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Tom Shipley
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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 before falling in love with folk music.
Tom
met Michael Brewer in 1964 at The Blind Owl coffee house in Kent, Ohio,
three years before they would team up. In the meantime, Tom played the
folk circuit where he occasionally crossed paths with Michael. When Tom drifted into L.A. from Cleveland,
he became friends with
members of the group that would later become The Association. He recorded
“Little Girl Lost and Found” with Ruthann Friedman under the name of The
Garden Club. ("Little Girl Lost and Found" was recently included on
Friedman's
Hurried Live: Lost Recordings 1965-'71.) The song was written by Tandyn Almer, who later wrote “Along
Comes Mary” for the Association. Friedman would later write “Windy” for the
group.
In 1967 Tom moved into a house around the
corner from Michael Brewer, who by this time, had a gig as a songwriter for
Good Sam Music, a publishing offshoot of A&M records. Soon Michael &
Tom began writing songs together, and Tom was also hired as a staff writer
for Good Sam Music. Their demos for the publishing company exhibited a
sound and style of their own, and 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.
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Unhappy with life on the coast, Tom and
Michael moved back to the
mid-west. They made Kansas City, Missouri their home, and with
friends, formed a company named Good Karma Productions. Brewer &
Shipley acquired a new recording contract with Buddha/Kama Sutra Records in
New York City. They recorded four albums for that label…"Weeds", "Tarkio"
"Shake Off The Demon", and "Rural Space". Of course
Tarkio was a breakout album for Brewer &
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Shipley and contained
the now classic rock anthem "One Toke
Over The Line".
Eventually, they
moved to Capitol
Records and
recorded two more albums "ST-11261" and "Welcome To Riddle Bridge".
In 1979, after more than a decade of
writing, recording, traveling, and performing as a duo, Brewer and Shipley
parted company to pursue separate personal interests.
Tom began working as 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 works 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
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Google Video or the
University's Video
Website.
Tom is also still active as a
singer/songwriter/musician doing
occasional Brewer & Shipley shows. His sons Matt (drums) and Marc
(guitar) have shown an interest in music, and Marc who is
an aspiring songwriter opened for Brewer & Shipley at a recent concert
in Kansas City.
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Tom
resides in the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri. |
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Tom Shipley |
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