Musicians Jan - 01 - Nashville Musicians Association

More documents

Recommendations

Info

16 The Nashville Musician January-March 2008 Dan Tyminski scores both as team player and soloist By WALT TROTT Dan Tyminski may hail from the Green Mountain State of Vermont, but bluegrass claimed his heart many years ago. “Wheels,” only his second solo album, became one of the best musical surprises of 2008. (Reviewed in the last issue of this newspaper, the album has since garnered a best bluegrass Grammy nomination.) It made its June debut on the Billboard bluegrass chart at #1. During our interview on the day before Thanksgiving, Dan indeed agreed he had lots to be thankful for, not the least of which is family, fans, fellow pickers and musical fare. For “Wheels,” singer-musician-producer Tyminski has surrounded himself with a wealth of talent that includes Adam Steffey, mandolin; Barry Bales, stand-up bass; Ron Stewart, banjo/fiddle; and newcomer Justin Moses, dobro/fiddle/banjo, plus guest artists Ron Block, rhythm guitar; Vince Gill, tenor vocals; Cheryl and Sharon White, harmony vocals. We talked about all of the above, plus the fact that despite recording solo and touring on behalf of his sophomore CD, he’s still very much a player in Alison Krauss’ award-winning Union Station band. Dan’s an earnest and polite, but down-to-earth sort, seemingly with a sly sense of humor. At the time of our chat, Union Station was on hiatus as Alison toured with English rocker Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin fame), promoting their surprise-hit duet album “Raising Sand,” a project in itself that has generated a number of award nominations. “We’ll get back together this next year (2009) to start working up some new music as soon as we can, then go back into the studio again,” explains Dan. “Gosh, I don’t know just how soon it will be before we’ll tour, but it won’t be until we get an album out.” In 2000, Dan’s pure country-bluegrass voice came to the attention of Hollywood and T-Bone Burnett for the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” movie soundtrack. Tyminski supplied vocals for leading man George Clooney as a Soggy Bottom Boy in the Depression era satire (while actors John Tuturro and Tim Blake Nelson rounded out the trio). Brothers Ethan and Joel Coen’s film “sleeper” was a box office bonanza and its soundtrack album won numerous awards, including a Grammy for Dan, and was #1 on both pop and country charts many weeks despite little radio airplay. More importantly, it became a cultural milestone for bluegrass, broadening its popularity much as John Travolta’s “Urban Cowboy” did for outlaw music two decades earlier. In vocals as pure as a mountain stream, Dan sang, “I am a man of constant sorrow/I’ve seen trouble all my days/I bid farewell to old Ken- Dan Tyminski attends autograph session. Dan digs being sideman in Alison Krauss’ Union Station (above with bassist Barry Bales). tucky/The state where I was borned and raised . . .” On the strength of the “O Brother” phenomenon and his electrifying performance on the “I Am a Man Of Constant Sorrow” ballad, Dan also earned multiple best vocalist awards, CMA best single and album, and was urged to set out on his own path to stardom. Instead, Dan chose to remain outside the star spotlight, preferring to play guitar and add vocal harmonies to Alison Krauss’ Union Station gigs as bandsman. “I’d somehow accepted that the mainstream wouldn’t find bluegrass appealing. Somewhere deep down, that’s my biggest thrill. I had probably gotten to the point where I had given up hope that the kind of music I play would ever be accepted by the masses,” mused the bearded balladeer. During an earlier hiatus, he had cut a solo album of downhomey songs, “Carry Me Across the Mountain” (released in 2000), drawing favorable reviews. Still, Dan stayed with Station. So why do a follow-up CD some seven years later? “Understand, it’s never been in the forefront of what I wanted to do, to be on my own as an artist. For my whole life and still now, I consider myself a part of Alison’s Union Station,” notes Tyminski, who’s 41. “For so many years, I’ve been so busy between work and family, it wasn’t at the top of my list to do a follow-up to ‘Carry Me Across the Mountain.’ “That record again was the product of having some free time and some songs. Everything kind of lined up for that one. Now I always knew I wanted to do another record, but it didn’t make sense until I guess it was eight or nine years later . . . ” How are they different, since he produced “Wheels” alone, but had co-produced his freshman album with Tim Austin? “Well I like producing, but I may be getting more credit than I deserve. ‘Wheels’ was produced by myself, but truly there were five guys in there (him, Adam, Barry, Ron and Justin), six counting the engineer. We got in that room and all worked together. I didn’t work up anything in which we all didn’t have say so. “I think the biggest difference between this album and the last was when I did that first record I had a bunch of songs I wanted to record,” continues Tyminski. “Then I kind of went out to choose a combination of people that I thought fitted the songs. In the case of ‘Wheels,’ I had the combination of people that I wanted to record with, and then I went out to find songs I thought would work with this group of guys.” “Wheels” earned nominations for best bluegrass album, best band and Tyminski best vocals in the recent IBMA awards gala, as did his pickers; however, those taking home the prizes were Adam Steffey and Barry Bales. “Adam’s won on other occasions and that’s great,” says Dan, “but Barry got best bass player and has been nominated more times than I can count on my hands, so I’m really, really happy to see him get it this year.” Who got the Opry artists Gill and The Whites onto the CD? “I did that. I’ve been buddies with Vince for a while, and The Whites, Sharon and Cheryl, I got to know them through the (‘O Brother’) tour. The song the sisters sang on just made perfect sense for them (‘Some Early Morning’). What I was working for, if it makes any sense at all, since it was kind of a dark song, that it had a message of hope. I mean it was a man speaking of dying so that he could live, and their voices sort of sounded like angels to me. It was a perfect match.” Gill, of course, furnished top tenor for Tim Stafford’s tragic tune “How Long Is This Train,” as Dan sings hauntingly about a man waiting, whose son had been killed in action. Are you partial to songs of tragedy? “I’m not partial to them, but when I do hear a good tragedy song it stays with me. It is something that I do and I think it’s always been a part of bluegrass music. You’ll find most acts recording bluegrass do songs of love lost and storysongs of tragedy of some sort. They do fit in with our concept.” Two “Wheels” covers have generated a lot of comment - so how did “Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On” and “Who Showed Who” happen to be included? “Regarding the Kitty Wells song, it’s one I’ve been aware of for a long time. First, I remember my mom singing ‘Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On’ when I was very small. Then some years back when we were jamming with Danny Paisley (of Southern Grass), I heard him add a bluegrass twist to it. And I think it was Adam Steffey who mentioned what if we tried that tune? So we played it to see what it felt like, and just loved it. That was an easy one to do.” (Actually, Paisley’s dad the late Bob Paisley recorded the Kitty Wells-Billy Wallace tune on his “No Vacancy” album.) “Now the Del McCoury song ‘Who Showed Who,’ was suggested to me by Alison. I remember it was very early one morning when the phone rang, and I kind of looked at my watch, wondering who would call at that hour. Well, it was Alison and before we began talking, she said, ‘Who showed who . . . who showed who . . . who showed who.’ I pulled the phone away and said, ‘Who is this?,’ you know, joking with her. That was her way of suggesting the Del McCoury song. If I’ve learned anything these past few years with Union Station it’s if Alison feels that strongly that something will work for me, I should definitely consider it.” (“Who Showed Who” was written by Harold Tipton and recorded by McCoury.) Was his own creation “How Many Times” written especially for “Wheels”? “There was enough pressure for me to come up with new songs that I finally wrote a song,” Dan replies, with a chuckle. “How many times I remember writing a song, which of course is about love lost, or love gained and lost; however, you want to look at it. Really in truth that song is written about the songwriting process itself. I sat down to try and come up with a new tune, and thought to myself, how many times have I been down this road before; you know, start a song and write half the song and it doesn’t quite finish itself? . . . That was kind of the inspiration about finishing the song; that is, while still thinking about what I needed to do to complete the song, I found in that problem was the solution.” So was it Dan’s idea to add Ron Stewart’s sassy, kiss-off song “I Ain’t Taking You Back No More” to the mix? “We had already started the recording process and still needed a song at that point. Ron mentioned that he had an Ernest Tubb-sounding song, and I thought, ‘An Ernest Tubb song? I just don’t know if it would fit.’ Well Ron did have a recording of it in his car, so we went out and listened to it. When it started playing I immediately felt like we had just found a gem.” Speaking of treasure, how did he come across Moses? “Justin is a guy I did not know when we decided to get this thing going. The four of us were going to play, but really we needed one other musician. Adam and Ron had been around Justin and told me about him, and so we decided to give Justin a try. I remember the first time we picked together, we met over in Knoxville and had this little informal jam session - and he was just great! Justin’s a really super talented guy; I mean, he can do it all.” On Tyminski’s first solo effort, he included his own instrumental “Greens Fees,” so for the new CD he turned to Adam Steffey’s “Knock, Knock!” “I’ve had people come up and thank me for putting an instrumental on the CD, and also those who ask ‘Why in the world would you put an instrumental on your record?’ My answer to that is if you have someone in the band with those capabilities, why not show that off . . . We just had to put that instrumental on there.” Those playing on the album make up the Dan Tyminski Band currently touring to promote “Wheels.” How does it feel to travel out there under your own steam? “It’s exciting and a little bit scary, you know, booking shows and hoping that people will be showing up. Obviously, we have bigger venues with Alison and so we’re doing things on a smaller scale. But I’m pumped up over the reaction we’re receiving, and to be having this much fun playing with another configuration of people, outside of me, Alison and Barry. Though my name may be out front, this is very much a band whose members share the spot- Dan Tyminski wins best singer award at IBMA.
January-March 2009 The Nashville Musician 17 Bluegrassers Dan and buddies perform as the fictional screen band Soggy Bottom Boys for awards special. light. To me that’s thumbs up!” Back in his native Vermont, he had a group called the Green Mountain Bluegrass Band, in which he played guitar and mandolin. Then at 21, traveling farther afield, Dan joined the Lonesome River Band. Briefly, he filled in with the early Union Station band, but a sense of loyalty guided him back to Lonesome River. All these bands have spent time hitting the road playing festivals, clubs and small concerts, which are the bread and butter of most professional bluegrass groups. According to Dan, “The most common goal’s probably just to play the best music that we can, and always try to improve - individually and as a band.” Alison Krauss knew a good thing, on hearing Dan’s warm vocals and skillful guitar licks, so once again recruited him back into Union Station on a permanent basis in 1994. “To be honest with you, for many years I have really felt like I was put on this Earth and trained for the position that I’m in right now with Union Station. I really feel like that’s what I was meant to do. Now if that road ever takes a turn otherwise in the future, I’ll ride that pony like I always have. But I have never had an inner desire to do the solo thing, as I’ve really been happy with Alison.” How did a New Englander choose bluegrass as his genre? “I didn’t choose it, bluegrass chose me. My parents were these big fans and initially all the music that I was exposed to growing up was bluegrass or country. So it was never a big stretch for me as it’s all I ever really knew.” On his first solo album, "Carry Me Across the Mountain," brother Stan Tyminski added lead vocals to Dan’s revival of the “I Dreamed Of An Old Love Affair,” prompting one scribe to cite a similarity to Ricky Skaggs. (Stan helped Dan found the Green Mountain Band.) Do any other members of his family show vocal talent? “Hey, I’ve been married since 1989. I have three lovely kids, a daughter (Kathryn, 15) and two sons (Christopher, 13 and John, 11). They can all carry a tune and they like to sing, but I don’t think they’ll do it beyond the bathroom yet.” Dan met wife Elise back in Vermont. She reportedly regards George Clooney as a favorite movie star, and was exultant that her man was selected to supply his vocals in “O Brother ‘Yeah, they put a smile on my face. But I absolutely love the game of golf. There’s not a doubt that I don’t look forward to every single round.’ Where Art Thou?” Did Dan have an opportunity to get to know George? “We were in the shoot about four days and so we did get to hang around quite a bit on the set.” How did he like working with “O Brother’s” soundtrack producer T-Bone Burnett, who also helmed the Krauss-Plant CD “Raising Sand”? “I’ve heard so many people say so many different things about T-Bone. I’ve heard him called a genius, but when we recorded the album, I don’t think I really saw that then. But, as I listened and watched him involved in other projects, I now endorse that 100 per cent. I think what he was able to do was allow the artists a level of comfort that let them dig deep inside themselves to places that they did not normally go in a situation like that. I think T-Bone really does have a genius in setting the mood for letting people create. It’s not an easy job to get a bunch of musicians that do not usually play together, and have them produce what you’re seeking to get. T-Bone does have that ability.” Did anyone ever suggest Tyminski come up with an easier name for the marquee? “I never thought too much while growing up about my name even being on a marquee, so it never dawned on me that it wouldn’t fit well,” he replies, with a hearty laugh. Would he welcome an overseas tour, maybe to the United Kingdom? “We’ve been to England, Scotland and Ireland already, so we’ve performed in a few places over there. I thought the audiences were really fantastic; actually, they’re very knowledgeable fans. More so than I thought they would be, going over the first time. They’re very passionate about bluegrass in the same way that the people I grew up with in Vermont were about their music.” Two of Dan’s pastimes are golf and cooking, though it must be hard to find the time having such a busy schedule. Golf Digest magazine, incidentally, just named him one of the Top 10 music players who golf. “I thought that was very funny . . . I found myself in there last year, but I’ve moved up a couple spaces since then. Yeah, they put a smile on my face. But I absolutely love the game of golf. There’s not a doubt that I don’t look forward to every single round.” Ever play any golf tournaments? “I’ve done all kinds of charity events, scrambles and Captain’s choice events, but beyond that, I don’t compete on a more serious level.” Having stated that the Dan Tyminski Band will finish out the year touring together, will the new year end their travels? “You just have to look at our Union Station tour schedule and you’ll see all those days in between when we’re actually off stage, and those free days, the Dan Tyminski Band probably will be out there on the road. I think at least the first part of the year, it’ll be the Dan Tyminski Band. Any other free days, I’m pretty much on the golf course.” Accepting IBMA album award are (from left): Dan, Keith Case, Buck, Sharon White and the Peasall Sisters. + All Dan Tyminski photos by Patricia Presley + Tyminski with one of his banjo heroes Bill Keith. Number of Local 257 members included Actor-fiddler-humorist Randall (Randy) Franks. Dan doin’ what he loves, pickin’ and singin’. Book cites country’s homespun humor traditions By WALT TROTT Dickens, Randy Franks (TV’s In The Heat of Southern humor, rural comedy and its practitioners are brilliantly showcased in Loyal Jones’ book “Country Music Humorists & Comedians,” which hit bookstands nationwide, Nov. 3. Author Jones’s earlier light-hearted explorations of American culture include “Laughter In Appalachia,” “Hometown Humor” and in collaboration with Local 257 member Billy Edd Wheeler, “Curing the Cross-Eyed Mule: Appalachian Mountain Humor.” Among this union’s members spotlighted, past and present, are Roy Acuff, Bill Anderson, Chat Atkins, Bill Carlisle, June Carter, Jimmy -Terry Pennington photo the Night series), Ferlin Husky (and alter ego Simon Crum), Grandpa Jones, Lonzo & Oscar, Roger Miller, Speck Rhodes, Johnny Russell and Sheb Wooley aka Ben Colder. Published by the University of Illinois Press as part of its continuing Music in American Life series, “ . . . Humorists & Comedians” is not only an entertaining read, but an indispensable encyclopedia-like reference for professionals. The practice of supplying humor to audiences dates way back to minstrel days of blackfaced humorists, adapted as rube comedy and barnyard humor by early country acts, to enliven shows traditionally showcasing sad songs of death and love lost. Jones chronicles comics of legendary stature such as Smiley Burnette, Judy Canova, Jerry Clower, Andy Griffith, Minnie Pearl, Ray Stevens, Roni Stoneman, as well as lesser known humorists like Little Clifford & A’nt Idy, Goober Buchanan, Cousin Emmy, Old Joe Clark, Jamup & Honey, Sarie & Sally and Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper. Here, too, are more contemporary comedy characters like Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy and Kinky Friedman. Brief biographies on each artist are furnished, many featuring rare photos, along with samplings from some of their rib-tickling routines. Del Reeves, hosting his Country Carnival TV show, told about a blaze occurring out in the country: “This woman had a fire in her kitchen, and she called the fire department and said, ‘I’ve got a fire down here.’ The dispatcher asked, ‘Where is the fire?’ She said, ‘In the (Continued on page 24)
Page 1 and 2: AFM Local 257 election ’08 result
Page 3 and 4: January-March 2009 The Nashville Mu
Page 15: January-March 2009 The Nashville Mu

Musicians Jan - 01 - Nashville Musicians Association

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?