Thomas J. Devine

Born in Okinawa, Japan in 1962, Tommy J. Devine was a military child.  When his family came back to the U.S., he traveled with his mother to Michigan and then to Oregon where he was until age 10.  At the age of 8, Tommy learned guitar at St. Mary’s Catholic School from a junior high student who played left-handed upside down.  At age 10, he lived with his father in Brooklyn, NY, where he met other children who also played.  They formed their own band and played mostly in the basement due to their ages.

While he was in 9th grade, his family moved to New Jersey  where he met better players and, again, formed another band and played at a Lilly Langtree’s Judge Roy Bean Restaurant Bar & Grill.  He met Tommy James from the Shondells who liked his playing and vocals, who invited Tommy to play with them on a one-time basis, which gave him the fever to be a professional musician in later years.

Tommy did a short tour with the Army as a Combat Medic from ‘79-‘82.  When he ETS’d, he traveled to Alaska on a fishing boat and returned in July of ‘83, where he formed another band, this time playing in clubs in the Seattle/Tacoma area.  His drummer was in the Army band and asked him to come his unit, play and sing for the Commander, whereinafter, he re-enlisted in the Army for another tour as a guitar player for the Army Show Band.

While with the Army band, Tommy went to college at the UW and received a BA in Music.  When he ETS’d again, he formed the band A New Breed of Country which toured the west coast and midwest states.  In January ‘89, Tommy formed New Breed Music Group as a Management/Booking Agent for his band.  In December ‘89, he left his band for Nashville where he worked with several artists and honed his craft as a musician and a session player.  In 1996 after returning to Nashville from Las Vegas, Tommy opened his studio on Music Row and produced many artist and songwriter demos. Due to a medical emergency in 2013, he closed his studio and reopened it in Springfield, TN in 2022, where there are big plans for the future of New Breed Music Group including two publishing companies, a second studio, and song plugging services for songwriters.  It’s all about the Song.