Tommy Scifres, Last Legs

A staple of Nashville's modern-day music community, Tommy Scifres has spent more than a dozen years onstage, on the road, and in the recording studio. He's been a frontman, sideman, and multi-instrumentalist, playing more than 500 shows with acts like Aaron Lee Tasjan, Brian Wright, and Los Colognes.

With Last Legs, Scifres reintroduces himself as a solo artist. It's an album that blurs the borderlines between genres, combining American and British influences into a mix of pop melody, rock & roll muscle, and sharp songwriting. Call it classic power-pop for the contemporary world. Call it a crystallization of the sound Scifres has been honing for years, from his childhood years in Greensboro, NC, to an adulthood largely logged in Nashville. Tommy Scifres is certainly no newcomer, but he breathes new life into an acclaimed career with Last Legs, shining a light on the full range of his abilities along the way.

"I grew up a huge fan of the Beatles," he says. "I've always loved artists who combine classic songwriting with a certain sort of attitude, like Nick Lowe, Teenage Fan Club, Big Star, and Dave Edmunds. With Last Legs, I wanted to create pop songs with rock & roll attitude."

Scifres began recording Last Legs in 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic brought his touring schedule — including an ongoing stint in Aaron Lee Tasjan's band, culminating in critically-lauded albums like Karma For Cheap and concert tours with icons like Cheap Trick to a halt. He was already a longtime songwriter, having strummed his first originals as a member of North Carolina's Americana and jam-band circuit. Since relocating to Nashville in 2014, though, he'd spent much of his time playing for other artists. Tommy was the ideal bandmate: a talented guitarist, bassist, and singer who added tone and texture to the songs he touched. Last Legs offered a different opportunity, though, allowing him to present a singular vision of his own sound. Working at The Cabin Studio in East Nashville, he kept the guest list small, tag-teaming the album's production and instrumental duties with Matty Alger. Brandon Bell engineered and mixed the recording sessions, with Aaron Lee Tasjan making an appearance on the woozy, spacey ballad "It's so Hard to Put You Down."

From the bright, piano-propelled bounce of "What's at the Bottom of Your Heart" to the glam-rock stomp of "Evolution," Last Legs casts a wide net, glued together by a musician who's never before defined his ambition so clearly. It's the sound of an artist hitting his stride. The album may be called Last Legs, but for Tommy Scifres, the road goes on forever.