Tom Hambridge
Tom Hambridge was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, started playing drums at age five and moved to Boston to in 1979 to attend Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, becoming known as “T.H.: Drummer Extraordinaire” among fellow students and at area clubs. During his four years at Berklee, when greats such as Chuck Berry, Roy Buchanan, Bo Diddley, Percy Sledge, Gary Puckett and Martha Reeves were appearing in Boston or the surrounding area, he often joined them on stage as drummer and/or bandleader. His own band, T.H. & The Wreckage, played all over New England for over a decade, recording three albums and winning seven Boston Music Awards while building a significant following across the region and the greater Northeast.
SUSAN TEDESCHI, AWARDS, OTHER COLLABORATIONS, SOUNDTRACKS
In addition to leading his own group, Hambridge has written songs for a number of other local artists and he produced Susan Tedeschi‘s 1998 breakthrough disc Just Won’t Burn, which earned him his first Grammy nomination; he wrote and played drums on that album’s “Rock Me Right” and “It Hurt So Bad.” Since then, his studio efforts have resulted in two Grammy Awards for his work on Buddy Guy albums and seven Grammy-nominated LPs. He’s also taken home several W.C. Handy Awards and Blues Music Awards, the ASCAP Country Music Award, the Blues Foundation’s KBA Award and been inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. In 2015, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declared December 28th “Tom Hambridge Day.”
Hambridge has performed on a number of occasions at the White House, backing B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger at different times. Some 400 of his tunes have been recorded by internationally acclaimed artists and bands, among them Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foghat, and his songs have been featured in movies and television shows including two Disney films, American Idol, Criminal Minds and the Super Bowl. His other collaborators over the decades have included Johnny Winter, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Gregg Allman, James Cotton, Derek Trucks, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Keith Urban, Allen Toussaint, George Thorogood, Keb’ Mo’ and Delbert McClinton. Hambridge is based in Nashville these days but he visits Boston regularly, either with his latest band, Tom Hambridge & The Rattlesnakes, or to lead clinics at Berklee.
(by A.J. Wachtel)
