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Las Crucen Tyler Thompson, who is legally blind, has played the organ since he was 7 years old. He performs at the Mesilla Plaza from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays, and from noon to 2 p.m. Sundays, as well as the Las Cruces Farmers and Crafts Market 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m Wednesdays and Saturdays. Thompson said that a good musician doesn't have to look at what they are playing.

LAS CRUCES - Tyler Thompson is an ambitious person. He says so himself.

As a musician, he is seeking to bridge the gap between three styles of music. A keyboardist and a one-man band, he plays jazz chords with blues melodies pulled to a hip-hop beat, he said. A two-time finalist at the Bosch Music Industry Weekend concert in Santa Cruz, Calif., Thompson learned his first blues scale in seventh grade and has never looked back.

"Music is first for me," he said. "I can't see myself doing anything else."

Thompson is currently raising money to go on a year-long concert and community service tour with the Denver-based organization Up With People. However, he needs to come up with $20,000 by the end of June to help finance the year-long tour, which will travel the world featuring up to 100 performers. At every stop, the Up With People cast does a community service project then puts on a concert to pay for the project, he said.

Thompson said he is "fairly confident" he can raise the money. On Feb. 19, he'll put on a concert at the Dream Center, 1400 N. 6th St., as part of his fundraising effort.

Thompson isn't fazed by the task in front of him. After all, he has overcome some daunting obstacles already.

Thompson was born with a serious visual impairment that, barring a major medical miracle, will eventually cause him to go blind. He was born without irises, and also has glaucoma, but he gets around by hitching rides and walking with a cane when he has to. He is extremely

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sensitive to sunlight, he said, and has no depth perception. He figures out how far away an object is by its size, he said.

Being legally blind, however, does not really offer any advantage to him as a musician, he said.

"I pay more attention to sound, I pick up more detail in it," he said. "But if a sighted person was in a totally dark room and listened to music, they could do the same thing."

In 2010, Thompson released his first CD, "The Other Side of Nowhere," a bluesy and contemplative album with an emphasis on melody and "intellectual, spiritual" lyrics, he said. He plays all the instruments: keyboard, bass, guitar, drums, percussion. (The CD is available at Hastings, iTunes, cdbaby, Amazon.com and E-music, he said.)

Also in 2010, he went to Boston to audition for the Berkeley School of Music. Although he was not accepted for this year, he plans to audition again in a year's time, after he tours with Up With People.

He said he'd like to make a CD with other members of Up With People and call it "A Little Bit of Everywhere." The next tour of Up With People has not yet been scheduled, he said, but it will start in Asia.

In addition to performing a series of concerts to raise money, he said he is also looking for sponsorships from businesses and service organizations. He has set up PayPal to facilitate donations on his website, www.tylerthompson

music.com.

Third-generation musician

Thompson said his father is a guitar player ("he plays Santana") and his grandfather is a steel-guitar player devoted to "pure country." About 10 years ago, Thompson's father bought a Casio keyboard, intending to use it as a drum machine. Thompson, still in elementary school, got ahold of the keyboard and taught himself to play the theme song from the first Harry Potter movie.

After that, his father sent him to lessons, where Thompson was steeped in both music theory and classical piano for nine years.

He said the emphasis on writing and music at Vista Middle School helped him develop into a songwriter, also. He said he also had a good experience in the choir.

After a year and a half at Las Cruces High School, Thompson opted to leave because he said there was a lack of materials in Braille. He opened his own music studio, where he taught piano, voice and guitar. He said he finds it especially gratifying to teach music to students with disabilities.

"I have the skills to survive in the world," he said. "I worked as a computer programmer for a while."

But he is determined to make a living through music, he said.

He completed his GED and has been on an endless tour for three years, starting with a year at Jake's Cafe in Do-a Ana, followed by a year as the piano player in the Big Band on the Rio Grande. In recent months, he has been playing as a one-man band at such venues as the Las Cruces Farmers and Crafts Market, The Bean Coffeehouse and the Mesilla Market.

He counts such musicians as Bonnie Raitt, Dave Brubeck, Chicago's Terry Kath ("Color My World"), Chris Ishee (piano player for Maynard Ferguson), Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles among his influences.

For his Feb. 19 concert at the Dream Center, Thompson will perform several songs from his "The Other Side of Nowhere" CD, in addition to a set of new songs that he says will be energetic and upbeat.

In addition, the audience will get to see Thompson's low-tech/high-tech one-man band technology in action.

He said he records the guitar, bass and drums separately, using his keyboards to voice the bass and drums. Then he programs all that into his iPhone, and runs the iPhone through the public address system.

Someday, he said, he'd like to put together a band and see how far they can go.

But the experience he seeks most, he said, is to inspire and be inspired.

"I'm a choosing a different life for a lot of different reasons," he said.

Jeff Barnet can be reached at (575) 541-5476.

If you go

•What: Tyler Thompson concert.

•When, where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Dream Center, 1400 N. 6th St.

•Tickets: $5

•For more information: Call Tyler Thompson, (575) 405-0797

•On the web: tylerthomp

sonmusic.com.