Tom Hampton

A few songs into the new Tom Hampton album "A Month Of Somedays", it’s easy to get the sense that these songs have been simmering on low heat over the course of several soul-searching years…but the drought between releases of original material has been a long one. His years as a journeyman multi-instrumentalist and sideman are bookended by his origins as a singer/songwriter - he released his critically acclaimed debut "Our Mutual Angels" in 1997 before heeding the call as a session player based on his demonstrated adeptness on multiple instruments during those recording sessions. Over his years playing sessions in Philadelphia and touring with John Lilley of the Hooters, Philadelphia legend Robert Hazard, the band Idlewheel (which featured Craig Bickhardt and Poco bassist Jack Sundrud) and a stint on the road with southern rockers the Marshall Tucker Band, he relocated to Nashville in 2014 and acepted an invitation to join the pioneering country rock band Poco in 2020 - until the pandemic sidelined the notion of touring. With the passing of Poco founder Rusty Young in 2021 and the subsequent formulation of the band that grew out of the final Poco lineup, Hampton rediscovered his yellow legal pad. “I knew I’d be expected to contribute songs to the record, and that I’d have to sharpen that skill set again and shake off the rust, but it was as if I opened up a vein,” he recalled. “I must have written a dozen songs when we started collecting material for the record, and I haven’t really slowed down since.” That rediscovered voice in these latter day songs owes as much to Jason Isbell and John Moreland as it does to formative influences like Jackson Browne and Stephen Stills - his songs touch on fleeting intimate unspoken moments during late night drives, searching for renewal and reconnection in relationships, and the struggles of balancing ones’ dreams with the need to survive. Indeed, when listening to the songs on "A Month Of Somedays", it’s hard not to ponder the records Hampton would’ve made if he’d stayed on his initial path - but those thoughts are dismissed in conversation. “I can’t let myself get caught up in hypotheticals - this is happening right when it’s supposed to be happening. Ideally, I’ll go out like David Crosby - singing and writing and recording and playing right up until the very end,” he says. “I’ve got a lot left to say, and I don’t plan on letting up anytime soon.”