Thomas A. Hyslop Jr. was born in Marquette, Michigan, on May 20, 1963. He graduated from Marquette Senior High School, class of 1980. Tom received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan (Honors English) in 1984, and attended Cornell University’s Ph.D. program.  Those are the “stats”…..there was much more to Tom.

Tom understood the art of the deadline and had the fortitude to face the blank page for decades. He also had the courage to apply his considerable talents to something he truly loved and cared deeply about.

I first became aware of Tom’s writing from his days working for Blues Revue magazine in the 90’s. His work stood out to me as a beacon of truth surrounded by waters that reeked of bullsh*t. This of course pre-dates social media and smart phones. The concept of an online presence was non-existent.

Many of you remember how this worked. You would walk into a record store (remember those places),  then you would head straight to the newsstand and flip through one or more of a handful of national blues publications which existed back in the day.  After that, you’d head straight to the bins. If Tom Hyslop recommended an album, I would buy it and was always glad I did. This total stranger was not only a great writer, but damn it, he also had great taste in music. If he didn’t like a particular recording, he would tell you that too and tell you why. This represented a true service to the music and the listener which really doesn’t exist anymore. 

Way back in 2009, I started writing about blues music. I had an informal “Word Press” site where I began to float CD reviews and other essays into the cyber world. The response I received was immediate and universally positive except from people who identified themselves as being part of the blues “community.” These types wanted to know where I was going with all of this writing and what was my agenda.  A more insecure bunch of lemmings would be hard to find.

Blues journalists just wanted to know where I came from and why hadn’t they heard of me. Their letters began with, “I read that piece you wrote about…… You have obviously been doing this for a very long time, why haven’t I heard of you?” I wrote all of them back and told them the truth, which was, I’m not new to writing and I’m not new to listening to blues music, but I’m new to combining these two great loves. All the correspondences from other music journalists in this field ranged from back handed compliments to outright hostility to my entering into this field.

Even though it was unpleasant, all I could do was interpret this negativity as a compliment. I wasn’t going away and I reasoned that if I’m making others in this field feel uncomfortable, I must be doing something right. This led directly to BLUES JUNCTION and the feature driven, monthly, online magazine which you are now reading.

Then I heard from my hero, Tom Hyslop.

It meant everything to me to get a correspondence from a man who I had been reading for years. He was everything one would hope a hero would be. He was genuine, welcoming, very helpful, honest and encouraging.

Like everyone else, we both stepped onto the Facebook social media platform and boarded that train not knowing where it would lead. It led to me finally getting an image of a real person to go along with his words.

I recognized that he had a physical style and comportment that I had long associated with his writing. His prose was lean and stylish. Like his coiffure, he was uplifting. Just like the numerous photos of himself, applauding the USPS and holding up a CD that they had delivered to him, he left his readers smiling.

One of the universal traits of a Tom Hyslop CD review was that he never made it about himself. There was never a hint of self-aggrandizement in his writing. He kept the focus where it belonged, on the music and on the musicians. Many of us do what Tom did, he just did it better.

The other thing I enjoyed about Tom was, as I mentioned, he had good taste. That of course is a very subjective thing, but without blowing your minds too much, it really isn’t. There is such a thing as bad music and bad blues might be as painful as it gets. It was comforting to me that Tom understood this.

Tom and I discussed this aspect of the modern blues world. I was thrilled to learn Tom stood behind a microphone and addressed an assemblage in Memphis last year after receiving an award the Blues Foundation gave him for 'Keeping the Blues Alive'. He said, “I think honesty is important. If the music is great, let's champion it, by all means. If it's not, I think we're obliged to say so. It's a reality that some things are objectively better than other things and that's true even in matters of taste. I don't feel we do anybody, not the artists nor the audience nor the industry favors by giving participation medals to everyone. That falsely elevates some music and the collateral damage is to artists and the music of real value.”

He went on to say, “I think we also need to face the fact that too much music with too little connection to the blues is being sold as blues today. There's a danger in that. We need to admit that our enjoyment of something doesn't qualify it as being blues. I can like a lot of other music, but I don't have to claim it's blues to claim it's good.”

Several years ago, I got up enough courage to ask Tom if he would participate in a project that I had rattling around in my brain. The piece which has appeared in our annual, January “Best of…” edition is called Dave’s Top Ten List of Top Ten Lists. Tom jumped at the idea and has been a part of this feature ever since. In fact, our last correspondence took place on December 16^th, 2019, when he provided me with his top list for this past year.

At some point, several years ago, Tom confided to me he had cancer. As he gone public with his cancer, he expressed himself on Facebook and with others as he always had…with clarity and dignity. His last Facebook post was as classy a way to exit the backstage area as I’ve ever seen or could possibly imagine. I was deeply moved by our friend’s farewell. Who couldn’t be profoundly and positively affected by the genuine outpouring of love that was returned to Tom before his passing?  Here was a man being ravaged by cancer and he was still teaching us about love, about humanity and about the cold hard facts of life.

Tom left us on January 2^nd. This represents a massive loss to the blues world. For me, he was a mentor, confidant and friend who I will miss dearly. That enemy called the blank page, which Tom conquered with such consistency and grace, just got a lot bigger.

-  David Mac

Editor’s Note: I would like to thank Aaron Tubric of Atlanta, Georgia, for transcribing Tom’s 'Keeping the Blues Alive' acceptance speech from some very sub-standard audio. He also shared the entire speech on his Facebook page from where I extrapolated the comments I used in this piece. I urge our readers to check that out, it’s a testament to Tom’s eloquence.