{"id":26317,"date":"2023-12-06T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T10:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=26317"},"modified":"2023-10-17T08:59:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T12:59:03","slug":"album-review-tom-hambridge-blu-ja-vu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/06\/album-review-tom-hambridge-blu-ja-vu\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Tom Hambridge — Blu Ja Vu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Tom Hambridge has a weighty r\u00e9sum\u00e9. A 1983 Berklee graduate, much of the Buffalo native\u2019s work has been behind the scenes. As a composer, he\u2019s provided songs for a wide array of artists in many genres, including Susan Tedeschi, NRBQ, Ana Popovi\u0107, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, Delbert McClinton, Shemekia Copeland, Steve Cropper and Felix Cavaliere, Buddy Guy, Meat Loaf, Marcia Ball, Christone \u201cKingfish\u201d Ingram, Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 and many, many others. An in-demand producer and engineer, he has worked in the studio with many of those names plus scores of others. His credits as a drummer on those recordings \u2013 and, again, many more \u2013 are extensive as well.<\/p>\n

Yet Hambridge\u2019s releases under his own name have attracted comparatively little attention. After releasing a string of albums as T.H. & the Wreckage, he released his solo debut, Still Running<\/i> in 1996. A major label set, Balderdash<\/i>, followed in 2000. Subsequently, every few years \u2013 in between his projects with and for names from that vast roll call of marquee artists \u2013 he has returned with another solo record. 2018\u2019s The NOLA Sessions<\/i> marked his seventh solo offering.<\/p>\n

As solid as those releases have been, there\u2019s an inescapable sense that Hambridge \u2013 a multiple Grammy nominee and four-time Grammy Award winner \u2013 focuses more on lifting up other artists than he does cultivating his own career as a recording artist.<\/p>\n

Hambridge\u2019s latest release, Blu Ja Vu<\/i> presents an opportunity for all of that to change. Whether they came to him or he dug into his Rolodex, several big names \u2013 friends and associates all \u2013 have pitched in to help Hambridge make an album. On Blu Ja Vu<\/i>, Hambridge does what he does best: write songs, play drums, produce the sessions, sing his songs. But his famous friends stop by to add their signature style to his songs.<\/p>\n

Aided by a crack core band, Hambridge leads the band from behind his drum kit. Of special note among those players is rollicking pianist Kevin McKendree. Buddy Guy sings a bit and plays guitar on the Stonesy opener \u201cAin\u2019t It Just Like Love.\u201d Joe Bonamassa rips up the fretboard (and sings, too) on \u201cThat\u2019s My Home.\u201d Kingfish contributes vocals and guitar on \u201cBlues Don\u2019t Care.\u201d Elsewhere, James Cotton, Josh Smith and Chuck Leavell help out.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a testament to Hambridge\u2019s artistry \u2013 and perhaps an augur of his future \u2013 that he isn\u2019t lost among the celebrity guests on Blu Ja Vu<\/i>. The searing Johnny Winter is a plea for the late Texas blues master to receive greater recognition. That and tracks like the ZZ Top-ish \u201cWear You Out\u201d \u2013 featuring just Hambridge and his band \u2013 are among the most incendiary moments on the whole set. The record is a cohesive collection that showcases Tom Hambridge\u2019s many gifts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Hambridge has a weighty r\u00e9sum\u00e9. A 1983 Berklee graduate, much of the Buffalo native\u2019s work has been behind the scenes. As a composer, he\u2019s provided songs for a wide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[5266],"class_list":["post-26317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-tom-hambridge","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26319,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26317\/revisions\/26319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}