Tom Hambridge

Tom Hambridge

Tom Hambridge was born in Buffalo, New York and moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. He was known in school and on the music scene as T.H.; drummer extraordinaire. During this time, whenever Chuck Berry or Roy Buchanan came to town for a performance,  he would get the call and become their band leader/drummer. He also performed with super stars Bo Diddley, Martha Reeves, Peter Noone and a ton of others. For more than a decade, his band T.H. & The Wreckage played throughout New England and established a large following. They recorded three albums and won five Boston Music Awards.

Hambridge also wrote songs for other local bands and artists and produced Susan Tedeschi‘s 1998 breakthrough, Just Won’t Burn. Besides writing and playing drums on her radio hits “Rock Me Right” and “It Hurt So Bad,” he got his first Grammy nomination for his work as producer of the album. Since then, his efforts in the studio have contributed to seven Grammy nominated albums, while winning two with Buddy Guy. He has also won a bunch of Handy and Blues Music Awards and the ASCAP Country Music Award. He was also honored as the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s KBA (Keeping The Blues Alive) Award and has been inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. Tom performed a number of times at The White House playing drums for  B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger. The city of Buffalo also honored him by officially declaring December 28th, 2015, as Tom Hambridge Day. At least four hundred of his tunes have been recorded by international icons Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, Billy Ray Cyrus, Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd and many others. His songs have also been included in many major motion pictures, TV movies, and TV shows including two Disney movies, American Idol, Criminal Minds and the Super Bowl. T.H. is a Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, producer and drummer who has worked with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Gregg Allman, James Cotton, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Boston, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Keith Urban, Allen Toussaint, George Thorgood, Keb Mo, Delbert McClinton and others. He currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee,  and still frequently visits Boston with his band Tom Hambridge & The Rattlesnakes or speaking at Berklee songwriting clinics. 

(by A.J. Wachtel)

Published On: March 15, 2017