnn was raised in a musical family, learning standards that would eventually become part of her repertoire. In addition to the smooth vocal stylings of her father Frank, she was inspired early on by Buffalo Blue Note legend, DoDo Green and attended multiple jazz jams. During her early days as a pop/rock singer, she won Best Female Vocalist at the Buffalo Music Awards two years in a row. Her later success as a country artist earned her placements on numerous radio CD compilations, resulting in airplay throughout the U.S and Europe. When she returned to music as a jazz-blues singer in the mid-2010’s, she won Best Female Blues Vocalist at the Buffalo Night Life Music Awards and her 2019 EP Stay Here won Best Jazz CD from JazzBuffalo.org. 

The singer soon had a painful story to tell. The tragedy of losing her 23-year-old son William Michael Tompkins to a motorcycle accident, after she and Odel had completed most of the tracks of “It’s My Time’ threw DeeAnn’s life into a tailspin and delayed the project indefinitely. Her original concept was to record an album of old standards, and the two had 90 percent of them.    

When DeeAnn came back to the project she added a few new, very personal songs, starting with a heartrending, gospel-influenced version of “You Are My Sunshine”, a song she sang to William to put him to sleep when he was a child. Odel’s sensitive yet rousing and inspirational production features members of the Buffalo Philharmonic String Quartet (Roman Mekhulnov).

DeeAnn's website: https://deeannmusic.com/

Link to support her son William's Scholarship Fund (click dropdown on "Designation" and select "William Michael Tompkins '16 Scholarship Fund"): https://www.canisiushigh.org/support/gift

DeeAnn's "It's My Time" album: https://music.apple.com/us/album/its-my-time/1692844770

DeeAnn on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3TQejr5SYcgEAec0DJDaEb?si=gXj1hudfQXO_G-gSg0Mtcw

YouTube link to William's Song: https://youtu.be/K7ONV7IUmIU?feature=shared

========================================

Heroes in Grief: www.heroesingrief.com

Help support Heroes in Grief by using our affiliate links to wherever you do your online shopping or ordering. Message Tom at [email protected] to inquire or get a link. No extra charges or any cost to you!

Visit the Heroes in Grief shop for products discussed on the podcast & Tom's suggestions: https://linktr.ee/heroesingrief/shop

You can also directly support us here: https://buymeacoffee.com/heroesingrief

Thank you!!!