the short version of the long story....

most often, performers are seen walking from the shadows into the spotlight - paying their dues in obscurity until it's their turn to shine, honing their songs until they're ready for their share of the limelight.

tom hampton is one of the rare individuals who appears to have reversed course - having begun his career as a singer/songwriter, he found himself turning away from that role to concentrate on his role as a consummate sideman and session player. tom's command of a laundry list of instruments (including guitar, lap steel, dobro, and mandolin among others) has made him a first-call player for a number of luminary philadelphia-area musicians and songwriters, as much for his sensitivity and sense of nuance as for his technical prowess.

he began his stint as a singer/songwriter in 1989, leaving his band to play solo acoustic shows full-time. at the time, his only real goal was to be able to play full time - but as time passed, he saw the writing on the wall.

"i was playing a hotel dining room in state college, pennsylvania," he remembers, "and i finished early, and i was loading the van and i heard music coming from a basement bar on the same corner. i took a peek in the front door, and there was a guy on stage, playing a pretty raucous version of a jimmy buffett song. so i went out to the van and grabbed a tape and a business card and went to the bartender to make my pitch. i asked him what their schedule was for the week, and he told me, 'well, we have dj's on wednesdays and thursdays, bands on fridays and saturdays, and this guy has been playing here every sunday night since 1979'."

"i was stunned at first. i was driving home, frustrated, because i couldn't figure out how i was gonna crack this town with guys like that keeping rooms locked up. but then i started thinking....1979....i remembered what i was doing in 1979, what grade i was in, how old i was. i remembered that the number one song that year was 'my sharona' and that 'happy days' and 'laverne and shirley' were still on abc on tuesday nights, and i realized that this guy had been in that room every sunday night since then - and i started to feel sorry for him...."

"...but it was a moment of clarity for me. i realized that it was within my scope to be able to play full time, but where would i go from there? i thought about this the whole three hours home from state college."

"what i realized was that the thing that separated that guy in state college from the people i respected and emulated - guys like jackson browne and john gorka and the like - was that they wrote their own songs. nobody ever got a record deal because they did a bitchin' version of 'take it easy'...at least not to my knowledge. so if i wanted to be successful past the point of playing in some bar every sunday night for fifteen years, i'd better start thinking a little more seriously about my writing."

tom trimmed the number of cover gigs he'd been doing, took on a day job, and started writing in earnest. he also started exploring the philadelphia music scene (which he'd avoided during his cover days out of an awareness of the differences in perception of original music and "cover bands") and frequenting open mic nights. many of the writers and performers he admired in the philadelphia scene quickly became his contemporaries, and word started to get around about "the guy with the capos" who came to the grape street pub every monday.

he had begun working on the songs that would become his first actual release during this time, and eventually found a partner in longview records' steven wellner, who took him in and produced his debut, our mutual angels, for his own imprint. the album was a quiet success, earning positive reviews (including a top 12 listing in performing songwriter magazine, among others) and garnering the attention of matt asbell, a prominent artist manager who added tom to his roster of artists on the strength of the record.

for the next two years, tom played anywhere and everywhere he could - reputable festivals and venues such as club passim in boston, the tin angel in philadelphia, ted's in toronto, the living room in new york city, twice told coffeehouse in louisville...nashville, baltimore, roanoke...wherever work was available.

"there'd be weeks when i'd drive to new york city on a tuesday night for a gig to play three or four songs as part of a round, and then turn around and drive home and essentially crawl in the shower, put on fresh clothes, and go to work the next day. then there were weeks where i'd play at john and peters' in new hope on thursday night, leave for boston that night and play there the next day, then i played a tent at the newport folk festival on that saturday, and then back through new york city on sunday night before going back to work on monday."

"all the while i was telling myself that i had to give it the absolute best effort that i could, because i didn't want to be sixty years old, sitting on the porch in my rocking chair, thinking that i might've gotten over the hump if i'd just tried a little harder.....that's not a thought i'll be plagued with in my old age, i can definitely tell you that."

at that time, though, a parallel career path had started to emerge - he had been accompanying people at the open mic at the grape (which he had begun hosting some time back), and he was slowly finding his way onto the short list of first-call players for sessions and sideman work.

"it's taken quite a while, but then i'm pretty picky about the projects i take on. i try to work with people whose music inspires me. if i don't - if i have to 'phone it in' - then i'm not happy and chances are, neither is the boss."

inspired by heroes like david lindley and rusty young of poco, tom worked hard to develop a voice on multiple instruments, so that he'd have more to offer potential collaborators. he'd long been a fan of lap steel, and had taken it up after finding one in a pawn shop in reading for $75 in 1993. not long after, he began exploring other slide instruments - dobro, hawaiian guitar, and the like - and moved on to mandolin not long after.

these days, the prospect of tom hampton participating in a show involves almost limitless possibilities - from a rack full of guitars for a cover gig ("i use different tunings for slide, and i try to be as true to the sound that i'm supposed to be emulating as possible," he says. "i don't play allman brothers songs on a strat, anymore than i'd play stevie ray vaughn songs on a les paul. in those situations, i feel like it's my job to be as true to the sound i'm supposed to be recreating as i possibly can. and that usually means travelling somewhat heavy", he says.) to an entire family of stringed instruments for a charlie degenhart show ("charlie and i do duo shows whenever he's on the road in the northeast...if he's in the area, i get a call," he remarked, "and i love playing with him because i can stretch and do a lot of what i'm capable of. so that usually means a lap steel, a dobro, a mandolin, and at least one electric guitar...sometimes other stuff, depending on the show.")

tom relishes his role in live bands for artists like charlie, dan may, blake allen, and others, because he gets to work his versatility muscles, and he feels that he gets those calls because of his singer/songwriter roots.

"guys in their position seem to feel comfortable with having me participate in their projects because (i think, anyway) they know that i'll be sensitive to what they're doing. they know that i'm a songwriter, and they know that i'm intimately familiar with the rules, and that i don't overplay or crowd the vocal, and that translates into a good relationship with the artist," tom says.

"from my own time as a songwriter and a solo artist, i'm acutely aware of when to play and when not to play..as well as what to play and what not to play. i try to be as tasteful as i possibly can, and stay out of the way of the song."

"if it's a great song, it'll be obvious - whether i play a single note or not. i feel as though my job is to play the right notes to make that as obvious as i can."