Thomas J."Tbone" Hamilton
started playing the electric bass when he was 12. Influenced by John
Entwhistle, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Jaco, to name a few.
He formed the garage rock band Fake Voices. Then in his late
teens he was the cofounder of the power trio - B E H. Moving
to the Tampa Bay area in the late 80's, TBone "got
the blues".
He founded the blues quartet, The Blue Thunder Band. While
at a blues party legendary Blues Harmonica player, Rockbottom
discovered TBone, offered him a gig, and the rest is history.
With
this strong blues background, TBone decided to form
The Swinging Johnsons in 1995. A highly successful Jazz band
in the Tampa Bay, Tbone led the band as its frontman and help to perform
on and produce two high quality CDs "Get A Life" in
1999, and "Duck" in 2002. The CD's feature the some
of his original tunes. The Swinging Johnsons then
re-tooled and became The Hamilton-Harris Project.
The HHP recorded its only release "Live
Matters"(2003) a live Jazz standards record featuring
Dan Harris, Marilyn Freemon, Mike Aloia, & Ken Loomer.
As a bassist and vocalist, TBone's unique talents
have been featured with such acts as
The Blue Thunder Band, Rockbottom and
the Cutaways, The
Telephone Kings, Sarasota Slim, The Deacon Fuller Band,
The Poulos Ramsey Band, Dan Electro and the Silvertones,
Delta Son, Kim Harpo Blues Band, Keith Caton and
the Accelerators, The Charlie Morris Blues Band, The
Hamiltones, The Walker Smith Group, DW Gill &
The Blue Phantoms, The Juke Joint Kings, The Backbreakers, Jazz and
Connie, Angel for Blues, The Rich Whiteley Band,
Earth Bombs Mars, The Castellano | Hamilton Duo, The Hatfield | Hamilton
Duo, The Bobcats, Karen Benjey, Mitch Woods & his Rocket
88's, Lillette Jenkins-Wisner, Richard Drexler, Doug Deming, Jimmy
Griswold, Vibe Trio, Chip Shelton, The Mahattan Casino All Stars, The Orbs, The Bop XChange, The Tom Kats Big Band...
TBone has also shared the stage with Albert Collins,
Clarence Clemons, The Marshall Tucker Band, Johnny Winter, and
has performed at the Bradenton Blues Fest. In addition, TBone
had done session work with blues guitarist Ronnie Earl, for
Rockbottom's CD "Too Many Bad Habits"