Covering the basics, and much more
Muirsical Conversation with Hamilton Loomis
Muirsical Conversation with Hamilton Loomis
It’s a return to Basics for Hamilton Loomis and his innovative mix of blues, funk, soul and pop on his seventh studio album – because while the Loomis brand of blues-funk is still present and correct, latest album Basics features an intentionally stripped back sound.
Additionally, it's the most personal album from the Galveston, Texas singer-songwriter-guitarist and multi-instrumentalist to date.
There are also hidden layers to be found.
For example opener 'Sugar Baby' tells a different and vitally important story underneath its funkified dance surface while Basics closes out with a hidden jam track that defines a Pay It Forward philosophy important to Hamilton Loomis; a giving it back nod to the teachings and lessons received from a number of late and greats including his mentor, the legendary Bo Diddley.
Between such mentoring and getting personal on Basics, Hamilton Loomis put himself on the funky blues map with debut album Hamilton (receiving a Grammy nomination in 1995 for Best Contemporary Blues Album).
He then established his multi-styled credentials with releases such as 2007’s Ain’t Just Temporary (#7 on the Billboard Blues Albums Chart) and 2013’s Give It Back.
But if you want to get to the musical heart and funky-blues soul of Hamilton Loomis, one of the most personable and highly engaging performers you are ever likely to see or hear, the Basics are right here in a full-length feature that starts with a discussion on the new album before going all the way back to those formative years, a multitude of vinyl record influences and an insight in to just how important Bo Diddley was in the innovative Hamilton Loomis sound.
RM: This last decade has, for me, seen you in the performing and recording form of your career – Ain’t Just Temporary was a great album and Billboard Blues chart success while Give It Back mixed up funk with some cool, soul-blues grooves.
And now latest album, Basics, which is just that – a stripped back, baring of the soul release which I believe to be your most accomplished and personal, yet very accessible, album to date.
HL: Well, thank you and, yes, it’s definitely more personal; many of the songs are inspired by personal events and relationships – a few are even autobiographical.
Obviously there’s some fiction on it too, but most of this album has been inspired by events in my life; that’s part of the Basics theme.
There are a lot of different facets, and layers, to Basics, but musically its stripped down – most of the songs are built around just guitars, bass and drums and there’s less production; even the chord progressions are more basic.
And where there are bigger chord progressions the melodies are really simple; the song Come And Get Me is a Perfect example of that.
My saxophone player Fabian Hernandez wrote the music for that song and there are a lot of beautiful chords in there, that move a lot, but the melody and chorus have about two notes; it can’t get much simpler than that! But that’s what Basics is all about.
Our lives can get topsy-turvy sometimes, or overly complicated, but when you strip away all of the noise it’s really pretty simple – life is about love, harmony, tolerance, music and all those things that we really need now; all those things are what we should be striving for.
RM: You mentioned different facets and layers, to Basics. Opening track Sugar Baby is a perfect example.
Musically it’s Hamilton Loomis business as usual – funkin’ it up over a big beat from your drummer Armando Aussenac and some great sax from Fabian – but while the lyric would seem to be about being with your baby on the dance floor there’s the far more serious lyrical dedication to all the young children, the sugar babies, who suffer from Hyperinsulinism, or HI.
We are all aware of Diabetes and its related sugar disorders but I have to put my hands up and count myself as one of those who had no idea of HI until becoming aware that your young son, Bo, suffers from HI.
HL: You actually just touched on the very problem with HI. We hear all about diabetes; it’s very common, very prominent in the medical world and on American television there are an incredible number of pharmaceutical adverts for it. There is a huge awareness of diabetes in every walk of life and in the medical profession and we have many different medications that can help with it.
But, the other blood sugar disorders are never talked about, so something like hypo glycaemia, in its severest and rarest form – Hyperinsulinism, which about one in ten thousand suffer from – is overlooked and under diagnosed.
RM: But there is a cure, or ways to deal with it?
HL: Well the key, first and foremost, is an early diagnosis and trying to figure it out before it affects the child’s brain; Bo was almost a year and a half old before he was diagnosed with HI; unfortunately he didn’t show any symptoms at all, much before that.
The results are he’s a little behind – he has learning difficulties – but he will catch up, which is great, but that’s why it’s a bit of a struggle with him just now.
And that’s why we’re doing what we can to raise awareness of HI and hypo glycaemia in general; we’re just planting those seeds – go to your doctor or local hospital and insist that they check your blood sugar levels, it could be very telling and could well be related to any problems people might be having.
It’s something that’s just not checked enough and that’s why we also support CHI, Congenital Hyperinsulinism International, and mention them on the liner notes of the CD.
RM: I get the impression they are a very important and valuable asset in terms of HI and HI awareness.
HL: They are just such a wonderful organisation. They have helped families and HI kids all over the world.
They’ve been supportive and sent medicines to families who can’t afford it, because it does require medicine, to answer your question about is there a cure.
There are several medicines HI sufferers have to take, whereas hypo glycaemia can be controlled by fruit and diet – what we eat and how often we eat it.
My wife Sabrina is actually hypo glycaemic, so we’re familiar with the signs, which is why it’s so surprising that Bo didn’t show any of those signs at all until later – he was out there, running around and playing, but with blood sugars down in the forties and fifties, which was just horrible.
To get back to the song itself, you’re absolutely right, it sounds like it’s about your sugar on the dance floor, or save some sugar for me, all that sort of stuff; but it’s really dedicated to the HI sufferers and the organisation, CHI.
In fact, CHI’s nickname for those suffering from HI is "sugar babies" and if you check out their website you’ll see their motto is "Won’tcha be my sugar?" So I put a version of that in to the lyric, too!
Additionally, it's the most personal album from the Galveston, Texas singer-songwriter-guitarist and multi-instrumentalist to date.
There are also hidden layers to be found.
For example opener 'Sugar Baby' tells a different and vitally important story underneath its funkified dance surface while Basics closes out with a hidden jam track that defines a Pay It Forward philosophy important to Hamilton Loomis; a giving it back nod to the teachings and lessons received from a number of late and greats including his mentor, the legendary Bo Diddley.
Between such mentoring and getting personal on Basics, Hamilton Loomis put himself on the funky blues map with debut album Hamilton (receiving a Grammy nomination in 1995 for Best Contemporary Blues Album).
He then established his multi-styled credentials with releases such as 2007’s Ain’t Just Temporary (#7 on the Billboard Blues Albums Chart) and 2013’s Give It Back.
But if you want to get to the musical heart and funky-blues soul of Hamilton Loomis, one of the most personable and highly engaging performers you are ever likely to see or hear, the Basics are right here in a full-length feature that starts with a discussion on the new album before going all the way back to those formative years, a multitude of vinyl record influences and an insight in to just how important Bo Diddley was in the innovative Hamilton Loomis sound.
RM: This last decade has, for me, seen you in the performing and recording form of your career – Ain’t Just Temporary was a great album and Billboard Blues chart success while Give It Back mixed up funk with some cool, soul-blues grooves.
And now latest album, Basics, which is just that – a stripped back, baring of the soul release which I believe to be your most accomplished and personal, yet very accessible, album to date.
HL: Well, thank you and, yes, it’s definitely more personal; many of the songs are inspired by personal events and relationships – a few are even autobiographical.
Obviously there’s some fiction on it too, but most of this album has been inspired by events in my life; that’s part of the Basics theme.
There are a lot of different facets, and layers, to Basics, but musically its stripped down – most of the songs are built around just guitars, bass and drums and there’s less production; even the chord progressions are more basic.
And where there are bigger chord progressions the melodies are really simple; the song Come And Get Me is a Perfect example of that.
My saxophone player Fabian Hernandez wrote the music for that song and there are a lot of beautiful chords in there, that move a lot, but the melody and chorus have about two notes; it can’t get much simpler than that! But that’s what Basics is all about.
Our lives can get topsy-turvy sometimes, or overly complicated, but when you strip away all of the noise it’s really pretty simple – life is about love, harmony, tolerance, music and all those things that we really need now; all those things are what we should be striving for.
RM: You mentioned different facets and layers, to Basics. Opening track Sugar Baby is a perfect example.
Musically it’s Hamilton Loomis business as usual – funkin’ it up over a big beat from your drummer Armando Aussenac and some great sax from Fabian – but while the lyric would seem to be about being with your baby on the dance floor there’s the far more serious lyrical dedication to all the young children, the sugar babies, who suffer from Hyperinsulinism, or HI.
We are all aware of Diabetes and its related sugar disorders but I have to put my hands up and count myself as one of those who had no idea of HI until becoming aware that your young son, Bo, suffers from HI.
HL: You actually just touched on the very problem with HI. We hear all about diabetes; it’s very common, very prominent in the medical world and on American television there are an incredible number of pharmaceutical adverts for it. There is a huge awareness of diabetes in every walk of life and in the medical profession and we have many different medications that can help with it.
But, the other blood sugar disorders are never talked about, so something like hypo glycaemia, in its severest and rarest form – Hyperinsulinism, which about one in ten thousand suffer from – is overlooked and under diagnosed.
RM: But there is a cure, or ways to deal with it?
HL: Well the key, first and foremost, is an early diagnosis and trying to figure it out before it affects the child’s brain; Bo was almost a year and a half old before he was diagnosed with HI; unfortunately he didn’t show any symptoms at all, much before that.
The results are he’s a little behind – he has learning difficulties – but he will catch up, which is great, but that’s why it’s a bit of a struggle with him just now.
And that’s why we’re doing what we can to raise awareness of HI and hypo glycaemia in general; we’re just planting those seeds – go to your doctor or local hospital and insist that they check your blood sugar levels, it could be very telling and could well be related to any problems people might be having.
It’s something that’s just not checked enough and that’s why we also support CHI, Congenital Hyperinsulinism International, and mention them on the liner notes of the CD.
RM: I get the impression they are a very important and valuable asset in terms of HI and HI awareness.
HL: They are just such a wonderful organisation. They have helped families and HI kids all over the world.
They’ve been supportive and sent medicines to families who can’t afford it, because it does require medicine, to answer your question about is there a cure.
There are several medicines HI sufferers have to take, whereas hypo glycaemia can be controlled by fruit and diet – what we eat and how often we eat it.
My wife Sabrina is actually hypo glycaemic, so we’re familiar with the signs, which is why it’s so surprising that Bo didn’t show any of those signs at all until later – he was out there, running around and playing, but with blood sugars down in the forties and fifties, which was just horrible.
To get back to the song itself, you’re absolutely right, it sounds like it’s about your sugar on the dance floor, or save some sugar for me, all that sort of stuff; but it’s really dedicated to the HI sufferers and the organisation, CHI.
In fact, CHI’s nickname for those suffering from HI is "sugar babies" and if you check out their website you’ll see their motto is "Won’tcha be my sugar?" So I put a version of that in to the lyric, too!
RM: Sugar Baby is a great way to put a serious message across on a fun song; but to reconfirm the seriousness of this, HI is a life-threatening condition?
HL: Absolutely. And low blood sugar can mimic other diseases, which means it could easily be misdiagnosed. You may feel irritable, or light headed, maybe a little anxious or confused, that sort of thing; you might be prescribed an anti-depressant for that when all you needed was a cheeseburger! [laughs]
Now, I’m making light of it here, but in some cases that could be true – to the extent that I now find myself thinking, when I hear someone saying they are suffering from any of those symptoms, "hey, I wonder if their blood sugar is low?" So it’s always worth getting your blood sugar levels checked.
RM: The mention, and discussion of, the song Sugar Baby leads me to the end of the album and Funky Little Brother, because it and Sugar Baby bookend Basics in funky, upbeat Hamilton Loomis style.
Funky Little Brother also leads to a hidden track featuring a young quartet of Houston area musicians jamming out, a perfect example of your Give It Back / Pay it Forward philosophy…
HL: Yeah, having the kids on at the end does touch on the whole Give It Back thing; that was inspired by the wonderfully talented and notable musicians that took me under their wing and gave me helpful advice when I was a teenager – Bo Diddley, Johnny Copeland, who was a respected blues man and the lesser known Joe Guitar Hughes. Joe was a Houston guy and a very hands mentor who ran a blues jam every Tuesday night at a small club in downtown Houston.
My parents, even on those school nights, would drive me up there every other week because they totally recognised the education Joe was giving me – even if that was yelling at me when I played too loud or smacking me on the arm if I interrupted another musician! [laughs]
But those were also some of the best lessons you could have! These old-time blues guys, they weren’t trying to be mean, they were just trying to whoop you into shape – and as a young, cocky fifteen-year old guitarist that’s just what I needed.
Now, many years later, I find myself naturally sharing what I was taught to the current generation of youngsters and teenagers; and it’s really amazing just how talented they are, compared to when I was a kid of their age. They have more resources now of course – YouTube for example; that alone, with the teachers on there at their disposal? That’s wonderful.
The kids on that jam track are amazing. Reagan the drummer is only thirteen and her sister, Sarah, plays organ and trumpet she also has a killer voice. The two boys, Austin and Daniel, play guitar and bass.
They really are talented bunch of kids and I’ve done a few shows with them; they’ve opened for us before and I’ve done some music camps with them.
RM: That’s fantastic to hear. More Give It Back power to you.
Beyond the fun and the funky, Basics has plenty of soul, pop and some nice, smooth blues – Breaking Down for example, that song proves, if further proof be needed, you can play the blues as well as you can funk it up. I love the solo and closing guitar remarks on that number.
HL: Thank you. When I was in the UK earlier in 2017 that song got quite a lot of attention; surprisingly so, I thought, because I’ve never really been a kind of slow blues guy.
I guess I just dug a little deeper on that one and I’m pretty happy with the lyrics, too; they’re probably some of the strongest lyrics I’ve written.
Live, the solo that follows the chorus ends up being not eight bars but thirty-two bars or however long [laughs]; I just keep going and going with it and people do tend to respond to it, especially in the UK.
HL: Absolutely. And low blood sugar can mimic other diseases, which means it could easily be misdiagnosed. You may feel irritable, or light headed, maybe a little anxious or confused, that sort of thing; you might be prescribed an anti-depressant for that when all you needed was a cheeseburger! [laughs]
Now, I’m making light of it here, but in some cases that could be true – to the extent that I now find myself thinking, when I hear someone saying they are suffering from any of those symptoms, "hey, I wonder if their blood sugar is low?" So it’s always worth getting your blood sugar levels checked.
RM: The mention, and discussion of, the song Sugar Baby leads me to the end of the album and Funky Little Brother, because it and Sugar Baby bookend Basics in funky, upbeat Hamilton Loomis style.
Funky Little Brother also leads to a hidden track featuring a young quartet of Houston area musicians jamming out, a perfect example of your Give It Back / Pay it Forward philosophy…
HL: Yeah, having the kids on at the end does touch on the whole Give It Back thing; that was inspired by the wonderfully talented and notable musicians that took me under their wing and gave me helpful advice when I was a teenager – Bo Diddley, Johnny Copeland, who was a respected blues man and the lesser known Joe Guitar Hughes. Joe was a Houston guy and a very hands mentor who ran a blues jam every Tuesday night at a small club in downtown Houston.
My parents, even on those school nights, would drive me up there every other week because they totally recognised the education Joe was giving me – even if that was yelling at me when I played too loud or smacking me on the arm if I interrupted another musician! [laughs]
But those were also some of the best lessons you could have! These old-time blues guys, they weren’t trying to be mean, they were just trying to whoop you into shape – and as a young, cocky fifteen-year old guitarist that’s just what I needed.
Now, many years later, I find myself naturally sharing what I was taught to the current generation of youngsters and teenagers; and it’s really amazing just how talented they are, compared to when I was a kid of their age. They have more resources now of course – YouTube for example; that alone, with the teachers on there at their disposal? That’s wonderful.
The kids on that jam track are amazing. Reagan the drummer is only thirteen and her sister, Sarah, plays organ and trumpet she also has a killer voice. The two boys, Austin and Daniel, play guitar and bass.
They really are talented bunch of kids and I’ve done a few shows with them; they’ve opened for us before and I’ve done some music camps with them.
RM: That’s fantastic to hear. More Give It Back power to you.
Beyond the fun and the funky, Basics has plenty of soul, pop and some nice, smooth blues – Breaking Down for example, that song proves, if further proof be needed, you can play the blues as well as you can funk it up. I love the solo and closing guitar remarks on that number.
HL: Thank you. When I was in the UK earlier in 2017 that song got quite a lot of attention; surprisingly so, I thought, because I’ve never really been a kind of slow blues guy.
I guess I just dug a little deeper on that one and I’m pretty happy with the lyrics, too; they’re probably some of the strongest lyrics I’ve written.
Live, the solo that follows the chorus ends up being not eight bars but thirty-two bars or however long [laughs]; I just keep going and going with it and people do tend to respond to it, especially in the UK.
RM: One of the reasons that song will be so appreciated by the UK audiences is that, in the last ten years or so, there has been a resurgence in the blues and the blues-rock club circuit.
People of different generations are starting to get either a re-appreciation for, or an understanding of, the blues – or at least modern blues in its twenty-first century musical shapes and forms.
HL: That’s a great thing to hear because I think it’s kind of the opposite in the States; the blues scene is dying down a little bit and venues, sadly, are closing right and left.
My roots are blues – that’s what I grew up with and where I got my musical education – but, as you know, my own music is far removed from the blues while still, obviously, paying tribute to it.
What’s interesting is British audiences are far more academic about US blues than we are – I think we take it for granted sometimes – so it was a little intimidating the first time I came over because I was thinking "well, perhaps I should do a few more shuffles to satisfy the blues aficionados!" [laughs]
But when it came down to it I just decided to be myself and do my thing, as it were, and I have to say my material has always been welcomed with open arms in the UK.
It’s very rare that I get the old blues curmudgeon saying "this isn’t traditional blues!"
Well, you know what, you’re right, because guess what, traditional blues died years ago – or, more exactly, when Buddy Guy goes, although I hate to say or think that, that’s when you can say it has passed.
RM: I tend to agree with that old and new overview. When the time comes that we do lose Buddy Guy you can date-stamp the passing of traditional blues – or more accurately put a definitive line between traditional blues and modern blues.
HL: Exactly, and what happens then? Well, the music will develop and change.
The later generations like myself and the generation that’s coming through now – the kids on the Funky Little Brother jam, that’s the perfect example – they will still pay tribute to, respect, and have great reverence for, that old-time traditional blues, but they won’t be duplicating it.
And they couldn’t even if they wanted to – this generation, and our generation, and the previous generation, did not live the lifestyle the old blues masters did. We simply couldn’t have.
We exist in very different times; that was a more honest time about life, telling stories through the blues and personal hardships.
RM: And, arguably, the most honest and expressive form of music that will ever be written, or played.
HL: And that’s why it can never be duplicated.
RM: But it can be honoured, which is what the best of the modern blues artists and blues rock bands do.
They are influenced by that soul baring and honest, traditional blues but are being true to themselves and their music, whether that be blues rock, blues-funk, blues pop, AOR melodic blues or any of the other derivatives. The blues is now a multi-faceted beast.
HL: Absolutely, and I’m glad I learned all this when I coming up as a musician and stating to write my own material; you have to mean what you sing, say and play, it really is that simple.
When I do a traditional blues cover, or if I’m in a blues jam situation, I pick and choose wisely but I will always do something different with it. I might say to the band "ok, let’s do a twelve-bar blues" but I’ll drop in some Prince lyrics or something like that. But then even Prince did a lot of twelve-bar stuff!
RM: Indeed. And such an incredibly creative and multi-talented musician, entertainer and songwriter.
In fact I’d say you have as much of a Prince influence – as regards marrying so many styles including funk, pop and soul – as you do the blues.
On that though, the general reaction, when saying the words Texas, Musician and Guitarist in the same sentence is to immediately think Texas blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan and those big, gritty Texas shuffles.
But as we have just been talking about, you have a myriad of influences.
HL: And I owe a lot of that to my parents and their record collection.
My dad has been a bass player for fifty-five years and been in bands since he was a teenager; my mom was a singer since she was a teenager, too, and has been collecting vinyl since then!
Those records of hers were everything from old school soul to classic rock to R&B to funk and blues; even old rock and roll from the fifties. I listened to all that stuff growing up.
And the really good thing about that was, when I got to meet Bo Diddley when I was sixteen, I already knew his significance because I had been listening to him since I was a kid!
But simultaneously I was playing in, and learning from, the blues scene with guys like Johnny Copeland and Joe Hughes as well as listening to so many great blues records that my mom had including, obviously, the Three Kings, B.B. Freddie and Albert. I also loved the Stax label and Memphis soul.
RM: And it wasn’t just the bands, or the soul music, of Stax; it was that fabulous sound…
HL: Absolutely, it was a fabulous sound – and fabulous songwriting, too – Steve Cropper, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave… and the arrangements were so perfect they made you want to listen to the music even more!
Also, I was growing up alongside MTV, which was becoming huge, so the pop music of the eighties was a huge influence on me, too – to the degree that anytime I hear those songs now I immediately picture those videos in my head! [laughs]
All of that is infused in to my music and the structure of my music – I don’t like to just take a song and go on and on with it, although I did do that on some of my earlier albums, I really like to have structure, short solos, memorable lines, the things that make you want to really listen to a song.
The guitar elements in my songs are more about the blues, which I’ve always had, but the melodies are more pop than blues.
All of that, essentially, comes from what I grew up with and what I was listening to.
People of different generations are starting to get either a re-appreciation for, or an understanding of, the blues – or at least modern blues in its twenty-first century musical shapes and forms.
HL: That’s a great thing to hear because I think it’s kind of the opposite in the States; the blues scene is dying down a little bit and venues, sadly, are closing right and left.
My roots are blues – that’s what I grew up with and where I got my musical education – but, as you know, my own music is far removed from the blues while still, obviously, paying tribute to it.
What’s interesting is British audiences are far more academic about US blues than we are – I think we take it for granted sometimes – so it was a little intimidating the first time I came over because I was thinking "well, perhaps I should do a few more shuffles to satisfy the blues aficionados!" [laughs]
But when it came down to it I just decided to be myself and do my thing, as it were, and I have to say my material has always been welcomed with open arms in the UK.
It’s very rare that I get the old blues curmudgeon saying "this isn’t traditional blues!"
Well, you know what, you’re right, because guess what, traditional blues died years ago – or, more exactly, when Buddy Guy goes, although I hate to say or think that, that’s when you can say it has passed.
RM: I tend to agree with that old and new overview. When the time comes that we do lose Buddy Guy you can date-stamp the passing of traditional blues – or more accurately put a definitive line between traditional blues and modern blues.
HL: Exactly, and what happens then? Well, the music will develop and change.
The later generations like myself and the generation that’s coming through now – the kids on the Funky Little Brother jam, that’s the perfect example – they will still pay tribute to, respect, and have great reverence for, that old-time traditional blues, but they won’t be duplicating it.
And they couldn’t even if they wanted to – this generation, and our generation, and the previous generation, did not live the lifestyle the old blues masters did. We simply couldn’t have.
We exist in very different times; that was a more honest time about life, telling stories through the blues and personal hardships.
RM: And, arguably, the most honest and expressive form of music that will ever be written, or played.
HL: And that’s why it can never be duplicated.
RM: But it can be honoured, which is what the best of the modern blues artists and blues rock bands do.
They are influenced by that soul baring and honest, traditional blues but are being true to themselves and their music, whether that be blues rock, blues-funk, blues pop, AOR melodic blues or any of the other derivatives. The blues is now a multi-faceted beast.
HL: Absolutely, and I’m glad I learned all this when I coming up as a musician and stating to write my own material; you have to mean what you sing, say and play, it really is that simple.
When I do a traditional blues cover, or if I’m in a blues jam situation, I pick and choose wisely but I will always do something different with it. I might say to the band "ok, let’s do a twelve-bar blues" but I’ll drop in some Prince lyrics or something like that. But then even Prince did a lot of twelve-bar stuff!
RM: Indeed. And such an incredibly creative and multi-talented musician, entertainer and songwriter.
In fact I’d say you have as much of a Prince influence – as regards marrying so many styles including funk, pop and soul – as you do the blues.
On that though, the general reaction, when saying the words Texas, Musician and Guitarist in the same sentence is to immediately think Texas blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan and those big, gritty Texas shuffles.
But as we have just been talking about, you have a myriad of influences.
HL: And I owe a lot of that to my parents and their record collection.
My dad has been a bass player for fifty-five years and been in bands since he was a teenager; my mom was a singer since she was a teenager, too, and has been collecting vinyl since then!
Those records of hers were everything from old school soul to classic rock to R&B to funk and blues; even old rock and roll from the fifties. I listened to all that stuff growing up.
And the really good thing about that was, when I got to meet Bo Diddley when I was sixteen, I already knew his significance because I had been listening to him since I was a kid!
But simultaneously I was playing in, and learning from, the blues scene with guys like Johnny Copeland and Joe Hughes as well as listening to so many great blues records that my mom had including, obviously, the Three Kings, B.B. Freddie and Albert. I also loved the Stax label and Memphis soul.
RM: And it wasn’t just the bands, or the soul music, of Stax; it was that fabulous sound…
HL: Absolutely, it was a fabulous sound – and fabulous songwriting, too – Steve Cropper, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave… and the arrangements were so perfect they made you want to listen to the music even more!
Also, I was growing up alongside MTV, which was becoming huge, so the pop music of the eighties was a huge influence on me, too – to the degree that anytime I hear those songs now I immediately picture those videos in my head! [laughs]
All of that is infused in to my music and the structure of my music – I don’t like to just take a song and go on and on with it, although I did do that on some of my earlier albums, I really like to have structure, short solos, memorable lines, the things that make you want to really listen to a song.
The guitar elements in my songs are more about the blues, which I’ve always had, but the melodies are more pop than blues.
All of that, essentially, comes from what I grew up with and what I was listening to.
Ain't Just Temporary (2007) was a Billboard Blues chart success that featured one of the last recorded
performances by the legendary Bo Diddley. The stripped back Basics (2017) is the most personal and accomplished album from Hamilton Loomis to date.
RM: All those influences you have just mentioned have been blended in to a very distinct Hamilton Loomis sound and style.
HL: Yes, but to make it sound like me, and wrap it all up properly and tie it together with a pretty bow on top, enter Bo Diddly when I was sixteen years old.
One of the first things he said to me was [mimics the voice of Bo Diddley] "no, son, don’t play like me, play like you! You gotta do something different!"
Coming from him that meant a lot because of course he didn’t sound like anybody else, so stylistically Bo Diddley was a huge influence on me.
He also kept saying "innovate, don’t imitate!" I get the question a lot, especially from British and European audiences, that "if Bo Diddley was your mentor how come you don’t sound anything like him!"
Because that’s the point! He told me to my face "innovate, don’t imitate!" [laughs]
RM: And beyond that of course you had the great man play on a couple of your albums…
HL: Yes, including on Ain’t Just Temporary, which you mentioned earlier.
RM: The song You Got To Wait. Fun track from another great album that, interestingly, is a little more stripped back, albeit not quite to the extent of Basics.
HL: That album was stripped down like Basics, yeah – more uncluttered, which was the word the label used to describe it; that's pretty spot on.
Bo was very generous in giving of his time on the song that became You Got To Wait.
RM: How did that collaboration and recording come about because by that time Bo had started to step back, or had stepped back, from performance and touring.
HL: For the last years of his life he lived in a small town just outside of Gainesville, Florida; anytime the band and I were touring through Florida I would call him up and see if we could pop over.
He'd say "Sure, come on over and we’ll have a Bo-becue!” which was what he called his barbecues! [laughs].
We would swing by and Bo’s wife would cook for us while we were checking out all the stuff he had in his makeshift studio. But it was all so surreal – I would be sitting there thinking "I’m just a punk kid out of Galveston, Texas and I’m sitting here having a barbecue at Bo Diddley’s house! And recording with him!"
During those recordings Bo was happy to let me plug my laptop in to his board – in fact I’ve got so much stuff that no-one has ever heard, a lot of Bo Diddly raps and Bo ad-libbing, vocally.
Anyway, this one time we were fooling around and he got in to this whole lyric about "Baby you got to wait, 'til it's time, I ain't the rushing kind." We took that as a starting point then added some background parts and put harmonies in between what Bo was improvising on vocally.
Later, when back home, I realised this particular track had potential; I wrote some verses to go along with the You Got To Wait theme, assembled it as a demo and, the next time we toured through Florida – in 2006, just a couple of years before he passed away – I played Bo that demo.
I wanted his blessing on it so I could put it on my next album but I was all pins and needles, because I just didn’t know what he was going to think, or say!
But he listened to it, looked at me and said "son, you got it right!"
performances by the legendary Bo Diddley. The stripped back Basics (2017) is the most personal and accomplished album from Hamilton Loomis to date.
RM: All those influences you have just mentioned have been blended in to a very distinct Hamilton Loomis sound and style.
HL: Yes, but to make it sound like me, and wrap it all up properly and tie it together with a pretty bow on top, enter Bo Diddly when I was sixteen years old.
One of the first things he said to me was [mimics the voice of Bo Diddley] "no, son, don’t play like me, play like you! You gotta do something different!"
Coming from him that meant a lot because of course he didn’t sound like anybody else, so stylistically Bo Diddley was a huge influence on me.
He also kept saying "innovate, don’t imitate!" I get the question a lot, especially from British and European audiences, that "if Bo Diddley was your mentor how come you don’t sound anything like him!"
Because that’s the point! He told me to my face "innovate, don’t imitate!" [laughs]
RM: And beyond that of course you had the great man play on a couple of your albums…
HL: Yes, including on Ain’t Just Temporary, which you mentioned earlier.
RM: The song You Got To Wait. Fun track from another great album that, interestingly, is a little more stripped back, albeit not quite to the extent of Basics.
HL: That album was stripped down like Basics, yeah – more uncluttered, which was the word the label used to describe it; that's pretty spot on.
Bo was very generous in giving of his time on the song that became You Got To Wait.
RM: How did that collaboration and recording come about because by that time Bo had started to step back, or had stepped back, from performance and touring.
HL: For the last years of his life he lived in a small town just outside of Gainesville, Florida; anytime the band and I were touring through Florida I would call him up and see if we could pop over.
He'd say "Sure, come on over and we’ll have a Bo-becue!” which was what he called his barbecues! [laughs].
We would swing by and Bo’s wife would cook for us while we were checking out all the stuff he had in his makeshift studio. But it was all so surreal – I would be sitting there thinking "I’m just a punk kid out of Galveston, Texas and I’m sitting here having a barbecue at Bo Diddley’s house! And recording with him!"
During those recordings Bo was happy to let me plug my laptop in to his board – in fact I’ve got so much stuff that no-one has ever heard, a lot of Bo Diddly raps and Bo ad-libbing, vocally.
Anyway, this one time we were fooling around and he got in to this whole lyric about "Baby you got to wait, 'til it's time, I ain't the rushing kind." We took that as a starting point then added some background parts and put harmonies in between what Bo was improvising on vocally.
Later, when back home, I realised this particular track had potential; I wrote some verses to go along with the You Got To Wait theme, assembled it as a demo and, the next time we toured through Florida – in 2006, just a couple of years before he passed away – I played Bo that demo.
I wanted his blessing on it so I could put it on my next album but I was all pins and needles, because I just didn’t know what he was going to think, or say!
But he listened to it, looked at me and said "son, you got it right!"
RM: Wonderful story and wonderful memories of a legendary musician.
To bring us back up to date, and to wrap up, I’d like to play out on a track from Basics that fuses that Hamilton Loomis funk, blues and pop – and I’d like you to choose it…
HL: One of my personal favourites is Candles And Wine; that’s one of several songs on Basics where I got to collaborate with Tommy Sims.
Most people don’t know that name but he’s produced, arranged, co-written with, or written for, just about everyone – he co-wrote the song Change the World, which was a Grammy Award winner for Eric Clapton.
We also hired Tommy to play bass on the Give It Back album, because the producer knew him; Tommy and I got along really well, hit it off and we stayed in touch.
Before going in to record Basics I asked Tommy if he would like to get together again so we could write some songs and see if he could revise, or arrange, some stuff I had already written.
He said yes and we spent three days together, just one-on-one, pounding stuff out – it was an amazing experience and I learned so much from him.
Candles And Wine was written from scratch together and that came about because I felt I needed a shuffle on the album, but not twelve-bar because that’s just not my style.
We very quickly came up with the riff for the song and it developed from there…
RM: Great song and great choice. And it most certainly is not a twelve-bar; it’s a meshing of all those influences we discussed earlier – to paraphrase from my review of Basics, Candles And Wine is a mix of swing-funk blues musically and rock 'n' roll romance lyrically. Just a shufflin' great number.
HL: [laughs] Thank you. It's full of melody, but I also like how it has that dirty shuffle sound.
In fact I love how the English say the word dirty [mimics an English accent] dhirt-tay [laughter]
We Americans just can’t give it that same impact [laughs]. The Scottish would give it even more emphasis though, right?
RM: The r’s would get rolled and we would really emphasise it, yes [exaggerates the accent] – "haw, Ham-Bone, play that song with the dirrty great shuffle…" [loud laughter]
HL: [mimics] Dirrty great shuffle, I love that!
RM: Not bad, laddie [laughter]. Of course now you have to always introduce the song that way [laughter].
In the meantime I’ll simply introduce it as a song that reinforces, and proves, that you took the great Bo Diddley’s "innovate don’t imitate" advice to musical heart.
Hamilton, thanks so much for talking to FabricationsHQ at such conversational length and detail…
HL: Thank you Ross, and thanks for the wonderful support you have given Basics and my music. Cheers!
To bring us back up to date, and to wrap up, I’d like to play out on a track from Basics that fuses that Hamilton Loomis funk, blues and pop – and I’d like you to choose it…
HL: One of my personal favourites is Candles And Wine; that’s one of several songs on Basics where I got to collaborate with Tommy Sims.
Most people don’t know that name but he’s produced, arranged, co-written with, or written for, just about everyone – he co-wrote the song Change the World, which was a Grammy Award winner for Eric Clapton.
We also hired Tommy to play bass on the Give It Back album, because the producer knew him; Tommy and I got along really well, hit it off and we stayed in touch.
Before going in to record Basics I asked Tommy if he would like to get together again so we could write some songs and see if he could revise, or arrange, some stuff I had already written.
He said yes and we spent three days together, just one-on-one, pounding stuff out – it was an amazing experience and I learned so much from him.
Candles And Wine was written from scratch together and that came about because I felt I needed a shuffle on the album, but not twelve-bar because that’s just not my style.
We very quickly came up with the riff for the song and it developed from there…
RM: Great song and great choice. And it most certainly is not a twelve-bar; it’s a meshing of all those influences we discussed earlier – to paraphrase from my review of Basics, Candles And Wine is a mix of swing-funk blues musically and rock 'n' roll romance lyrically. Just a shufflin' great number.
HL: [laughs] Thank you. It's full of melody, but I also like how it has that dirty shuffle sound.
In fact I love how the English say the word dirty [mimics an English accent] dhirt-tay [laughter]
We Americans just can’t give it that same impact [laughs]. The Scottish would give it even more emphasis though, right?
RM: The r’s would get rolled and we would really emphasise it, yes [exaggerates the accent] – "haw, Ham-Bone, play that song with the dirrty great shuffle…" [loud laughter]
HL: [mimics] Dirrty great shuffle, I love that!
RM: Not bad, laddie [laughter]. Of course now you have to always introduce the song that way [laughter].
In the meantime I’ll simply introduce it as a song that reinforces, and proves, that you took the great Bo Diddley’s "innovate don’t imitate" advice to musical heart.
Hamilton, thanks so much for talking to FabricationsHQ at such conversational length and detail…
HL: Thank you Ross, and thanks for the wonderful support you have given Basics and my music. Cheers!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Hamilton Loomis
December 2017
Photo Credit/s: Syd Wall (top image); official website/ press kit imagery (all others)
Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and to promote the work of the artist.
No infringement of copyright is intended.
Muirsical Conversation with Hamilton Loomis
December 2017
Photo Credit/s: Syd Wall (top image); official website/ press kit imagery (all others)
Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and to promote the work of the artist.
No infringement of copyright is intended.