Guitar, Sax, Vocals, Music Director

Award-winning record producer, musician, songwriter, music director and event producer Tom McKillip is wellknown in Canadian music circles: Tom’s lengthy resume includes many years of touring with international legend Ian Tyson OC. McKillip has also acted as Music Director for recording artist / humanitarian / actor Tom Jackson CC for more than a dozen years, assisting on Jackson’s many charitable entertainment initiatives – a highlight being the annual coast-to-coast Huron Carole Christmas tour.

As the CCMA’s 2007 ‘Producer of the Year’, and nine-time BCCMA ‘Producer of the Year’, some of McKillip’s successful production credits appear on albums by multi-award-winning artists Lisa Brokop, One More Girl, and Aaron Pritchett (whose first two albums yielded an unprecedented, dozen top-ten hits).

For more than a decade Tom acted as M.D. of the CCMA’s annually televised awards show. His involvement with that production had him handling pre-production activities, budgets, special musical arrangements and working closely with scores of musicians and artists including Michelle Wright, Paul Brandt, Jann Arden, Gord Bamford, Brett Kissel and Tom Cochrane – in the process, cementing Tom’s reputation within the Canadian music industry as a skilled, versatile, and talented leader of large entertainment projects.

During the 2010 CCMA’s, Tom teamed up with Juno award-winning producer Kevin Churko, CMT and the Canadian Forces Band to produce and film a video tribute to the Canadian Forces called “Standing Strong and True”, which aired in November 2010 on CMT and has received over 7 million views to date on Facebook and YouTube. A writer on the song, Tom also coordinated the music production and filming of the entire project, which featured a large cast of notable country artists.

On the ninetieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 2007, McKillip was brought on board as Music Director for the re-dedication of the Vimy Monument in France. The moving performance on the monument by the Canadian Forces Band – featuring Inuit artist Susan Aglukark OC – inspired Tom to develop a musical initiative to honor Canada’s rich military history. In 2014 McKillip’s company was awarded $1.2 million through a Canadian Heritage funding program, designed to commemorate Canadian military contributions. One of the project’s centerpieces was the production of a documentary featured on CBC’s The National, showcasing Ian Tyson performing his classic “Four Strong Winds” with a 40-piece military band and a poignant interview with Ian Hanomansing.

In 2018 Tom created a unique recording project in partnership with the CCMA Hall of Fame, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association and Creative BC. ‘Then and Now – Volume 1’ is a compilation album of duets, pairing up iconic Hall of Fame inductees such as Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, Russell deCarle and Murray McLauchlan with current country stars including Jess Moskaluke, Brett Kissel and Aaron Pritchett. The album was released at the 2018 CCMA’s and plans are underway for ‘Then and Now – Volume 2’.

http://www.mckillermusic.com/