artist info

All it takes is a phrase or two from Tom Wopat's warm, engaging baritone to trigger the desire to hear more. And the more one listens, the better it gets -- from the way he finds the heart of a song’s story to his lyrical phrasing and his gently swinging, jazz-infused rhythms.

That’s a large handful of uniquely appealing qualities, and they’re all over the fourteen utterly captivating tunes on I’ve Got Your Number, his eighth album. Tom applies his far-ranging interpretive skills to discovering new, intriguing musical twists in such Great American Songbook classics as “The Good Life,” “Call Me,” “Born To Be Blue,” “I Won’t Dance” and, of course, the title track. As if that wasn’t enough, he also takes his listeners on adventurous new journeys through contemporary songs from the likes of Paul Simon, Judy Collins, Bruce Hornsby and James Taylor. 



At first glance, that could be viewed as a surprisingly diverse program of material from a performer who may be best known for his starring role in the '80s hit television series The Dukes of Hazzard. But his versatility was there from the beginning, and on full display in a career reaching from his television work of the ‘70s and ‘80s to high visibility Broadway roles in 1999’s Annie Get Your Gun and 2008’s Catered Affair (he received Tony Award nominations for both), as well as Chicago, Forty-Second St., Sondheim on Sondheim and more. 
 Tom’s career is still very much in high gear, currently with a role in Quentin Tarantino’s film Django Unchained, scheduled for release in December. His acting work in musicals also continues, with a major role in next year’s ABC Family film, Lovestruck – a movie musical with a magical twist -- in which he co-stars with Jane Seymour. Wopat was also the 2013 recipient of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs Lifetime Achievement award.



But his most appropriate musical orientation didn’t start to become clear to him until he made his first recordings of standards, with a jazz slant. “It happened abruptly,” Tom recalls. “In 1999-2000, when I was doing the Broadway show Annie Get Your Gun, we did a cast album. And the people at Angel asked me if I wanted to make a jazz record. You know, like a Sinatra record. And of course I said yes. But it wasn’t until I actually started making the records of standards, adding pop tunes, giving them jazz treatments, that I realized it was exactly what I aspired to do musically.” 



At a time when male vocal artists have been in fairly short supply, his singing is a welcome addition to the contemporary jazz scene.