Local singer-songwriter Tommy Wiggins will wig out tonight

For over a decade, Tommy Wiggins has worn two musical hats. He’s not only been active on the local music scene as a singer-songwriter but he’s also worked as the director of Tri-C’s Recording Arts & Technology (RAT) program. Now, however, he’s leaving for Nashville, where his wife has gotten a job at Vanderbilt. At 7 tonight at the BottleHouse in Cleveland Heights, he gets a proper send-off as local musicians and friends wish him well at a jam session and party dubbed “The Wiggins Wigg Out Party.”

“I have every intention of continuing to do what I do because I have one of the coolest music jobs in town – flat out,” says Wiggins, who, beginning July 1, will become a creative consultant at Tri-C after his move to Nashville. “I’m proud of everything we’ve built and developed. I get to cherry pick the cool parts of my gig and continue to do those.”

Those “cool parts” include hosting Crooked River Groove, the Austin City Limits-like program that features live performances by local acts, and helping Tri-C get its new Internet radio program up and running.

“In the spirit and memory of our old good buddy [WRUW host] Gary Wells, I want to have a community-oriented radio that is all Ohio,” says Wiggins. “Tri-C doesn’t have a radio station, which is a crime. As a commuter school, that poses more challenges. David Kennedy, who is my successor at RAT, is a great community person and visionary who can bring us into the next decade.”

Wiggins says he’ll continue to write and record his original material, too.

“The other thing I will do in Nashville is that I’ll continue to write the songs I wanna write and make the records I wanna make,” he says.

This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2012.