Judd Hamilton

Thanks for tuning in. While it's distracting to read this written section and listen to the songs shared, when & if time permits hopefully in reading the memories I'm sharing you will understand why I'm dedicating this site to my brother Danny's memory and our Hamilton Brothers journey. With each song reflecting another page in a rock 'n' roll inspired music diary about a couple of kids from East Wenatchee, Washington growing up in the 50's determined to live out our rock 'n' roll dreams in Hollywood in the 60's. And amazingly through the ups and downs we did get to live out a few of our dreams, for a while. While Danny proved to be a gifted music talent and I proved to be a pretty good support system we shuffled through the 60's, 70's, 80's working together and separately in various bands and projects. In that context, we had the good fortune to know and work with some talented musicians within our sojourn into the rock 'n' roll world. Including The Ventures, The Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, Crazy Horse (Neil Young's band), Leon Russell, David Gates (Bread), The Wrecking Crew, Pat and Lolly Vegas (Redbone), Darrel Dragon (Captain and Tenielle), and Tim Hardin, to name a few. Okay, onward to the last two songs Danny and I studio recorded. With three decades of band on the run tales to tell in 1993 we decided to record the 'The Hamilton Brothers' album we wanted to record back in the '60's'. A lot of recording stuff continued to happen over the next 30-years while recording a Hamilton Brothers album didn't happen until we kicked off the '1993' project. While sadly "Santa Monica Nights" is the last song Dan sang lead on as our teenage dreams unexpectedly evaporated into what might have been. As I was producing the album tracks in Spokane, Wa. I got a call Dan was in emergency care in a N. Hollywood hospital. Everything changed! With Dan valiantly enduring 1994 trying to recover from a rare condition called Cushing's Disease. After a few months in intensive care and a respite care facility Dan was allowed to return to his N. Hollywood apartment where I stayed with him throughout 1994. In the Summer of '94 and even though he was still weak and struggling, in our need to secure another recording contract i.e., make a living Dan hobbled into a N. Hollywood recording studio and amazingly did this "Santa Monica Nights" vocal in one take (one take?). Appreciated Hamilton Bros. drawing thanks to Cele Hernandez. The next track "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose" I wrote in the mid-80's and the only other Hamilton Bros. recording we finished. With Dan singing harmony to my lead vocal this would be the last song we both sang on. With these heartfelt memories recorded, a few months later Danny had a relapse and sadly in the early hours of Dec. 23, 1994, moved on to the heavenly soft rock 'n' roll hall of fame. The accompanying picture, with me on the left, Joe Frank Carroll, Danny, and Tommy Reynolds on the right captures the last touring version of The T-Bones as we headed to Japan in 1967 where an instrumental written by Dan for The Ventures "Diamond Head" had become Japan's first million selling record in 1963. Inclusive of riding on a couple of T-Bones Top 10 Japan hits. After the Japan tour we disbanded the pseudo T-Bones touring band (we did get to record the last T-Bones album 'Everyone's Gone To The Moon') and Dan & I went back to working S. Cal. / Vegas clubs as the Hamilton Bros. Until I was unexpectedly asked to do a film acting role in Spain in the Summer of '68'. And for a couple of reasons I'll refrain from alluding too I ended up moving to London, England for the next 20-years. While Danny, Joe & Tommy (with me helping from behind the scenes) were offered a recording deal with ABCDunhill records. And lo and behold, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds entered the million-selling record club. With Dan's memorable lead vocal leading the way with the next track and first H, JF & R single, "Don't Pull Your Love" to hit the top of the charts in 1971. The picture is Dan, Joe Frank pitching in on bass, and Tommy Reynolds. When no more big time hits followed Tommy exited H, JF & R in the Fall of 1972 and a 2-year lull ensued. Then one day in the Spring of '74' Danny called me in London and said he'd met a knockout keyboard player, Alan Dennison. As times were getting tough for Dan, I set up a 4-track home recording system and brought Dan and Alan to London where we spent i.e. a lot of money the next few months working on lots of songs. And from that determined effort the next track and Danny written song, "Fallin' in Love", appeared and eventually became the next gold record. Hitting No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1975. With Dan once again blowing everyone away as the lead singer, Alan on keyboards, and Joe Frank climbing back onboard for another bass playing ride. Appropriately followed by "Danny's Guitar". A home recorded brotherly love tribute to the best singer, songwriter I've ever known. With chords & lyrics that appeared when I was playing one of Dan's acoustic guitars a couple months after he headed back to heaven in the early hours of Dec. 23, 1994. Inclusive of a 6/8 rhythm pattern I later realized was reminiscent of a conversation Dan and I had when we were heading to Japan in 1967 with Tommy and Joe Frank as the last version of The T-Bones. Causing me to wonder if "Danny's Guitar" was translated into my thought-waves from beyond the pale of time and space. The picture is Dan and our childhood buddy Shep. With H, JF, H & D climbing the charts in the 70's - the next tracks are numbered amongst my 70's, 80's, 90's solo studio recordings, including "Love Attack", "Automated Lovers", "Millions", and "Star" with Tony Macroni shining away instrumentally and vocally. All recorded in London in the mid-80's. Followed by "Your Sweet Love', "Talk to Me, "How Do You Know", recorded in Spokane in the early 90's. Followed by "If the world is a stage", another home recorded song that could have been a Hamilton Bros. recording if Dan would have lived to sing the lead vocal. As we continue coasting into my music diary I recently completed a homemade demo of the theme song to the book I'm nearly finished writing, '55' DreamMachine, that includes Danny and my Hamilton Bros. journey from 1955 when Rock 'n' Roll took over the airwaves on through the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's. A Rock and Roll journey also memorized in the next track, "In a 60's Hollywood". Another one man band homemade recording of a song I long ago wrote about Danny and my early days in Hollywood. Definitely the most personal song I have written about our Hamilton Bros. journey. Moving on to three more homemade recordings including my favorite song Dan wrote, "Cry in the Night". Not as a prayer and instead as a serious conversation with God. Followed by my own conversations with God, "The Legend of Heaven" and "The D'evil's Last Ride", emphasizing humanities serious need to start living intelligent, cooperative, secure, self-sustaining, common sense managed lives instead of the divisive, greed laced, money infested insanity humanity has been ruled, tormented by, and innocently subjected to from time immemorial! Okay, moving back to the positive with "E'art'h is Calling". A song that transmitted its inspiring message into my thought-waves early one morning as I unknowingly gazed at the world from the top of Glastonbury Tor in Southern England. A mystically memorable place (featured in the accompanying photo) I stumbled onto as I was wearily heading back to London early one morning in 1971. Literally without a clue where I was standing when I found myself looking out on a panoramic view I later learned to my never-ending amazement overlooked King Arthur's fabled Isle of Avalon and Camelot. Providing me with an inspired "Earth is Calling" revelation that never went away! I did this recording in London in 1989. Continuing into an angelic journey through time and space, "And We Talked". Continuing into present times with "When Tami Married Marc". A family devoted song I performed at my beloved daughter Tami's wedding on September 24, 1995. And thankfully 30-years later I'm re-dedicating this heartfelt wedding song to Tami, Marc, and my beyond amazing grandkids Ben, Neve, and Keira. Staying on the positive side of life with 'Baby's Song'. A song I wrote and produced in Spokane for our Hamilton Bros. album. For me a special song as my children and grandchildren are my life. Speaking of beloved grandchildren now grandadults, that's also what the next song, "More Love", is all about. With the final homemade recording "Once Upon A Time" continuing to imagine the world my grandchildren are inheriting and what their arrival in the world will continue to mean to me way beyond forever.

As a sometimes session musician in the mid-sixties Liberty Records producer Joe Saraceno asked me to form a touring band in Nov. 1965 called The T-Bones to promote an instrumental record, No Matter What Shape', that was actually recorded by the hot Hollywood session players of those times, later known as the Wrecking Crew. Hey, for starving musicians trying to make a living playing music, why not? I asked my brother Dan to play lead guitar along with three other LA session guys and to our amazement this TV jingle inspired single reached No. 3 in Billboard's Top 100 in March, 1966. On the third T-Bones album, 'Everyone's Gone to the Moon', the musicians I assembled were finally allowed to record and include the vocal/harmony sound we had polished on the road. The Liberty Records officially sanctioned, pseudo T-Bones had toured non-stop for a couple of years, going through several personnel changes including Danny unexpectedly leaving the band in New York, before we settled into a final line-up to tour Japan that included myself, Tommy Reynolds, Joe Frank Carollo, and Danny coming back onboard. While the 1967 Autumn tour of Japan marked the end of the road for the T-Bones it brought Danny, Joe Frank and Tommy together for the first time. As I headed to Europe in 1968 they went on to enjoy a couple more hit singles as Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. With 'Don't Pull Your Love' becoming a million-selling gold record in 1971, and 'Fallin' in Love hitting No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1975. Before H, JF & R reunited in 1970, in 1968 I was offered a film acting role in Madrid, Spain that led to moving to London, England and signing a solo record deal with United Artists Records. While I continued to help Dan and my former bandmates from behind the scenes. When the first version of H, JF & R broke up Danny came to London in 1973 with a new piano player, Alan Dennison, where we spent several months writing and demoing new songs. One of the songs Dan wrote during that time was Fallin' in Love. As popular as that song proved to be, we spent a year and half shopping it to the music biz with zero results. And then through a strange i.e., unexpected set of circumstances Playboy Records (basically a joke label) agreed to release 'Fallin' in Love' in the spring of 1975 and 9-weeks later it was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Over the next couple of years what remained of Playboy Records (eventually declaring bankruptcy) released a couple more single's and album's as Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison, but no more big hits appeared while Dan & Joe carried on doing gigs into the late-80s. In 1990 I moved back to the States, settling in our Hamilton family hometown of Spokane, Washington where I got involved with a local recording studio. In the spring of 1993 I reunited with Dan in LA, determined to record our first album as The Hamilton Brothers. While we were writing material and doing demos for this long awaited project Dan's health began to fail and one night in late '93' he landed in intensive care, where he remained for several months. Eventually he was diagnosed with a rare adrenal gland condition known as Cushing's Disease. After a year-long, courageous, hopeful struggle Danny passed away in the early morning hours of December 23, 1994, at the age of 48. And once again everything changed. Since the mid-nineties I've made my home in Seattle, where I enjoy the blessing of being close to my children and now grown grandchildren i.e., grandadults. While I continue to dabble in music I'm equally fascinated with the creation of superior quality, eco-safe ceramic cement products and the invention / patenting of X-Rok, a chemically-bonded ceramic cement radiation-shielding concrete. While the material science world was the last place I would have ever imagined seriously landing in back in my Rock 'n' Roll daze...., that's exactly where my 21st Century wonderlust, i.e. curiosity, led. And it's great. I don't really know what I'm doing, which is not unusual, while X-Rok has achieved U.S. Government nuclear testing results and a growing list of world patents. So, what the heck! And the best part, X-Rok will not only help our present seriously over radiated world, it will continue to provide lifesaving solution for my grandchildren's world. So, in looking back I've come to think, if living out our teenage dreams is predicated on riding out learning curves, who could ask for more. More about my X-Rok 'n' roll adventure at www.ceramiccement.com.