Michael Brewer & Tom Shipley began their careers as solo folk artists on the coffee house circuit in the early 1960s. Both native mid-westerns (Oklahoman and Ohioan respective to their billing), they first met in 1964 at the Blind Owl coffee house in Kent, Ohio. It would be three more years before they would team up, and during those three years the two crossed paths at clubs on the folk circuit, and each tried their hand in other musical collaborations that didn’t pan out.
In 1965 Michael Brewer migrated to Los Angeles following the emerging west coast music scene. His initial duo Mastin & Brewer signed a record deal with Columbia Records but the group imploded before finishing their record. Brewer eventually accepted a job as a staff songwriter at Good Sam Music, a publishing offshoot of the newly formed A&M Records. Around this time, Tom Shipley arrived in L.A. and looked up his acquaintance from the folk circuit. Tom rented a house around the corner from Michael’s house, and soon they began writing songs together. When Shipley was subsequently hired as staff writer for A&M in 1967, their partnership began as a songwriting collaboration.
As staff songwriters, their early songs were recorded by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Glen Yarborough, H.P. Lovecraft, The Poor, Noel Harrison, and Bobby Rydell. A&M Records soon recognized that Michael & Tom’s demo recordings exhibited a unique sound and style of their own, so they green lighted them to record an album. A&M brought in the best musicians in L.A. to play on the album. But even with a soon to be released debut album and mutual friends who were starting to make it big in bands such as The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Association, Michael and Tom so disliked their life in L.A. that they decided to move back to the Midwest as soon as the record was recorded.
In the last decade-plus, the duo has witnessed rejuvenated interest in their music, beginning with BMG's purchase of their Kama Sutra catalog and subsequent re-issue of the critically acclaimed Tarkio release in 1996. This was soon followed by the inclusion of "One Toke Over The Line" on the Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas motion picture soundtrack. A live record of classic performances from 1973, Archive Alive, was released in 1997, the same year they released an album of new material Heartland on their own One Toke Productions label. From: http://www.brewerandshipley.com/bios&liners/bio_b&s.htm
