Todd Sansom

Country singer and pianist Todd Sansom hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains region near Charlottesville, Virginia, and he was drawn to music early, taking piano lessons by the time he was four years old. Blessed with an ear that allowed him to play a song after only hearing it once, he gave up on the sheet music version of playing piano by the time he was nine. He had the radio, though, which was always full of songs, particularly country, and at 15 he turned to country music as his main focus, fronting and playing keyboards in several bands throughout the region. Realizing he had to be in Nashville, the city at the heart of country music, he enrolled at Belmont University there in the fall of 1996, majoring in vocal performance. Soon he was playing showcases in the Nashville area, and he caught the attention of country legend <a href="spotify:artist:4tw2Lmn9tTPUv7Gy7mVPI4">Kenny Rogers</a>, who had Sansom audition in 2000 for the co-lead singer spot in a new band called Marshall Dyllon that <a href="spotify:artist:4tw2Lmn9tTPUv7Gy7mVPI4">Rogers</a> was putting together to record on <a href="spotify:artist:4tw2Lmn9tTPUv7Gy7mVPI4">Rogers</a>' own <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dreamcatcher+Records%22">Dreamcatcher Records</a>. Sansom passed the audition and he was all over the band's debut album, Enjoy the Ride, not only handling lead vocals, but also arranging harmonies, producing tracks, and writing three songs for the project. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dreamcatcher+Records%22">Dreamcatcher Records</a> ran into financial problems two years later, though, and Marshall Dyllon went inactive along with the label. Sansom toured as keyboardist and background singer for several acts, including Julie Roberts, <a href="spotify:artist:4AwLiAGc1rRLrCepj5rdTI">Collin Raye</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0iYwcf0XreyCAswJOJMOII">Steve Holy</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7CyJIUpcWZK2zFM6gKLKvD">Andy Griggs</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0dlwjJe4kg9TgOMN184bJF">Mark Wills</a>, and did studio work with <a href="spotify:artist:79FMDwzZQxHgSkIYBl3ODU">Trace Adkins</a>, among others. He also continued to work and tour as a solo artist, releasing the self-titled Todd Sansom album in 2007, and following it with 2010's Pourin' It On, both from the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rapidan+River%22">Rapidan River</a> label. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi