BLUE GINGER MUSIC
Shannon
Shannon Dahlstedt plays rhythm guitar and mandolin, and lends backup vocals to the band. She is heavily influenced by the music of the Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlile, and loves Americana music. She was formally trained on the piano during childhood before switching focus to stringed instruments as an adult.
Carrie
A native of Tulsa, OK, Carri grew up performing in local community plays and school musicals. While in high school, she participated in a traveling volunteer singing group Trio of Love, performing songs of Amy Grant. After graduating from college she moved to Kentucky and began singing in the contemporary singing group at her local church. She’s been singing in church ever since, doing lead vocals as well singing in the alto section. She joined Blue Ginger in 2022.
Stephen
Stephen began playing guitar as a teen-ager in the Atlanta, GA area. He performed in several high school musical productions and continued actively playing throughout his college days in Richmond, VA. More recently, Stephen continued his musical pursuits as a guitarist in the St. Pius X Church choir in Greensboro for over 16 years. Over the past few years, Stephen has added banjo and mandolin to his repertoire and also contributes vocals to several Blue Ginger selections. He is a fan of several musical genres including rock, folk, alternative and americana and loves to blend these styles into an "acoustic fusion", with the help of his bandmates.
Charlie
Charlie Murphy – Bass & Vocals
Originally from Southern California, Charlie started playing bass early in his high school and college days in various country and rock & roll bands. As the singer-songwriter genre took hold, he became involved with small guitar ensembles performing in local clubs and festivals. Charlie relocated to Birmingham, Alabama in the mid-90’s and performed with the Ron Dometrovich Band and the City Stages festival in downtown Birmingham. Moving to Greensboro, North Carolina in late 2008, Charlie continues his musical journey performing with an all originals group, the Gary Matthews Band and an Americana group, Blue Ginger. He also is the bassist at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro
William
William is a percussionist who has been pursuing his passion for music since childhood. He started playing various percussion instruments during "Carnaval" in Brazil and continued his journey in the United States as part of the New Orleans Carnival Troupe called Casa Samba. After moving to Miami, he performed with various Latino groups. In Greensboro, he co-founded Expresso Brazil, a band specializing in Bossa Nova, Samba, and Brazilian Folk Music, and also co-founded the Nueva Voz band. Presently he performs with Blue Ginger and Mistura Music
Tom
Tom was born in Tennessee and spent his younger years in small-town North Carolina. At age eight his family moved to Miami, Florida where Tom got his first guitar, (a Sears and Roebuck twelve-dollar acoustic) and made his singing debut at the neighborhood Christmas show at age ten. His early childhood music heroes were singers like Elvis and Ricky Nelson, and country artists like Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Waylon Jennings. Ray Charles was one of his all-time favorites. His guitar idols were the early “hot country” style players like James Burton and Don Rich. When he was about fifteen, one of the adult musicians in his neighborhood started taking Tom to the live music bars and Honky-Tonks of Hialeah, Florida (working-class Miami) where he got to sit in with the bands and work on his playing and singing style. By the time he started school at Florida State in 1968, he was looking for other musicians to form a band. There he played with a “Soul” band and a group that tried to clone the Rolling Stones. During the late ’60s and early ’70s, Tom was a disciple of the guitar styles of players like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Steve Cropper. In 1973, Tom and his college friend/bandmate moved to London to pursue the musician’s life. (So, good luck with that!).
Returning to Miami, Tom dropped out of the band scene and began listening to Americana singer-songwriters and country-rock artists. He moved back to North Carolina in 1980 and for the next twenty years was somewhat connected with the music ministry at his church. In 2003, with a wife and two teenage sons into the church music scene, the four of them joined a Praise Band called Freeway, that played at faith-based events around Greensboro. When Tom’s friend and the band’s drummer tragically died, Tom agreed to acquire enough drum skills to keep the band together. He began to play the drum kit for his church choir and has continued to do so for almost two decades.
Over the past ten years Tom and his singer wife, Tita, have participated in Greensboro’s Community Gospel Choir. With 150-plus singers from Greensboro’s African-American churches, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra as “the band” and featuring Grammy-winning solo artists and conductors, the yearly event in the Tanger Center is one not to miss. Tom describes singing in this group as “like a shot of adrenaline straight into the heart.”
As part of the Blue Ginger Band Tom plays electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, and percussion and does lead and harmony vocals.
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