<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTom who? \u00a0Tom Hambridge you say? \u00a0Never heard of him.\u201d That was the sum of my knowledge about the drummer\/vocalist\/songwriter\/producer a few years ago. \u00a0These days, I would update my summation to: \u201cYeah, we have HEARD music with his fingerprints all over it, we just didn\u2019t know it was him.\u201d \u00a0Now thanks to an expansive feature about him by Don Wilcock in <\/span>BluesBlast Magazine<\/span><\/i> (September 13, 2018 Issue 12-37), I know more than a little about one of the most prolific musical chameleons in the business. \u00a0Wilcock authored Buddy Guy\u2019s story in the highly acclaimed <\/span>Damn Right I\u2019ve Got The Blues (1991)<\/span><\/i>, sparking a revival in Guy\u2019s career that has continued right through the 82 year old\u2019s newest album, \u00a0<\/span>The Blues is Alive and Well (2018).<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Maybe Wilcock\u2019s writings will have the same effect on Hambridge\u2019s career even though, as a rather well kept secret, he seems to be doing just fine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To give you and idea of exactly how prolific Hambridge is in the music game, let me quote Wilcock\u2019s brief summary: \u00a0\u201cHambridge writes 60 songs for every 12 that appear on any one record. One reviewer documented that in the two years between 2014 and 2016 alone, Hambridge produced 17 records, received 27 award nominations, six of which he won, played drums and\/or sang on 19 other artist\u2019s albums, made numerous TV appearances, toured extensively, and released his seventh solo album, <\/span>The NOLA Sessions.\u201d<\/span><\/i> \u00a0I downloaded his CV of recordings from 1995 to 2018 and it stretched across more than ten pages.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Readers can forgive me for being hooked on his career as soon as \u2018singing drummer\u2019 was mentioned. \u00a0\u00a0I first consciously noticed his name when I picked up guitar prodigy Quinn Sullivan\u2019s first album (<\/span>Cyclone 2011<\/span><\/i>) and saw Tom Hambridge named as the album\u2019s producer and the writer\/co-writer of all the tracks. \u00a0Once his name was connected with producing records, I began to notice it all over the place including his work with guitarist Mike Zito (<\/span>Make Blues Not War<\/span><\/i>), Susan Tedeschi (<\/span>Just Won\u2019t Burn<\/span><\/i>), ZZ Top, Marcia Ball, Felix Cavaliere, Roy Buchanan, Johnny Winter, and (especially) Buddy Guy (who calls Hambridge \u2018The White Willie Dixon\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Born in Buffalo, NY in 1960, Hambridge played his first professional gig (a bar mitsva) as a third grader. \u00a0He learned his craft via the usual woodshedding as a drummer in high school band, orchestra, and various garage bands. \u00a0He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship, and unlike many musicians who have gone to Berklee, Tom actually graduated. \u00a0Many Berklee students end up with band gigs and leave school to pursue music sans a degree. Hambridge was able to leverage his touring with the legendary guitarists Roy Buchanan (Professor: \u00a0\u201cYou are touring with Roy Buchanan? Are you kidding me? Sure, go ahead, I won\u2019t fail you\u201d) and Chuck Berry into a career and still graduated in 1983 with a degree in Professional Music. When he got the call to audition for Buchanan\u2019s tour, it was a good test of how quickly he could adapt to a new situation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hambridge\u2019s first call was to his brother so he could borrow some of his Roy Buchanan albums and get up to speed. \u00a0The day of the audition got pushed back a few times and when it finally happened, it was with his band leader, not Buchanan. \u00a0After playing an hour for Buchanan\u2019s musical director, he was told, \u201cYou\u2019re in.\u201d The next logical question was, \u201cWhen will the band rehearse with Buchanan for the tour?\u201d \u00a0Like the audition, the rehearsals got pushed back to the week before, then a couple of days before, and finally, to the afternoon of the first show. As Hambridge recalled for <\/span>BluesBlast<\/span><\/i>, \u201cI met Roy backstage five minutes before we were going on for the first show, and Roy walked up and said, \u2018Hey, Tom, I guess you\u2019re our new drummer. \u00a0Looking forward to playing with ya.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Me, too. Do you know what we\u2019re gonna play?\u2019 and he said, \u2018Wha\u2019dya know?\u2019 I said, \u2018I know <\/span>Hot Job, Peter Gunn.\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/i>He says, \u2018Let\u2019s start with <\/span>Peter Gunn\u2019<\/span><\/i> and I walked on stage and that\u2019s how I started.\u201d \u00a0The second night of the tour, they made a live recording that was released as <\/span>Live at the Lone Star.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Hambridge continues, \u201c[And] that was the show that [in the last two or three years] was on an album that came out of unknown classic recordings by Roy Buchanan, and on that record was the song <\/span>Amazing Grace<\/span><\/i>, and they said that was the only time they\u2019ve discovered Roy Buchanan ever played <\/span>Amazing Grace<\/span><\/i> live, and it was the second night of the tour. \u00a0I remember he just started playing, I got brushes and just started playing it. \u00a0It\u2019s on the album, and it sounds spectacular. I just figured he did this every night. . . You get great musicians in a room with somebody like Roy Buchanan or a Buddy Guy, or whoever we\u2019re talking about, and you can make magic, and that\u2019s what I love about music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWorkaholic\u201d is a good description of Tom Hambridge and that applies to every step he takes. \u00a0Whether he is performing, writing, producing, mixing, overdubbing tracks, or reviewing liner notes, Hambridge works almost around the clock. \u00a0While he enters most recording projects with a focused and professional air, he decided to record his latest solo release (<\/span>The NOLA Sessions <\/span><\/i>2018), \u201cDoing everything backwards.\u201d \u00a0Instead of having the whole script written, he booked four studio days in New Orleans and simply showed up and let the record happen. \u00a0Hambridge says, \u201cI just thought I want to meet the engineer for the first time. I don\u2019t want to see the studio before I book it. I\u2019m gonna play drums they have there. \u00a0I don\u2019t even need to see it. I\u2019m not bringing any equipment, and then I just call these musicians that I\u2019ve never met and see who comes out, and that\u2019s what we did. Fortunately, the record company trusted me.\u201d \u00a0It didn\u2019t hurt that the guys who showed up to play included NOLA luminaries like Sonny Landreth, Ivan Neville, and Allen Toussaint, but the album was crafted with a different group each day (we have previously aired <\/span>The NOLA Sessions<\/span><\/i> and plan to get it on the air more when this FTV is published).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To say that Hambridge has a little pull in the music community would be a vast understatement. \u00a0In 2013, he produced James Cotton\u2019s last album. During the pre-recording discussions, Cotton said, \u201cI can\u2019t sing. \u00a0How are we gonna make a record when I can\u2019t sing?\u201d (Hambridge described Cotton\u2019s voice at this point as \u2018sounding like a 1965 VW stripping gears\u2019). \u00a0Hambridge told him, \u201cI am gonna call some friends of mine and when I tell \u2018em what I\u2019m doing, and it\u2019s for you, I think they\u2019re all gonna come out (Cotton said that he didn\u2019t think anybody would come). The first guy I called was Greg Allman. . . I sent him a song I wrote called <\/span>Midnight Train<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0He called me back personally and said \u2018You tell me when and where and I\u2019ll do it.\u2019 \u00a0I called Warren Haynes, Delbert McClinton, Keb Mo. Everybody I called said, \u2018I\u2019m there.\u2019\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cotton\u2019s release on Alligator Records was nominated for a Grammy as album of the year. \u00a0It contained a song called <\/span>Bonnie Blue<\/span><\/i>, a song that was about the slave plantation Cotton grew up on. \u00a0Hambridge, remembering <\/span>Bonnie Blue<\/span><\/i>, says \u201c(When Cotton told him the story about Bonnie Blue) \u00a0I said \u2018 That\u2019s a slave plantation?\u2019 And that is one of the things I get a chill just thinking about it.\u201d \u00a0Pulling stories from musicians and personalizing albums for the artists he works with is one of Hambridge\u2019s strengths. The story about how the song about <\/span>Bonnie Blue<\/span><\/i> came about isn\u2019t surprising or unique, it is just one more thing that makes Hambridge a busy man. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Hambridge is asked to produce a record, he always asks, \u201cWhat \u00a0do you want to record?\u201d If they list a bunch of classic songs like <\/span>Sweet Home Chicago<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Stormy Monday<\/span><\/i>, he will tell them, \u201cYou know what? \u00a0Why don\u2019t we write a couple of our own, and hopefully 30 years from now they\u2019ll be <\/span>Stormy Monday.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0It\u2019ll be our own.\u201d \u00a0He says many people are intimidated by the idea of creating their own classics, but he reminds them, \u201cElmore James was able to create that (<\/span>Stormy Monday<\/span><\/i>) just because he wasn\u2019t trying to do that. \u00a0You know, people had to write those individual songs.\u201d \u00a0Call it \u2018producing\u2019 or \u2018performing magic\u2019, but this is Hambridge\u2019s secret weapon – pull a story out of the air and get it down on tape and then do it again.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hambridge wrote a song for Susan Tedeschi\u2019s 1997 <\/span>Just Won\u2019t Burn<\/span><\/i> CD called <\/span>Rock Me Right.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The suits at the record label wanted no part of the song: \u00a0\u201cI remember the record company being all up in arms that \u2018you\u2019re gonna offend all the blues people\u2019 and I said \u2018Why am I gonna offend all the blues people? It\u2019s called <\/span>Rock Me Right, <\/span><\/i>and it is rockin.\u2019 \u00a0I think this record could sell a million copies\u2019 and they said, \u201cWell, we just want to sell about 5000.\u2019\u201d \u00a0Hambridge pressed on noting that a rockin\u2019 blues record would expose more people to the blues, bring out more people to the blues clubs and sell more records. \u00a0\u201cAnd the other thing,\u201d he told them, \u201cif you want to be a stickler about it, <\/span>Rock Me, Baby<\/span><\/i> by B.B.King had the word \u2018rock\u2019 in it.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>Just Won\u2019t Burn<\/span><\/i> earned platinum level sales, was nominated for a Grammy, and Hambridge\u2019s songs <\/span>Rock Me Right<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>It Hurt So Bad<\/span><\/i> from that album have been recorded by more than 60 blues bands. \u00a0As Hambridge reminded those same reluctant suits, \u201cThey\u2019re probably two of the most recorded blues songs. \u00a0Probably 50 or 60 new albums come out a year that are licensed with one of those songs on them.\u201d In other words, these new blues artists will bring in new blues fans and if the word \u2018Rockin\u2019 is all that it takes, then they would be fools to worry about offending anyone. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hambridge\u2019s other skill in making albums that fit the artist is keeping the back door open to anything else that might work for them: \u00a0\u201cIf I\u2019m producing a George Thorogood record or a James Cotton record or whoever I\u2019m working with, Gregg Allman, I am so in tune with them and what their sound is and their history, where they\u2019re from, where they grew up, what they\u2019re already doing, what they haven\u2019t done yet. \u00a0So, there\u2019s a million things I\u2019m thinking about sonically, how to change it, but don\u2019t lose the magic they have. I\u2019m constantly in touch with that artist and their music, and I will write songs with them or search for songs that pertain to where they\u2019re from and are in their situation. \u00a0So, they\u2019re not gonna sing about something that is completely foreign, you know, in a different language.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How did Hambridge manage to become such a hot commodity? \u00a0He told a story to <\/span>SOUNDLINK INTERNATIONAL<\/span><\/i> about his first meeting with Chip Young of MCA records soon after Hambridge had relocated to Nashville. \u00a0Young listened to Hambridge\u2019s first CD and loved it. He started tossing out big numbers for the publishing rights to his music, upping the amount when he couldn\u2019t get Hambridge to bite. \u00a0Young finally said, \u201cYou’re not negotiating, are you?\u201d Hambridge said, \u201cNo, I just got here. I don\u2019t know what I am doing.\u201d Over dinner, Young suggested that Hambridge keep his own publishing rights and following such sage advice has allowed him to chart his own path and earn a decent living. \u00a0Hambridge didn\u2019t fall into his multidimensional music career fully formed. He has worked hard and learned from the best to become a major player in today\u2019s music scene, even if most music fans couldn\u2019t point him out in a police lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How much cred does Hambridge carry in the music world? \u00a0When Mick Jagger appeared at the White House in 2012 for \u201cRed, White, and Blues – A Black History Month Celebration Concert\u201d (featuring BB King, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, Derek Trucks, and Susan Tedeschi as well as Jagger),\u00a0<\/span>you can guess who Mick asked to play the drums for his part of the performance.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Proof that Hambridge has set off his own musical earthquake by producing music that many bands put on record – here are The Sister Wives with their version of\u00a0Rock Me Right<\/em> from 2010.<\/p>\n