Gamble was born in Columbus, Georgia, United States, but his family moved to his parents' home town of Tuscumbia, Alabama (near Muscle Shoals), where he was raised.[2] After graduating from the University of Alabama in 1991[3] he lived in Tuscumbia, until moving to Memphis in 1994 to pursue a career in music.
Career
Gamble grew up listening to his father's record collection, which included Jimmy Smith, Ray Charles, Jack McDuff and other jazz and soul artists on the Verve and Blue Note labels.[4][5] He played in various bands during high school and college, and in 1992 joined the Shreveport-based Bluebirds, featuring Buddy Flett on guitar.[6] Gamble spent a few years in Memphis as a Beale Street musician, backing such artists as Preston Shannon and A-440. In 2001, he formed the Gamble Brothers Band with his younger brother Chad Gamble (drums), Art Edmaiston (saxophone) and Will Lowrimore (bass). The band recorded three albums from 2001 to 2007. The first album, 10 Lbs. of Hum (2001), was released independently and featured Lowrimore on bass.[7] The last two albums, Back to the Bottom (2003) [8] and Continuator (2006), were released on the Memphis-based label Archer Records. Back to the Bottom was the last recording to feature Lowrimore on bass, who left the band shortly after the album's release. Continuator featured bassist, Blake Rhea, who joined the band in 2003 to replace Lowrimore.
In 2003, the Gamble Brothers Band beat out more than 1,200 other artists to win the Billboard-sponsored Independent Music World Series award.[9]
Edmaiston joined the Jacksonville-based touring band JJ Grey & MOFRO in 2007,[10] and soon after that, the Gamble Brothers Band played a show opening for the Black Crowes in October 2007 at Mud Island Amphitheatre in Memphis,[11] their final live performance for 12 years. The band reunited for a show at the Crosstown Theater in Memphis on December 21, 2019.[12] Earlier in 2007, while Edmaiston was on a break from touring, he joined Gamble, Memphis guitar player Joe Restivo, and drummer George Sluppick to form The Grip, a four-piece jazz instrumental band specializing in boogaloo music.[13] The Grip recorded the EP Grab This Thing for Archer Records (2007).[14]
The road took Edmaiston away again, and Gamble continued to play with Restivo and Sluppick as a three-piece, forming the band The City Champs.[15] The City Champs released two albums on Scott Bomar's Electraphonic label: The Safecracker (2009) and The Set Up (2010).[16] The City Champs have toured regularly and opened for other acts, including the North Mississippi Allstars and Huey Lewis. The members' other musical projects took them in different directions, but after a long hiatus they reunited to create the critically acclaimed Luna '68, released in 2021 on Big Legal Mess Records.[17]
The City Champs' music has been featured in the MTV series "$5 Cover"[18] and in the Emmy Award-winning documentary film I Am A Man: From Memphis, A Lesson in Life.[19]
On November 29, 2010, The City Champs took part in the filming of a new Memphis music documentary. Titled Take Me To The River, this Cody Dickinson/Martin Shore-produced film, released Sept. 12, 2014, showcases icons of the Memphis' music scene playing with up-and-coming young bands. The City Champs collaborated with harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section bassist David Hood on bass to film a segment at Electraphonic Studios in Memphis.[20] The film, which includes contributions from Terrance Howard and Snoop Dogg, was honored at the Raindance Film Festival awards ceremony in London as the Feature Film.[21]
In January 2013, after learning about St. Paul and The Broken Bones from friend and guitarist Browan Lollar, Gamble was asked to add organ overdubs on the band's debut album Half The City, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.[22] Later that year, Gamble joined the band full-time, prior to the release of the record in February 2014.[23] St. Paul and The Broken Bones have toured extensively in the United States and Europe and opened two shows (June 9 in Atlanta; and July 11 in Buffalo, New York) for The Rolling Stones on the band's 2015 Zip Code Tour.[24] In January 2016, St. Paul and the Broken Bones played a sold-out Carnegie Hall show as part of a four-concert series curated by Rosanne Cash called Carnegie Hall's Perspectives.[25]
In February 2017, St. Paul and the Broken Bones headlined the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party in West Hollywood, California.[26]
Gamble has recorded on more than 50 albums and on various film scores. He is credited with writing or co-writing more than 40 songs, according to BMI.[27] He has toured with The City Champs, singer/songwriter Charlie Mars, John Paul Keith and the 145s,[28] Louisiana soul singer Marc Broussard, Charles Walker and the Dynamites, The Bo-Keys,[29] and St. Paul and The Broken Bones.[30]
Songs: Blue Beat Years, Bring 'em Back, Don't Turn Your Burner Down, Everything I Do, The Booster, City in the Sky, Numbers Never Lie, What's Wrong Now, Point the Finger, Don't Do It, You Gotta Be Kiddin'
Songs: Record Store, Back to the Bottom, Love is Alive, Share, Tiki Bar, Come on Sam, One Stone, Escape Alley, Old New One, Land of Soul, Little Criminals, Cadillactopus
Songs: Overboard, Hold Out 'Til Monday, Back to School, E. Parkway Rundown, Heart's Not In It, Right Direction, Vinyl, Durty Walt, Shopping Cart, Theme From "Little Champ," Threw it All Away, All Skate, Best Defense
Songs: Grab This Thing, Jan Jan, Tutwiler, Controversy, Farewell to Cheyenne
2009
The City Champs - The Safecracker
Released: March 17, 2009
Label: Electraphonic Recording
Songs: The Safecracker, Takin' State, Love is a Losing Game, Poppin', The Whap-A-Dang, Pretty Girl, Comin' Home Baby, You Can't Win, Four Score, Ol' Man River
2009
John Paul Keith and the 145s - Spills & Thrills
Released: April 14, 2009
Label: Big Legal Mess
2009
Jimbo Mathus - Jimmy the Kid
Released: Aug. 22, 2009
Label: Hill Country Records
2009
Zach Williams and the Reformation - Electric Revival
Released: 2009
2010
Sid Selvidge - I Should Be Blue
Released: June 8, 2010
Label: Archer Records
Songs: I'll Be Here in the Morning, Fine Hotel, A Blonde Headed Girl (In A Convertible Automobile), You're Gonna Look Just Like a Monkey (When You Get Old)
2010
The City Champs - The Set Up
Released: 2010
Label: Electraphonic Recording
Songs: The Set Up, Drippy, Ricky's Rant, Crump St., Chinatown, Rigamarole, Local Jones, Break It Up, A Beautiful Mine (Theme from Mad Men), Comanche, The Sanctimoneous Kid, Shishido Jo
2011
John Paul Keith and the 145s - The Man that Time Forgot
Released: June 21, 2011
Label: Big Legal Mess
2011
The Bo-Keys - Got to Get Back!
Released: 2011
Label: Electraphonic Recording
2011
The Scruffs - Kill! Kill!
Released: 2011
Label: Scruffsville
Songs: Take Me Downtown
2012
Jeb Rault Band - Sweet Dancer
Released: Mar. 2012
2013
The Yellow Hope Project - Fifty Shades of Yellow
Released: May 12, 2013
Songs: Could You Find It in Your Heart to Love Me?
2013
John Paul Keith and the 145s - Memphis Circa 3AM
Released: Sept. 17, 2013
Label: Big Legal Mess
Songs: You Really Oughta Be with Me, We Got All Night, Everything's Different Now, Ninety Proof Kiss, Walking Along the Lane, True Hard Money, New Year's Eve, There's a Heartache Going 'Round, If You Catch Me Staring, Last Night I Had a Dream About You, She's Almost You, Baby We're a Bad Idea
2014
Jesse Aycock - Flowers and Wounds
Released: Jan. 21, 2014
Label: Horton Records
Songs: Out to Space, Paint Me Different Colors, Flowers and Wounds
Songs: Call Me, Half the City, Broken Bones and Pocket Change, Like a Mighty River, Don't Mean a Thing, Grass is Greener, I'm Torn Up, Dixie Rothco, Let it Be So, That Glow
Songs: Crumbling Light Posts Pt. 1, Flow With It (You Got Me Feeling Like), Midnight on Earth, I'll Be Your Woman, All I Ever Wonder, Sanctify, Crumbling Light Posts Pt. 2, Waves, Brain Matter, Tears in the Diamond, Is It Me, Crumbling Light Posts Pt. 3
2016
Robert Finley - Age Don't Mean A Thing
Released: Sep. 30, 2016
2016
Jim Mize - Jim Mize
Released: Dec. 1, 2016
Label: Big Legal Mess Records
2017
Lauren Barth - Forager
Released: May 5, 2017
Label: Horton Records
2018
Nicki Bluhm - To Rise You Gotta Fall
Released: June 1, 2018
Label: Compass Records
2018
St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Young Sick Camellia
Released: Sept. 7, 2018
Label: ATO Records
2018
Al Green - Produced by Matt Ross-Spang (Amazon Original)
Released: Sept. 13, 2018
Songs: Before the Next Teardrop Falls
2018
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors - Good Light
Released: Dec. 10, 2018
Label: Magnolia Records
2019
Amy LaVere - Painting Blue
Released: Aug. 16, 2019
Label: Archer Records
Songs: No Battle Hymn, Not in Memphis
2019
Foy Vance - To Memphis
Released: Sept. 6, 2019
Label: Gingerbread Man Records
2020
St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Live from Wichita
Released: June 5, 2020
2020
Mark Edgar Stuart - Folk Beef
Released: July 14, 2020
2020
Don Bryant - You Make Me Feel
Released: June 19, 2020
Label: Fat Possum Records
2020
Daily Worker - Hometown Hero
Released: Dec. 1, 2020
Songs: I Got Hypnotized, Ghost (About This Place)
2020
Bailey Bigger - Let's Call It Love
Released: Dec. 4, 2020
Label: Big Legal Mess Records
Songs: Weight of Independence, Let's Call It Love
2021
John Paul Keith - The Rhythm of the City
Released: Feb. 19, 2021
Label: Wild Honey Records
2021
The City Champs - Luna '68
Released: Mar. 19, 2021
Label: Big Legal Mess Records
2021
Foy Vance - Signs of Life
Released: Sept. 10, 2021
Label: Gingerbread Man Records
Songs: People Are Pills, Resplendence
2021
Alexa Rose - Headwaters
Released: Sep. 17, 2021
Label: Big Legal Mess Records
2021
Gervin - Chance Music EP
Released: Dec. 2, 2021
2022
St. Paul and the Broken Bones - The Alien Coast
Released: Jan. 28, 2022
Label: ATO Records
2022
The Love Light Orchestra - Leave the Light On
Released: Feb. 18, 2022
Label: Nola Blue Records
Songs: 3 O'Clock Blues, After All, Follow the Queen
2022
Mark Edgar Stuart - Until We Meet Again
Released: Feb. 25, 2022
Label: Madjack Records
2022
Gervin - No. 10 Funk EP
Released: Feb. 28, 2022
2022
Dedicated Men of Zion - The Devil Don't Like It
Released: Mar. 4, 2022
Label: Bible & Tire Recording Company
2022
Nicki Blum - Avondale Drive
Released: June 3, 2022
Label: Little Knickers Records
Songs: Love to Spare, Mother's Daughter
2022
Elizabeth King - I Got A Love
Released: June 25, 2022
Label: Bible & Tire Recording Company
Songs: Stand By Me, Move A Little Higher, My Robe, My Time Ain't Long
2022
Gervin - Benchwarmer
Released: Sep. 2, 2022
2022
Herman Hitson - Let the Gods Sing
Released: Sep. 25, 2022
Label: Big Legal Mess Records
2023
Max Kaplan and the Magics - Mind on My Heart
Released: Mar. 24, 2023
2023
St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Angels in Science Fiction
