Tom Stevens

Early life Stevens was born and raised in Elkhart, Indiana Classically trained, he received scholarship offers from several universities to study double bass, but turned them all down, as he wanted to play rock music. "The thought of either playing in a symphony orchestra or teaching music in a high school did not appeal," he said. Magi reunited for a one-off show in August 1994 at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds

Early solo work As Magi was dissolving, Stevens began looking for bands and session work in Los Angeles. He found several bands, but "none that I felt were worth my time," he said. The only session work he found was for "some disco singer that was doing an update on "Sealed with a Kiss." While Stevens later said that the EP was a good start of trying to make a different style for himself, he felt that the production was weak: "I’m credited, but I really had no control ... and the mastering was terrible. Still, there was and is a demand for that record," he said in 2004. "The label owners were very keen on having Rodney Bingenheimer give it a good push on his KROQ radio show, but Rodney said it was a folk album and declined to play it – Rodney was playing hardcore punk at the time. I think the label thought this would be a big cash cow for them, and it wasn't, although it did sell steadily," Stevens said. Points of View received decent reviews at the time of its release and sold its 1,000 pressing in a couple of years. recording three studio albums with the band between 1984 and 1987, all featuring Stevens-penned songs. The Long Ryders were originally associated with the Los Angeles Paisley Underground movement of the 1980s, According to the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, the Long Ryders "blended punk attitude with late 1960s country rock instrumentation and became one of the principal exponents of mid-1980s cowpunk." and established the band's diverse blend of folk rock, punk and country rock influences. Island Records signed the band in 1985 for their first major label album, 1985's State of Our Union, In 1987, following the release of their third album Two-Fisted Tales, the lack of commercial success and label support began to take its toll on the band.

The Long Ryders, including Stevens, have since 2004 occasionally reunited and released their first studio album in 32 years, Psychedelic Country Soul, in 2019.

Danny and Dusty Along with other members of the Long Ryders, the Dream Syndicate and Green on Red, Stevens recorded the Danny & Dusty album, The Lost Weekend in 1985. It featured songs written by Dan Stuart (Danny) from Green on Red and Steve Wynn (Dusty) from the Dream Syndicate and was recorded in a single 32 hours recording session in February 1985 at Control Center Studios in Los Angeles. Backing up Stuart and Wynn, besides Stevens on bass, were guitarists Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy from the Long Ryders, keyboardist Chris Cacavas from Green on Red, and drummer Dennis Duck from the Dream Syndicate. The Lost Weekend appeared on many year-end top 10 lists, including the New York Times'''. In 2007, Danny & Dusty released a second album, Cast Iron Soul, without Stevens' involvement.

Collaborations, live and session work Stevens supported former Byrd Gene Clark on a few of Clark's last live Los Angeles performances with former Textones vocalist Carla Olson. He also produced Green on Red bassist Jack Waterson's 1989 solo album Whose Dog?, as well as playing bass, lead guitar and singing backing vocals.

Later solo work Stevens' first full-length solo release, the cassette-only Last Night, was released by California indie label Devil in the Woods in 1992 . It was eventually released in October 1995 on Ohio-based Maia Records. The only two musicians featured on the album are Stevens (vocals, guitar, bass) and Jet Redd (drums). "Howard Hilliard II" is credited with bass duty, but is actually a pseudonym for Stevens. Waterson, Melisa Malvin and John Thoman of the Rain Parade supply backing vocals on three tracks. The album was well received by fans and critics alike. Bucketfull of Brains magazine called it "a splendid piece of Americana" and "a typical example of the hidden gems on the bi-ways of American music." Relix magazine described it as an "unpretentious rootsy pop-rock adventure" with an "abundance of hook-filled songs that [Stevens] laces liberally with folk, country and rock influences".

1997 saw the release of Points Revisited (Maia Records), a collection of Stevens' solo recordings from 1981 to 1989. Stevens had recorded the song, along with several originals, in March 1997 at Doug Harsch's Raw Pop Studios in Indiana with Steve Gee on drums and Harsch on backing vocals.

Stevens' proper third album, Home, was recorded in his new home basement studio in Indiana and released in 2007 by Avebury Records, a label founded by Wednesday Week drummer Kelly Callan. The self-produced and mostly self-recorded album features guest appearances by Sarah Stevens on violin and vocals, and "Uncle John" Potthast on banjo and guitar on a few tracks. On their Best Albums of 2007 list, the Popnarcotic website called it an "absolutely breathtaking album", noting that Stevens "seems to be able to find his muse where Gram Parsons, Lou Reed, and Alex Chilton all hang out to shoot the breeze."

Stevens also self-released two six-song EPs, Workology and Sooner. 2001's Workology was recorded at the same March 1997 sessions as "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and contains early versions of songs that would later end up on Home and Sooner. Released in November 2009 through iTunes, Sooner contains new and old songs that Stevens has written and recorded over the years but never released before, as well as a rerecording of the Long Ryders era song "How Do We Feel What’s Real?" and a cover of the Only Ones' "Curtains for You". Both EPs were also available as limited CD-Rs through Stevens’ website.

To celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2010, German record label Bear Family Records asked musicians and songwriters to write and record "bear" songs for the compilation album 35!!! Years – Bear Family Records. They asked Stevens to contribute a song and he wrote "Bear in the Woods" for the occasion. In 2017, the Long Ryders recorded their own version of the song as their first new studio recording in 30 years and released it as a digital download single.

In September 2012, Stevens recorded the song "Bitter Fruit" for the 2013 benefit album Skrang: Sounds Like Bobby Sutliff. Sutliff, a former Devil in the Woods labelmate, had been in a near-fatal car accident and to help him financially, friends and colleagues offered to record tracks. The album contains 18 Sutliff songs performed by members of Rain Parade, True West, the dBs, and Wilco among others.

Other career In the 1990s, Stevens received a degree in computer science and worked for many years with computer and networking technologies alongside music.

Death On January 23, 2021, Tom Stevens died suddenly at his home in Indiana of undisclosed causes. He was 64 years old. In a statement accompanying the tribute single "Tom Tom," the remaining Long Ryders called him "a terrific person, a devoted husband and father, and the best bass player of his generation in Los Angeles." Sid Griffin, in a tribute in Shindig!'' magazine, wrote that Stevens "was clearly one of the very most popular members of the entire Paisley Underground. Everyone liked Tom. ... He was even-tempered, had time for every thing and everybody, and was always good company. ... We also had a fine lead singer in Tom Stevens, a crackin' harmony singer, and a songwriter who penned killer material."