Jamie Thompson

Born James Kevin Thompson in Levittown, Pennsylvania in September 1958, Jamie began his musical endeavors early on.

His father was a classically trained oboist and virtuoso pennywhistle player who loved Irish folk music as well as the symphonic classics. When Jamie was just a toddler his father turned him on to the folk icons of the early 1960s such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. "My earliest memory of recorded music was We Shall Overcome played on my dad's vacuum tube hi-fi stereo." Jamie's dad was the first guitarist of the family. He bought a cheap folk guitar and taught himself enough chords to play simple folk tunes.

Then came the British Invasion in 1964 and all bets were off. Jamie was an instant bonafide, card-carrying Beatlemaniac as soon as the Ed Sullivan Show was over that fateful night when popular music changed forever... and he started growing his hair!

Jamie's formal music training started during his first grade school year when he began taking piano lessons from local music mom Mrs. Hartman.

In the fourth grade Jamie quit the piano in favor of the drums. After three years of lessons from local drum legend Buddy Ostapovitz Jamie began picking up the guitar... a habit that soon developed into an obsession. In 1971 Jamie quit drum lessons and started studying the guitar with Russ Faith.

Throughout the 1960s Jamie was a regular listener to popular Philadelphia and New York AM radio stations such as WFIL and WABC. Then, in 1968, the world of broadcast popular music changed again with the introduction of pioneering "underground" FM radio stations  such as WMMR in Philadelphia. Jamie never looked back. With the introduction of this new medium came exposure to new bands that didn't write three-minute songs. "Back in those days 'MMR used to play entire albums without interruption and my favorit DJ, a guy named Herman, used to play a Beatles song every hour on the hour... like a cosmic cookoo clock! I used kick back in a darkened room, put on the headphones, and let my mind wander with whatever was spinning down in Philly. It was awesome!"

Inspired especially by Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles, Jamie began playing guitar at age 11 and by age 15 was performing at school assemblies, private parties, and nearby New Jersey nightclubs. Throughout high school, Jamie was the established school guitar guru, and his bands, which included Emerald City, Black Rose, and Betsy’s Garage, regularly played to packed auditoriums, often with more than a thousand fans.

During his senior year, Jamie teamed up with David Young to form the Treetoads, a progressive folk/rock band committed to writing and performing original music. In addition to Jamie and David on guitar, the band also featured Edna Shandleman on cello, Jeff Snyder on flute, Dan Kelly on bass and mandolin, and Ed Stanton on percussion. Although the Treetoads only performed twice in public (Bucks County Community College and the Neshaminy High School Spring Arts Festival), the partnership between Thompson and Young formed the nucleus of what eventually became Red Rose Cotillion.

After high school, Jamie continued playing in bands, performing all over the Philadelphia/New Jersey area. While his guitar playing continued to improve by leaps and bounds, Jamie’s heart was not into playing cover songs. So, in 1977 he formed a new version of Black Rose with Roger Schultz on bass and Ron Karp on drums. While the band’s tenure was short-lived, the group worked well together and temporarily provided Jamie with the creative outlet he craved.

During the summers of 1977 and 1978, Jamie worked on writing and performing original music with David and singer Jerry Getz, who attended Penn State and were playing together in coffee houses and restaurants in and around State College. In July 1978, the trio first performed as Red Rose Cotillion at an outdoor concert in Langhorne, PA, as well as several parties. The gigs were such a hit, and Jamie enjoyed the experience of performing original music with RRC so much that, after graduating tech school in 1979, he moved to State College for the summer to continue working with Young and Getz. Then, in the spring of 1980 Jamie moved to State College for good, and Red Rose Cotillion morphed into a full-fledge rock’n’roll band. See the History of RRC for more details.

During the Red Rose Cotillion years, Jamie matured as a musician, and he wrote a number of songs as well as intricate guitar parts. Many RRC fans came to the band’s gigs just to be dazzled by Jamie’s guitar work, and he gained the reputation as the guitarist to see in State College.

When Red Rose Cotillion broke up (May 1982), Jamie, Roger and Ron, along with State College icon Kenny Volz on guitar and lead vocals, formed Pictures, a high-energy band that played around State College for the remainder of the summer of ’82. Jamie then moved to Santa Cruz, CA, where he focused on recording his original songs. In the fall of 1985, Jamie moved to Pittsburgh, where he, David, and Budd produced After the Flood, an album of original songs, several of which were RRC standards. Teaming up with bassist James Ashworth and drummer Steve Mobley, they performed the collection at several Pennsylvania venues, including the Phyrst and the 1987 State College Festival of the Arts.

In the fall of 1988, Jamie decided it was time to complete his formal education. He enrolled in Penn State and attended the New Kensington campus until the spring of 1990, then he moved back to State College to continue working on a math degree at the main campus. While there, Jamie reformed Pictures with Kenny Volz and several other State College musicians. Then, in 1992, Jamie and Kenny created a new band called Nomad, which focused on original music. Nomad performed around State College until Jamie graduated in 1995.

In 2004 Jamie reconnected with his very longtime and long-lost Levittown bassist friend Dave Marion. They got together for a jam in a friend's livingroom and recorded a selection of improvisational tracks now known as "The Kirwan House Jams." Dave and Jamie are currently working on developing their improvisational grooves and have named their project "Blue Condition" in honor of their mutual love and admiration for the music of the 1960s super group Cream.

For more information on Jamie, his family, and his solo projects, visit www.jamiethompson.net.