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photo: Pete Sefcik |
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THOMAS SHIPLEY
was born on April 1st, 1941 in Mineral Ridge, Ohio. He grew up
listening to early rock ‘n’ roll and
played trumpet in high school. He gave up his trumpet for guitar after
hearing Pete Seeger and falling in love with folk music. While in
college Tom played "open mic" nights at various beatnik coffee houses.
After college he hit the road and played the American folk circuit including
venues in Canada.
Three years before they would team up
in L.A., Tom
met Michael Brewer at The Blind Owl coffee house in Kent, Ohio in 1964. Tom
and Michael occasionally crossed paths on the folk circuit over the next
three years.
When
Tom drifted into L.A. in 1967, he looked up Michael and ended up renting a
house around the corner from Michael's. Tom's next door neighbor was
Jimmy Messina. Tom first recorded a single with Ruthann Friedman under the group name
of
The Garden
Club,
although the single failed to attract much attention. Tom was splitting time
writing songs with Friedman in David Crosby’s basement and also working on songs
with Brewer.
Michael
already had
a gig as a songwriter for
Good Sam Music, a publishing offshoot of A&M records,
and soon Tom was also hired as a staff writer
for Good Sam. As staff songwriters, Brewer & Shipley wrote songs that
were recorded by
Glenn Yarbrough, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band,
The Poor,
The Afex, The Black Sheep, H.P. Lovecraft, Noel Harrison, and Bobby
Rydell. Their demo tapes for the publishing company exhibited such a
sound and style of their own, that A&M suggested they record their songs
themselves. Their debut album
Brewer & Shipley/Down In L.A.
was released in 1968 on A&M Records. Jimmy Messina and Leon
Russell were musicians on their first album.
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Even with friends making it in groups like The Association, The Byrds,
and Buffalo Springfield, Tom & Michael were fed up with life on the coast,
so they headed back to the
mid-west. They made Kansas City, Missouri their home, and with
friends, formed a company named Good Karma Productions. Brewer &
Shipley were signed to a new recording contract with Buddha Records in
New York City. They recorded four albums for that
label
Weeds,
Tarkio,
Shake Off The Demon,
and
Rural Space.
Tarkio
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photo: Pete Sefcik |
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was a breakout album for
Brewer & Shipley and contained
the now classic rock anthem "One Toke Over The Line".
Eventually, they moved to Capitol Records and
recorded two more albums
ST11261
and
Welcome To Riddle Bridge.
In 1980, after more than a decade of
writing, recording, traveling, and performing as a duo, Brewer and Shipley
amicably parted company to pursue separate personal interests.
Tom became a
television producer/director, eventually forming his own production company
Tarkio Communications, which has done projects for industry, commercial
television, and PBS. He later founded the Oral History of The Ozarks
Project, a not-for-profit organization producing documentaries about life in
the Missouri Ozarks. He has produced several award winning
documentaries.
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In 1987, at the request of a
Kansas City radio station, Brewer & Shipley reunited for a concert to
celebrate the station's first birthday. Unsure of what to expect after
being out of the public eye for so long, the duo was overwhelmed as they
walked on stage to over 10,000 cheering fans welcoming their return. Having come full circle
from their days as staff song writers for A&M Records, Brewer & Shipley
began writing together again. Their first project was the soundtrack for
Tom's award winning documentary "Treehouse - An Ozark Story". They have
since released two albums of new Brewer & Shipley material (Shanghai
and
Heartland) on their own One Toke Productions label
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Currently Tom lives in Rolla,
Missouri and keeps very busy as the Manager of Video Production for Missouri University of
Science and Technology.
His documentary style approach to
producing promotional videos for the University has resulted in a number of awards from
the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VI. One
example is "Engineers without Borders" which documents a trip to Bolivia by
engineering faculty and students from the University. Some of Tom's videos are
available on
Google Video or the
University's Video
Website.
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Tom is also still active as a
singer/songwriter/musician doing
regular Brewer & Shipley shows.
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Tom
resides in the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri. |
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