Brewer & Shipley - Biography
BY Nick Castro
Brewer & Shipley are a songwriting duo from the Midwest comprised of Mike Brewer, from Oklahoma and Tom Shipley, from Ohio. Their music is a country-tinged brand of folk rock known for strong vocal harmonies; intricate, acoustic guitar play and topical lyrics touching on freedom and personal rights. They still perform today, usually in the Midwest. They have played with artists such as Jerry Garcia, Stephen Stills and Black Sabbath.
They first met at small folk club Blind Owl in Kent, Ohio in 1964. They knew each other for a few years and played in separate groups. In 1967, Shipley moved to Los Angeles, where Brewer was working as a songwriter for A&M records in Los Angeles. Shipley actually moved right around the corner from Brewer and they began writing songs together shortly before Shipley too got hired at A&M as a staff songwriter. They wrote songs for Glen Yarborough, H.P. Lovecraft and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. A&M was so impressed with their work that they took notice of their cohesive and identifiable sound and offered them a record deal. This led to Down in L.A. (1968 A&M), which included musicians such as Leon Russell and Jim Messina as well as wrecking crew regulars such as Hal Blain, Jim Gordon and Joe Osborn. The record did decently and though the duo were in with the right people (hanging with The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Association), they never felt right in Los Angeles and chose to move to Kansas City, Missouri. This left A&M and their friends baffled as the duo were just starting to rise to fame. Everyone assumed the duo were quitting the music industry but the truth was far from that.
They had decided to set up shop just outside of Kansas City and join Danny Cox’s Good Karma management and production company, also home to Ted Anderson, Chet Nichols and later, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Though they had a contract with A&M, they easily slipped out of it since it was thought they had quit playing music. They used this to their benefit and proceeded to sign a deal with Kama Sutra who would release their second album, Weeds (1969 Kama Sutra). They recorded it in San Francisco with Nick Gravenites, who was playing in Electric Flag and had written material for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. This record did quite well for the duo but it was their next, Tarkio (1970 Kama Sutra) that would truly take off. It included Jerry Garcia on lap steel and included hit singles "Tarkio Road" and the even more famous and notorious "One Toke over the Line." Although the song was memorably performed on The Lawrence Welk Show by a squeaky clean duo from Iowa, Gail & Dale (where Welk described it as “a modern spiritual”); Richard Nixon responded by putting them on his enemies list and labeling them “public miscreants.” Spiro Agnew had the song yanked from the airwaves just as it reached #10 in the nation. They replied by including a line which cited Nixon by name on the Tarkio album.
After Tarkio came Shake off the Demon (1971 Kama Sutra), which would be another hit for the duo with the title track reaching the top 100. After that arrived, Rural Space (1972 Kama Sutra) and ST-11621 (1974 Capitol) followed. Next was Welcome to Riddle Bridge (1976 Capitol). Shortly afterward, they parted ways and pursued solo careers until reuniting to record Shanghai (1993 One Toke Productions) and Heartland (1997 One Toke Productions). They were also included in Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where Dr. Gonzo sings a line from "One Toke over the Line" as they drive from Barstow.
Today, both members live in rural, Southern Missouri and they occasionally still perform together.