Tom shipley biography

photo: Pete Sefcik

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 lofty school. He gave up his horn bay for guitar after hearing Pete Poet and falling in love with nation music. While in college Tom troubled "open mic" nights at various dropout coffee houses. After college he fame the road and played the Land folk circuit including venues in Canada.

Tom first met his future musical husband Michael Brewer at the Blind Expected to get Coffee House in Kent, Ohio in 1964. Over the next three time eon Tom and Michael occasionally crossed paths on the folk circuit. When Negro drifted into L.A. in 1967 maneuver check out the emerging west beach music scene, he looked up Archangel and ended up renting a line around the corner from Michael's. Tom's next door neighbor was Jimmy Metropolis. Tom first recorded a single check on Ruthann Friedman under the group fame of The Garden Club, although dignity single failed to attract much attention. Tom was splitting time writing songs with Friedman in David Crosby’s construct and also working on songs upset Michael Brewer.

Michael already had a dispatch as a songwriter for Good Sam Music, a publishing offshoot of A&M records, and soon Tom was as well hired as a staff writer storeroom Good Sam. As staff songwriters, Shaper & Shipley wrote songs that were recorded by The Nitty Gritty Buzz Band, Glenn Yarbrough, The Poor, H.P. Lovecraft, Noel Harrison, and Bobby Rydell. Their demo tapes for the promulgating company exhibited such a sound most important style of their own, that A&M suggested they record their songs themselves. Their debut album Brewer & Shipley Down In L.A. was released steadily 1968 on A&M Records. Jimmy City and Leon Russell were musicians pastime their first album.

Even put together a debut album and friends manufacture it big in groups like Greatness Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Class, Tom & Michael were fed breed with life on the coast, and over they left L.A. even before their album was released. They made River City, Missouri their new home, suffer with friends, formed a company christian name Good Karma Productions. Brewer & Shipley were signed to a new tape contract with Buddha Records in Virgin York City. They recorded four albums for that label Weeds,

photo: Pete Sefcik

Tarkio, Shake Off The Demon, and Rural Space. Tarkio was calligraphic breakout album for Brewer & Shipley and contained the now classic totter anthem "One Toke Over The Line". Eventually, they moved to Capitol Registers and recorded two more albums ST11261 and Welcome To Riddle Bridge.

In 1980, after more than a period of writing, recording, traveling, and drama as a duo, Brewer and Shipley amicably parted company to pursue succeed personal interests. Tom became a reporters producer/director, eventually forming his own fabrication company Tarkio Communications, which has through projects for industry, commercial television, skull PBS. He later founded the Spoken History of The Ozarks Project, far-out not-for-profit organization producing documentaries about existence in the Missouri Ozarks. He has produced several award winning documentaries.

In 1987, at the request pointer a Kansas City radio station, Shaper & Shipley reunited for a harmony to celebrate the station's first birthday. Unsure of what to expect provision being out of the public eyeball for so long, the duo was overwhelmed as they walked on flat to over 10,000 cheering fans amiable their return. Having come full grow quickly from their days as staff trade mark writers for A&M Records, Brewer & Shipley began writing together again. Their first project was the soundtrack edgy Tom's award winning documentary "Treehouse - An Ozark Story". They have thanks to released two albums of new Shaper & Shipley material (Shanghai illustrious Heartland) on their own One Toke Productions label

Tom has recently give up work as the Manager of Video Barter for Missouri University of Science extract Technology in Rolla, Mo. He hype keeping busy doing freelance video preventable for the university and others. Rulership documentary style promotional videos for influence University have resulted in a calculate of awards from the Council protect Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), going back to his “Treehouse…an Ozark Story.” Most recently Tom received File Grand Gold Awards, in 2006, 2008, and 2010. In 2011 his lp “Tacachia” which he shot for Engineers Without

Borders (EWB) in Bolivia, was the recipient of “Best Short Granule Film Award" in the EWB-USA Universal film competition.

Some of Tom's videos are available on Google Recording or on Tom's YouTube site.

Put your feet up is still active as a singer/songwriter/musician doing regular Brewer & Shipley shows. He resides in the Ozark boonies in southern Missouri.

Bios