Welcome to the Music Thursdays segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Music Thursdays will feature music related content. Music Thursdays will feature an artist or band and their latest song and / or music video. People love music, and we here at Geek Alabama love featuring artists and bands!
Brent Hample is an acoustic singer-songwriter whose music grows from faith, human experience, and a belief in every person’s dignity.
Born and raised among the tall firs of Oregon, Brent’s musical journey began at home with his father and older sister singing and playing guitar. By the age of four, he was strumming the old acoustic guitars that filled his childhood home. He found his early voice singing hymns in church, Sunday school, outdoor camp, and in public-school choirs.
In his rebellious teenage years, he was gifted an electric guitar and explored heavy rock like KISS and RUSH with his brother and friends. Throughout high school and college he took up the trumpet and dove into the worlds of jazz greats such as Lee Morgan and Miles Davis playing in big bands and improv combos, as well as the classical greats like Mozart and Brahms while playing in symphonies and pep/marching bands.
Before working as a college camp counselor one summer, he bought a $100 used Yamaha acoustic guitar – which remains one of his favorites to this day. Also in college, he began writing his first songs. More recently, he developed a deep love for traditional Irish music, as well as contemporary Celtic groups like Flook, Väsen, and Lúnasa.
Over the years, Brent continued to write songs and brought his music to audiences from California to Minnesota, and as far away as India.
His song writing has picked up the last few years, as he discovered the power of communal inspiration and workshops at the Sisters Americana Song Academy.
Brent writes when inspiration calls, listening closely for what the song wants to become. His work reaches toward something beyond himself, drawing from the shared stories and yearnings that bind people together, connection, laughter, and gratitude.
Brent has played guitar and sang for college band Habakkuk 3:19b, the silly Holden Village based Lentil Monsters of Rock, the wedding band Rough Draft, and the trad Celtic band Faroe Rum.
Today, he channels his passion for classic roots folk-rock music as a member of the band Sassafras! For Brent, music is more than just a craft—it’s a lifelong passion of the soul and a bridge that connects cultures and people, all while seeking to generate an atmosphere of joy.
ABOUT “ROTTING BOUNTY”:
“Rotting Bounty” is a haunting, heartfelt folk-rock ballad by Brent Hample that weaves religious imagery with modern political grief. Anchored by acoustic guitar, fiddle, upright bass, and rich vocal harmonies, the song speaks to the labor of undocumented workers, the pain of family separation, and the withering promise of abundance in America’s farmland. Poignant and reflective, it echoes both protest songs of the past and the urgency of now.
This video was shot almost exclusively on Brent’s iPhone at locations such as his backyard and on his hikes to some of the beautiful waterfalls that can be found throughout his lush home state of Oregon.
Categories: Music Talk Stuff
