J.P. Thom-Gronachan

Born & bred in Buffalo NY, 1949, moved to Arizona in 1977, settled outside of Marana, AZ, (about 40 miles northwest of Tucson out in the Sonoran Desert) in 1997. Cornet lessons age 8 to 15, branched out to folk music in high school. Started teaching myself guitar in 1965 after quitting the cornet, but bootstrapped myself with what I had learned already.

Over the years, I’ve played most everything and started teaching private lessons in 1976. Currently, my specialties are the ‘folk strings’ & free reeds. My latest (since 2007) darling is a nice Paolo Soprani B/C box, 4 reeds, 2 switches. It took me several years to get a basic understanding of it and am finally able to assimilate tunes at a reasonable rate.

I attend 2 sessions in Tucson, regularly, and occasionally get to one or another of the Phoenix sessions. I was turned on to the session . org a year or so ago.