Tom Asher’s wood craftsmanship is as beautiful as it is intricate.

Asher is the latest guest on “Meet the Artist,” the podcast from the Register Star newsroom where we meet the artist who makes our community a more beautiful place.

Tom, a Rockford native since the mid-1980s, is retired from working as a trumpet player in orchestras in Nicaragua, Mexico and various cities in the United States, including the Rockford Symphony Orchestra.

He’s turned his professional music career and his love of violins into a second career of making and repairing instruments, furniture, trinket boxes and other objects.

When Tom is not in his basement workshop, he’s probably out riding his bicycle through the midwest countryside.

In this podcast episode Tom shares many stories, including one about leaving a beloved music job in Nicaragua just as the Sandinistas overthrew the government in the midst of the Nicaragua Revolution in the late 1970s.

Listen to the podcast online at rrstar.com, and subscribe to "From the Newsroom: Rockford Register Star" wherever you find your podcasts.

More information

Rockford Register Star: www.rrstar.com

Host: Scott P. Yates; 815-987-1348; syates@rrstar.com; @scottpyates

Tom Asher: http://woodenbackroads.com

Jamin VanderHeyden: https://www.dangerousdecorations.com/

Music:

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Spy Groove" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)