Tom Hambridge

Tom Hambridge was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music, soon becoming known about his fellow students and in clubs as “T.H.: drummer extraordinaire.” During his time at Berklee, when Chuck Berry, Roy Buchanan, Bo Diddley, Martha Reeves or other greats came to town for a performance, he’d often be invited to join as drummer and/or bandleader.

T.H. & THE WRECKAGE, SUSAN TEDESCHI, AWARDS

For more than a decade, his band T.H. & The Wreckage appeared throughout New England, recording three albums, winning five Boston Music Awards and establishing a significant following across the six-state region and the greater Northeast. Hambridge has also written songs for other local bands and artists and he produced Susan Tedeschi‘s 1998 breakthrough disc, Just Won’t Burn, which earned him his first Grammy nomination. He played drums on her hits “Rock Me Right” and “It Hurt So Bad.”

Since then, his efforts in the studio have resulted in seven Grammy-nominated albums and he’s won two Grammys for his work on Buddy Guy albums. He’s also taken home several Handy 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, the City of Buffalo declared December 28th “Tom Hambridge Day.”

COLLABORATIONS, SOUNDTRACKS, CURRENT ACTIVITY

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 international icons such as 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.

Among his other collaborators over the decades have been 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. These days, Hambridge is based in Nashville but he visits Boston regularly, either with his latest band, Tom Hambridge & The Rattlesnakes, or to lead clinics at Berklee.

(by A.J. Wachtel)