Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hello folks, great to have you with me. Without further ado, I’d like to introduce you today to Grammy-winning producer Tom Hambridge, who’s highly regarded worldwide as a first-call musician, songwriter, producer and performer.
On any given day, Tom might be writing songs for an award-winning blues album, playing drums for a rock and roll band or producing a record for an internationally known folk singer. Tom has made an indelible mark on the world of music. Some of his credits include touring, producing, songwriting and recording with artists like Chuck Berry, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, Johnny Winter, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Meatloaf and many, many more.
He’s even been given the key to his hometown of Buffalo, New York, with the mayor declaring December 28th Tom Hambridge Day. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy meeting him and hearing the songs he’s brought to life for us. I’ve been doing it a long time.
I’m still learning, but I’m doing my best. Are you still learning? Oh, all the time. In everything I do, all the time.
It’s like endless. Finding out new information and finding new ways to do stuff and every project I learn, sure. I know that you first started playing drums when you were just a little five-year-old.
Tell us about that. Well, you know, I guess it’s as far as I remember. My mom used to say, well, you’ve been playing since you were born, probably around three or four, because I was always banging on things.
And so they got me a toy drum set when I was five. And I remember playing it and kind of breaking it because it was toy. And they bought me for Christmas on my fifth Christmas, they bought me a real drum set.
I still have it. You know, I don’t play it, but it’s an old Kent drum kit. It’s funny you mention that, because even when people talk to me about, they’re just meeting me and they go, what do you do? I kind of forget sometimes because I’ve always been a drummer.
So I just go, well, I guess I’m a producer, I’m a songwriter or whatever. But really, I started this whole thing as a drummer. It wasn’t long before you became a professional drummer either, was it? Yeah, I had an older brother.
He was in a band in high school. And so I became their drummer, started doing gigs and getting paid. I was playing in bands all through junior high and high school.
Can you describe for us the music scene that was around at the time in Boston? There was college scene, jam bands and punk bands. It was wonderful. This was the early 80s, wasn’t it? Yeah.
So the music had changed from the 70s. It wasn’t kind of pop anymore. It was a lot more punk going on.
Yeah, there was some definitely new wave kind of thing. And the cars were from Boston and they got signed. But there were still, you know, Aerosmith.
So, yeah, there was a really cool scenic. I had my own band called TH and the Wreckage. And we were a rock and roll band playing original music.
Names in the storm And I saw everybody’s name there But I couldn’t find my own One day we’ll be lovers One day we’ll be lovers We used to say that One day we’ll be lovers One day we’ll be lovers Was that when your writing career really took off or had you been writing for years before? That’s when it kind of took off. I had been trying to write all my life, you know, even in my early bands. We had a lot of success at the Boston Music Awards and on local radio.
And so other bands started asking me who wrote the song or who produced the record. And the guys in my band would say Tom did it, you know. And so I would get asked, well, can you write a song for us? Or can you produce a record for us? So that’s how that thing happened.
I didn’t set out to be a producer. So I would start writing songs and they started recording them on their records. Was this during the time that you met Roy Buchanan or after that? It was all kind of during that time.
Because I know with Roy, it was the 80s. I was known as a drummer around New England and I would get called to back up a lot of famous Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry and people like that when they’d come to New England. The promoters would go, oh, we got to get a band for them.
Call Tom, you know, and I would play. Now when I was a little boy At the age of five I had something in my pocket Keep a lot of folks alive Now I’m a man May 21 You know, baby We can have a lot of fun I’m a man I spell M A E N Main Oh Oh A guy called me one time and said, I’m working with Roy Buchanan. We need a drummer for a tour.
And asked if I wanted to audition. I said, absolutely. So I went to the audition and he wasn’t at the audition.
I just played and they said, yeah, you’re fine. And I said, well, when are we going to rehearse with Roy? And we never did. The first show of the tour was at a place called Jonathan Swift’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts and sold out.
I just showed up and I met him as I was getting ready to go on stage. I realized sometimes that’s how that works. And he was such an amazing player.
I’d never played with anybody, anybody that was that amazing at their own instrument. And did you get to know him as a person as you went from town to town? Oh, yeah, we would hang out and he didn’t tour all the time. So I had to do other things.
When I could do it, I would do it. So that’s how I ended up playing the last gig he ever played. I’m going down I’m going down A cloud of dust just flew over me Now I feel like I’m drowning, no driving The music that he was making certainly wasn’t the same kind of music that you’d been making previously, was it? I play all kinds of music.
I love everything. So even though I have a reputation as, I don’t know if you know, but I have a little bit of reputation as being a blues producer on all these records and I never set out to be a blues producer. I love the blues and I love Muddy Waters and I love the Allman Brothers and I love Buddy Guy and I love Eric Clapton and the Blues Breakers.
So it’s all encompassing to me. It’s just all about songs and making a statement with your music and painting a great album and sonically have it sound great. So I guess when I started playing with Roy, I mean, he’s doing Peter Gunn and The Messiah Will Come Again and Hey Good Lookin’, country music.
He was all over the map too, so I fit right in. When you were writing for various artists, how did you know how to alter what you were writing to fit the genre that they were playing? Well, I think that comes from, you know, being a fan. If I’m working with Delvin McClinton, I’m a big fan of Delvin McClinton.
If I’m working with George Thorogood, I’m thinking, oh, you know what, if I was going to buy a new George Thorogood record, this is what I would like it to sound like and I’ll start writing songs that kind of sound like that. From 1956 to 1965 Mississippi down to Farrah Hall On Chicago’s Deep South Side I’m going back to red Back to the South, swear it on You walk down to Bygallon, you still hear those voices sing Take you back to town That’s where I start my process from writing, you know. And is it music and lyrics you’re writing for them all? Yeah, but I’ll write with them.
There’s many, many, many times where Billy Gibbons will come over and we’ll just bang it out together. Yeah, I mean, I’m all for that too, because then you get it right from them. And if I’m offering up a suggestion or some idea I have, they can right away either approve it or say, no, I don’t want to do that, or they can alter it.
And it develops on the spot then. So how long does that process usually take? Well, I know with Billy, I had something going because I didn’t want to waste his time. So when he showed up, I already had kind of this idea and he pulled up in my driveway kind of late and so I’d already done that and I started working on another song for another album that was completely different.
But he ended up, when he walked in, he said, hey, how you doing? Sorry I’m late, blah, blah. And I said, yeah, cool, I got this idea. He goes, man, I really like that.
And it ended up, it was a song called Over You. And they ended up putting it on the future record. A chilly wind is blowing And I’m all covered up With despair and desperation And it just won’t let me up It’s coming time to face the truth And somehow I got to find the strength to move I got to get up and get over you I hear it on the radio and people were saying, man, this is the first time they’ve got like B3.
You know, he finished it with me and we wrote it together and he kept, because I demoed it with the B3 the way I heard it, and he kept that. It was really cool to hear them do something different that I never would have gone after. Yeah, you must be pretty chuffed when things like that do happen.
I don’t take it lightly when these guys come over and I just try to keep my cool, you know, so I don’t gurm them about all that stuff. And so, you know, I pinch myself when they’re like friends because they’re such heroes, you know. Yeah, so do you ever get starstruck with them? I try to just zone in on what we’re doing.
If I just think about it too much, like you, you probably, I zone in on the questions or what we’re doing. We’re writing a song, okay. I’ve got to keep in that mode because there’s a limo outside and you’re a huge star.
I have to just be cool. Otherwise you revert to being a 14-year-old screaming at a concert and it changes the dynamic completely. Have you got favourite people that you have worked with? Obviously Billy Gibbons must have been one of those.
Who else have you worked with that’s really given you a lot of satisfaction? You know, there’s so many. Buddy Guy. I’ve been around a while I know wrong from right Learned a long time ago Things ain’t always black and white Just like you can’t judge a book by the cover We all got to be careful How we treat one another Skin deep Skin deep I’m lonely We all the same Skin deep Skin deep I’m lonely We all the same We all the same Tell us a little bit about Buddy Guy.
He’s unbelievable. He’s such an amazing person. I mean, obviously a legend, one of the greatest guitar players and I think singers too.
He doesn’t get credit for his phrasing and his singing just because his guitar playing is so good. They kind of overlook that. He’s just wonderful.
He’s such a special human being. He’s so low key and so easy to create with because he’s a hard worker. He came from that era of guys that just work all day in the field or on the road or wherever.
His work ethic is extraordinary. He’ll work every night. He’ll do, if I wanted to play something or sing something over he’ll stay there all night to get it right.
And I know a lot of young artists I work with may not do that. They get tired or they go, you know, don’t you have it? Can’t you fix it? Can’t you edit it? You know, Buddy wants to. He’s old school.
Yeah, he’s old school. He’s like, no, let me get it right. He doesn’t seem to have suffered any for his advanced stage either.
He seems on top of his game, perhaps even more now than he was 20, 40 years ago. I know. That’s what’s crazy.
He’s got the genes in him. It’s just, I don’t know. It’s different because that old and still kicking ass.
I’m envious. It’s incredible. I was born in Louisiana.
And at the age of two. My mama told my papa. Our little boy has got the blues.
I grew up real fast. And I’ve traveled very far. One damn thing for sure.
I was born to play the guitar. I’ve got a reputation. And everybody knows my name.
I was born to play the guitar. People, I got blues running through my face. Women in Chicago, they love me to the bone.
But my love for my guitar. Keep me far away from home. You’re not losing energy.
Are you, Tom Hambridge? No, but I mean, I can’t imagine being that focused He’s in his 80s already, isn’t he? Yeah, yeah. 88. Oh, wow.
And no sign of giving it up anytime soon. They’ll take him off that stage. Yeah, I think so.
You’re probably right.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. You moved yourself to Nashville.
That was obviously the place that you had to be. It’s the centre of the music industry these days and has been for quite some time, hasn’t it? Yeah, yeah. I think so.
And I was going to move to New York or L.A. or Nashville. I wasn’t sure about Nashville because I wasn’t familiar with it and I didn’t know anybody in Nashville. And I need a new scene somewhere where the industry is.
L.A. and New York were the industries. And then I went to L.A. and we just thought, well, let’s just take a chance to go down and fly down to Nashville and just see what that’s all about. Just kind of drove around, got out of the hotel and within the first day, my wife goes, this is, we could definitely raise Rachel down here.
This is, people are nice. It’s kind of, there’s neighbourhoods, you know. And I thought, yeah, yeah, this is different than New York or L.A. Nothing against that, but I think at the time with our position, we were like, yeah, you’re right.
We need to get some land, a little house, find a nice elementary school and make music. There’s so much diversity in the genres around here. It’s crazy.
Hey, pretty baby, are you ready for me? Yeah, it’s your good rockin’ daddy down from Tennessee. I’m just that awesome about the San Antone With the radio blastin’ and the bird dog gone There’s a beat trap overhead the sound of town I know a love of yours is gonna shut me down Cos me and my boys got this riggin’ around And we’ll come a thousand miles from a guitar jam Tom, you mentioned earlier that you’d never kind of set out loving the blues, but of course, being in Nashville too, you’re in the home of the blues too, and you’ve gotten really involved with a whole lot of blues artists. Did you put Susan Tedeschi in that camp? Oh, yeah, yeah.
You know, the blues is in everything, really. I mean, pretty much, 90% of everything. I mean, the Stones were a blues band.
You know, I mean, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith plays blues. I mean, it’s just those chords are in, you know, everything from Ray Charles to Leon Russell to the Beatles to whatever. So Susan Tedeschi, when I made the Just Won’t Burn record, she was playing around town, and she was playing blues clubs, but she was also playing just coffeehouses and other clubs and rock clubs, and it was her voice and her guitar playing.
So it was like, I guess if you’re thinking Bonnie Raitt or Janis Joplin or whoever, Sheryl Crow or whatever you’re thinking about, Susan had all that. So when I went into the studio to make Just Won’t Burn with her, I did it for a blues label called Tone Cool Records, and I know they wanted me to do a blues record, but I don’t go in going, all right, I have to have Stormy Monday, I have to have this song, I have to have… I try to write the best songs, get the best songs, whether you write them or I write them, it’s all those songs have to be great. And then the instrumentation and the way I record, I guess lends itself to sounding.
It’s guitars, drums, bass, keyboards, it sounds like the blues. There might be a horn on it, there might be a harmonica. It’s just the way I record records, they sound kind of live, real instruments.
And so if I have a great singer like Susan playing and singing, so that record Just Won’t Burn, I’m sure it won all the blues awards and all that stuff, but it had a Grammy nomination. She had Best New Artist at the Grammys, and it was in the same category with Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, I think, that year. I mean, that record was kind of in there, so it crossed over.
You stay out all night till the break of day Snap me up with everything I say Little by little Oh, I’m losing you, I can see And bit by bit, darling Your love is slipping away from me Oh, what you doing, baby Don’t you know it ain’t right I wonder what you’re doing That it takes all night Little by little Oh, I’m losing you, I can see And bit by bit Your love is slipping away from me I don’t look at blues as a limitation. I don’t look at it as, okay, we can’t do that because that’s not technically blues. When I wrote Rock Me Right for Susan Sudeski, and I remember getting a little bit of blowback that it was aggressive and it wasn’t a blues song, and it had the word rock in it.
And I remember they were saying, the label, it has the word rock in it. It’s not blues. It has the word rock in it.
And I said, what’s B.B. King’s big song? And they went, what are you talking about? And I said, rock me, baby. Rock me, baby. Rock me, baby Rock me all night long Rock me, baby He says rock and anyways, they went along with it and it became this other huge thing because I just don’t put any limitations on the genre.
I hear you. How closely related are the songs that you write, how closely related do they have to be to the personality of the person singing? Does the song have to be really intertwined with their personality or can they just sing whatever, as long as it’s a good song? Well, probably a great singer can sing whatever and make it happen. And so I think there’s probably been times where I’ve forced a song, maybe that they weren’t thinking about or gravitating to just because I thought this is going to make you shine.
This is going to be good for you. I did that on a Buddy Guy record where, you know, I sent him the songs to pick for the record, and he picked a couple and said send me more and I sent him more. I kept sending him this one song over and over, you know, after he’d vetoed it or whatever.
I kept sending it to him and I knew that he just wasn’t hearing it right because I just had a feeling that he should record this song, which is why he trusts me and has me as his producer. So we were in the recording studio and I just, at the end of one of the days, we were done, he goes, yeah, we’re getting down to it, right? We’re almost done. And I said, yeah.
And I said, I might have one new thing to throw at you tomorrow. And he left and I took the band in without him and I recorded this song. He came in the next day and I played him for him with me singing it, you know, and he went, oh my gosh, why, you know, you’ve been holding this one out, you know, why haven’t you played this one for me? It was the same song, but I think he hadn’t heard it right in the right setting.
And it was kind of a crude tape I sent him of me writing it, but he didn’t get it. And then when he heard it all kind of done with the icing on the cake and had it kind of nice, you know, he got it and he said, yeah, you know, I want to record that song. You know, it ended up being a really good song for him.
So it was cool. When I reach heaven’s gate And they see the joy On my face They might not know me Cause I won’t be Blue no more None of my songs Will sound the same Cause all of the heartache And all of the pain Will be taken from me And I won’t be Blue no more Oh, no, no I had actually written it with Jamie Johnson, great songwriter. And I think when he heard it with me and Jamie, it sounded country to him or it sounded different.
So sometimes in answer to your question, I think a lot of artists will come to me sometimes and say, I made some records where I wasn’t happy with the song selection. I didn’t feel connected to those songs. And so I right away, if I become your producer and they ask me to help in the writing, I want to connect with what you want to say now.
So I want you to talk to me about your life now and fill me in on what you’re feeling so I can get my juices flowing what I’m writing about. And a lot of times it’s just talking. If I can just talk to the artist, buddy guy or whoever, and they’re just talking to me about their life, I’ll hear phrases and stuff and song ideas all over the place.
I’ll be like, oh, okay. Yeah, that’s a good one. So then when I bring a song in, a lot of times they’ll say, that’s the way I’m feeling.
I like this song. And I’ll say, well, that’s because you brought it up. Not in those words, but you brought up that feeling.
So they obviously trust your gut instinct and you’ve got a very strong gut instinct, so strong in fact that you’re a four-time Grammy-winning producer-songwriter, particularly for Buddy Guy’s three albums you’ve done brilliantly on. But a whole host of artists that you’ve worked with over the years, you’ve collaborated with people like Gary Clark Jr and Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, B.B. King, Greg Allman, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, they all want to work with Tom Hambridge, don’t they? Well, I pinch myself sometimes even when you’re saying those names. I’m really fortunate and blessed to be able to do this and have people still reach out to me, and a lot of them are my heroes.
You say you have it all good Rockin’ is so hard to find, baby Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you shout Oh, your homemade lovin’ Gonna knock me out, baby Gonna show you how to rock I feel totally blessed, and all I try to do is just keep making good records and making good decisions for them. Of the hundreds of songs that you’ve written, do you have an absolute favourite one? Is there one closest to your heart? Wow, you know, that’s a great question. I don’t.
I mean, a real good day for me is when I write something that means something, and it’s my new favourite. I wrote a song the other day with a good friend of mine, Richard Fleming, and he was over here, and I don’t know if anyone will ever record it, or it has anything to do with it, but it was called Round. And I went into a studio the other day and was recording a record.
When everybody left, I just said, I said, man, I want to record this song just for me because I want to hear how it sounds, you know, on tape. And I don’t know. So that’s like my new favourite.
So it’s never like she’s leaving by Rascal Flatts or The Fixer by George Thorogood. I mean, when I write it, probably that day, I’m thinking, oh, this is great. This is really good.
And so it’s, but then they leave, and then you go and you write something else. You think, wow, this is really emotional. This is affecting me.
Or I think I hit a nerve on this one. You know, I wrote Gunsmoke Blues, Jason Isabel, and I remember writing that one thinking, I think I’m on to something. Trouble down at the high school Somebody got the Gunsmoke Blues Trouble down at the high school Somebody got the Gunsmoke Blues Read it in the morning paper Watch it on the evening news Over at the house of worship People praying to the Lord Over at the house of worship People praying to the Lord Gunsmoke Blues come calling God’s people ain’t here no more Mama said what’s the matter Son you ain’t acting right Mama said what’s the matter Son you ain’t acting right I got a worried feeling Is the Gunsmoke Blues alright? I’m always trying to write a better song.
I’m almost thinking, like, I finally did something cool. You certainly have more hits than misses, don’t you? Well, you’d be surprised. That’s one of the things that I talk about with songwriters when I get asked to do songwriting clinics or whatever.
You’re going to get turned down a lot more than they’re going to record one of your songs. Sometimes, so I tell writers, you’ve got to write. You’ve got to work the muscle.
You’ve got to write. You’ve got to get up in the morning and write. And I think it would be the same in anything you do, whether you’re a cross-country runner or a basketball player, or you want to be whatever you want to be and do and get better at.
If you just go, well, I’m a really good basketball player. I don’t use the basketball hoop anymore until they want me to play a game in the pros or something. Well, no.
You’ve got to go out every day and shoot hoops. So I try to tell songwriters, you’ve got to keep writing songs because you may write your best song, play it for a bunch of people, and they just go, eh. So you can either be mad at them for not liking your song, or you can keep that song, like a bottle of wine on the shelf over there, and write another song.
Throw that at them. Or maybe figure out why they don’t like that song. You’ve just got to keep going.
And so many songwriters I find are, it’s almost like I pitched this song to Tim McGraw and so-and-so, and they didn’t like it. And they should have recorded it because it’s a great song, and they would have sounded good. Well, there’s a reason they didn’t record it.
There’s a reason. People used to send me songs for George Thurgood all the time, and they were about drinking, I’m alone, I’m going to drink, I’m a bad dude, I’m going to drink. And George has already done that.
And George has told me, I don’t want any songs about drinking. I don’t want any songs about being a bad to-the-bone guy. Because why? I’ve already done that.
They’re on the radio every five minutes. And so sometimes new young writers maybe are not thinking about that. They’re thinking, this would sound great if George does this drinking song that I wrote.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. What percentage of songs would you write for you as opposed to writing for a specific artist? Wow, that’s a good one.
I think the ones I write for me, I think they’re different. They’re different kinds of songs because I have no agenda and I’m just kind of free to do whatever I want. And the songs that I’m writing for, if I’m making a record for an artist, I’m very conscious of his fan base, what did he do on his last record, what we’re trying to do on this record to take him somewhere else, how he wants to be perceived, you know.
There’s a lot of things going on now. Is he in a mellow state now and all this stuff? And probably I’m more focused on those songs, so I write… I’ll write ten of those songs and I only have to have 12 or 14 for an album, but I’ll write ten of those and get them right to the artist and say, what are you thinking of this? And sometimes they’re like, I like nine of these. And I’ll go, OK, well, I’m going to send you another ten because I want to up the bar, but it’s a lesser amount maybe as opposed to trying to find songs written by other people and finding 50 of those, sending them to the artist, and the artist says, I like this one, and this one maybe if we change it a little bit because it’s not really how I want to say that.
I go, all right, well, let’s try to write one that’s right for you. I thank the Lord For letting me stay around a little longer Feel like I got a lot more to give I thank the Lord For letting me stay around a little longer Lord knows I love the life I live This old road been so good to me I’ve been given much more than I ever dreamed I won’t ever stop playing these blues That’s what I think it put me here to do For letting me stay around a little longer Feel like I got a lot more to give I thank the Lord For letting me stay around a little longer Lord knows I love the life I live So Tom, when you get your head into gear and you sit down to write, do you have to put yourself in the right environment and make a conscious effort and go, now I’m going to try and do this? How does it work for you? Well, there have been experiences where it just comes out and you feel like someone else wrote this all the time when I’m sleeping or when I wake up. So I try to have the phone next to me where I can say something into it, but I find most of the times, if it’s a dream-like situation, it’s like remembering your dreams.
You go, oh my gosh, I had this great dream last night, but oh, I can’t remember totally what it was about. But I know it was so special. And so that happens so much.
And what can happen too is I’ll look at the note in the morning that I wrote down. It doesn’t make sense to me. So I think, and it comes from, you know, kind of having to do this all the time.
It gets back to more work in that muscle. Especially when I moved to Nashville. I mean, when I was in, had my own band, I’d wait to be inspired.
And I’d go, oh, I got this great idea. I think I’m gonna work on it tomorrow or next week. And it’s still been hanging around.
This is another thing that I’ve been working on for six months. Maybe I’ll get back to it. Here, it’s all about, you got a song, play it for me.
Let’s hear it now. Like, we’re looking for songs now. Well, I got this idea that might be cool, but I just gotta finish up the last verse.
That’s not a song. That’s not a completed song. They want the song.
If I have an artist, they go, you got songs for me? I have to have it complete. So I have to do the work. And I have to write it down and try to get it done.
So do you sit down, you know, you have your breakfast, have your coffee, go off into your room and sit for eight hours a day in order to achieve that? Sometimes. Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I have to do that.
It’s work. If I’m gonna write a record with an artist, I’ll have them fly to Nashville and we’ll spend a couple days right here in preparation. I might, for two weeks beforehand, every day come up with ideas and start song ideas that I think would be cool to write with that person.
And it’s kind of a part of the process of working because I can’t wait. I have to work at it. Finally got over that song of ours Stopped chasing little red sports cars To check the license plates Backward driving by your place Back making the rounds at all halls Honky-tonks, restaurants And seeing some of our old friends It feels good to dance again I can finally smell your perfume And I look around the room for you And I can walk right by your picture in a frame And not feel a thing But when I hear your name I feel rain falling right out of the blue sky And it’s the 5th of May And I’m right there staring in your eyes And nothing’s changed And we’re still the same And I get lost in the innocence of the first kiss And I’m hanging on to every word going off of your lips That’s all it takes And I’m in that place And every time I hear your name Tom, in what ways have you seen music change and how have you had to adapt your writing style since you first set out to what you’re writing today? Well, I think that’s more about genres.
Like when I moved down here, country music, the top country artists were recording a certain way. I was fortunate to get some songs on some records and kind of knew I wasn’t trying to be a country writer. When I would sometimes be co-writing with somebody, they’d say, hey, you know, Montgomery Gentry’s looking for songs.
We’d kind of write something that maybe might go down that alley and I’d get some of those recorded. So I think that is kind of being genre-specific. Now, that genre has changed.
So now it’s rap artists recording country music. Beyonce’s got a new country record and Post Malone. There’s just so many cool people.
So if I’m going to try to write a song for that market, I have to be aware of that. So I have to look at the top 10, top 40 in that, listen to them and go, okay, I’m hearing the sonically how they’re using stuff. It might be drum machines now.
With this, there’s no guitar solo. Like a pop music has changed. So that’s where I think music is changing all the time because there’s new people doing it.
And I also think if you want to write in and have a song that’s on the radio now and top 40 or something, you have to listen to that genre and be aware of how they’re phrasing things. Are they singing choruses anymore? I mean, you know, stuff is changing daily. So that’s how I think the music is changing.
And of course, you know, the business is changing too, where they’re just releasing singles, maybe not albums so much. And all that dynamics, Spotify is, you know, people aren’t going to record stores. So there’s all that business stuff happening too.
I hear a baby screaming She kicking at the door She woke up three things That I don’t do no more One is shooting a ball Two is smoking crack Three is picking bar fights Punching what you’re looking at I’m blues crazy Got me a pistol and a knife I’m blues crazy Can hardly recommend this life I love music, and I love the creative process. So even though not everything gets recorded and some of your best stuff will never be heard by people, you can live with that. You know, I love the process of creating.
Like I say, when I wrote that song the other day, nothing’s going to happen to that song, I don’t think. I don’t even think I’ll play it for anybody. But I got the feelings that I got when I was really young why I was creating music when I wrote that song.
So I can always listen to it when I feel like it. What does your older brother think about all of this? Is he still around? He’s got to be jealous of where your career went. You know, unfortunately, my brother passed away and he didn’t get to see a lot of the stuff that he actually turned me on to.
He had a bigger record collection than I did. And so all the ZZ Tops and the Roy Buchanan’s and the Robert Trout, Eric Clapton. If he ever knew that Clapton recorded something that I wrote, he wouldn’t even believe it.
Somebody asked me Why I live the blues I said the blues is all around me I just find something I can use And I feel it running through me And I give it my heart and soul I trust this song I’m singing Let the feeling take control I’m just trying to tell the truth Every time I sing the blues I might think about a woman And how she’s done me wrong I might think about some hard times When I was barely hanging on I might think about a brother Who still can’t make it to me Or some fallen sister Selling it on the street I’m just trying to tell the truth Every time I sing the blues I can’t help but think he’s hovering around somewhere Helping me because, you know, John Mayall, for example, who my brother loved on his last record before he passed away, he recorded one of my songs and he sent me a note with the CD John, you know, saying, Tom, thanks for the song. And I remember when I opened it, I thought, my brother would die. So you’ve kind of done it for him as well as you.
Yeah, I think so. He turned me on to all this stuff. Which song was that that you did with John Mayall? Distant Lonesome Train.
And actually, I wrote it with Joe Bonamassa right here. Oh, when I hear that cold wind howling It’s midnight, pouring rain Oh, I hear my baby calling out my name On that distant lonesome train Hear the drums out in the field And they’re crying out in pain The spirit calls me from the barren ground On that distant lonesome train On that distant lonesome train How come you never considered to be the voice of all of these songs yourself? Well, you know, that’s good we’re talking about this because I put out a record last year called Blue Javu, which was Tom Hambridge’s solo record. I have put out probably seven or eight of them.
I don’t do it as often as some of my fans hope that I do. Every three or four years, I’ll put out a record. This latest one, I recorded probably 10 of the 12 were songs that had been recorded by Buddy Guy or other people, but they were my versions.
This was like the original way I recorded Meet Me in Chicago, Sick with Love, The Blues Don’t Care. That song, I produced a record 10, 15 years ago, and Gary Clark Jr. and Buddy Guy sang it. And I decided to have me sing it when I asked Chris Stone Ingram, Kingfish, I said, would you sing it? Yeah, I’d love to.
And I said, well, what song would you want to do? He goes, Blues Don’t Care. I said, OK. So we did that together, and it was really cool.
You know, that’s on my latest record. Yeah, Blue Javu. The blues don’t care if you’re young or old A real big deal or some more so Makes no difference if you’re wrong or right It’s gonna take you down, it’s gonna pick a fight Blues don’t care The blues don’t care Well, I wanna know Cause I’ve had my share It’ll creep up on you When you leave this bed Make a hair stand up On the back of your neck You wanna try to run But there’s no escape It’s the middle finger On the hand of fate Blues don’t care And the blues don’t play fair Well, I wanna know Cause I’ve had my share Tom Hambridge, it’s been fabulous chatting with you.
I can’t thank you enough for giving up your precious time, and precious it really is, because I’m sure you’ve got to sit down and write another four or five, ten songs right now. Talk about buddy guy’s work ethic. I think you’ve got just as good as one, haven’t you? I’m trying, I’m trying to keep it all together.
It’s been wonderful talking to you and getting to meet you like this. It’s an honor and a privilege. Thank you.
Bye-bye. Cause it’s a beautiful day You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Beautiful day Oh, I bet any day that you’re gone away It’s a beautiful day