Chad Gamble
CHAD GAMBLE
Chad Gamble is a Shoals-based drummer and Grammy-winning member of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. He grew up in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and became interested in music at an early age, jamming with his keyboardist brother Al (now a member of St. Paul and the Broken Bones) in their parents’ basement.
During his college years, he cut his teeth playing in bar bands like the Tuscaloosa-based blues combo Salty Papa. After graduating from the University of Alabama in 1997, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he joined a group called the Bluebirds. From there, he relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, reuniting with his brother Al and gigging with blues musicians on Beale Street. Eventually, the pair formed their own group, the Gamble Brothers Band, and recorded three albums for the Memphis-based Archer Records label.
In 2007, Gamble moved back to the Shoals, and within a year, he had been recruited by fellow Shoals native Jason Isbell to join the 400 Unit. Gamble made his studio debut with the group on Isbell’s third album, Here We Rest, in 2011. Four years later, he played on Isbell’s Grammy-winning solo album Something More Than Free, and in 2018, Gamble and the rest of the 400 Unit became Grammy winners in their own right when the group album The Nashville Sound won the award for album of the year.