home|news|biography|discography|images|downloads|tour|store
|
|
Biography:What your ears have here is...... the latest album by Tim Easton; Break Your Mother's Heart which definitively stakes his place in the first rank of contemporary rock troubadours. Tim's natural talent is in full view and the songs are expertly played and sung. Sonically, the warmth and feel of the past is evoked. It's the kind of record that just doesn't come along every day.It's all about the songs. Songs so solidly written they could be textbook examples; like the opener, Poor Poor L.A. for instance, an ode to the city of angels with a rapid-fire lyric that you’ll want to memorize so you can sing along: "Not too many years ago there were hippies killing people/a mile away from the Marlboro Man/Now there's sandpaper pants/on the gutterpunks/and lowriders with their heads in the trunks/or walking in fours and kicking in doors/cutting it up and filling their cup … You don't have to break your mama's heart to change the world"; Black Hearted Ways is a classic, catchy folk-rocker; The Hanging Tree sports a melody so infectious it'll be stuck in your head for days; Amor Azul is all dreamy and late night, slurred words sort of spilling out of Tim's mouth as if by accident; Then there’s Watching The Lightning, the album's epic with a multi-level lyric, one part dealing with the death of a friend; And on it goes. Certainly Tim's singing has never been better recorded, and a good part of the credit is due his co-producer John Hanlon, a West Coast engineer/producer whose credits include Neil Young, Grandaddy, and the Beach Boys. Nearly all of the ten songs were cut in one or two takes, with Tim playing guitar and singing live in the same room as the band. Break Your Mother's Heart features Tim on acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, mandolin, keyboards, and percussion. He is accompanied by a close-knit trio of skilled session players led by master drummer Jim Keltner whose 40-year career spans sessions with everyone from John Lennon to Randy Newman. Keltner locks in seamlessly with the deep melodic bass lines of Hutch Hutchinson (longtime member of the Bonnie Raitt band) and the exhilarating keyboard work of Jai Winding (most notably an alumnus of Jackson Browne's group). "This album may be rougher or more relaxed than the last one, not as produced," said Easton. "But when you have a group of musicians as good as I had, you're able find the essence of a song quickly." With a few exceptions, the backing vocals and other overdubs were done by Tim. "Mike Campbell of The Heartbreakers laid down an electric 12-string guitar solo before I even got out of bed one day," says Easton, "and the very last part we tracked was the backwards tambourine in the intro to Hanging Tree. It gets a little tricky flipping over 2-inch reels of tape at 4 o'clock in the morning after the studio madness has set in, so I'm lucky John Hanlon and the engineers didn't hang me." Tim played every instrument on one of the album's most effective songs, "The Man That You Need," which shows a different side of the studio process and the more spontaneous side of his track building and overdubbing. This moving ballad of unrequited love becomes a sort of miniature suite as it wends through three distinct movements, with an especially evocative organ/piano coda following the last verse. Tim Easton was born in Lewiston, New York and grew up in Akron, Ohio where his father worked for Goodyear. Tim was in grade school when that company relocated his family to Tokyo for three years, and it was in Japan that he first heard the Beatles (still his favorite band). His guitar-playing older brothers hipped Tim to albums by acoustic guitar wizards Doc Watson and Mississippi John Hurt plus contemporary singer/songwriters like John Prine. Other musical favorites and influences include Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and Lucinda Williams. Tim says, "I enjoy and appreciate a great pop record as much as I do, say, the Louvin Brothers." Tim's childhood sojourn in Japan had prepared him for the pleasures and uncertainties of foreign travel. In the early Nineties, he left the Midwest to live and work in both London and Paris. He hitchhiked around Ireland and mainland Europe and made his first recordings in Prague. Easton's years of busking honed both his finger picking and flat picking guitar skills as well as his warm, conversational singing style. Upon his return to the States, Tim joined a rock and roll band called The Haynes Boys and in 1997 the group released the rousing, rough-edged album Guardian Angel (Slab Recordings). It was also at this time that Tim and the band began to cover and sometimes back-up the songwriter J.P. Olsen, a fellow Ohioan whose songs Tim still performs and records today. In 1998, Tim recorded his first solo album, Special 20, in Nashville and released it on his own Heathen Records (New West will re-release this album for retail sale in 2003). Tim moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 1999 and signed a publishing deal with EMI where Special 20 had sparked interest. Joining Tim in his westward move was Columbus pal Chris Burney (The Sun), a frequent Easton stage accompanist (who plays upright bass on two tracks from Break Your Mother's Heart—Hanging Tree and True Ways). Tim began appearing regularly at such LA clubs as Largo and McCabe's and was soon signed to a deal with New West Records. His first album for the label was The Truth About Us and it was something of an Americana super-session. Produced by Joe Chiccarelli, it featured backing by members of Wilco and guest appearances by Victoria Williams and former Jayhawk Mark Olson. The album was issued in January 2001 and Tim toured for the next 18 months, playing shows of his own and opening for John Hiatt, Mark Eitzel, Cowboy Junkies, The Flatlanders and The Jayhawks among others. The statistics are impressive: 280 gigs covering some 70,000 miles. The Truth About Us garnered widespread critical acclaim: The Chicago Sun-Times hailed it as "simply stunning," while The St. Paul Pioneer Press called it "the first great rock record of 2001... a portrait of America that feels like the lost link between X's Los Angeles and Springsteen's Nebraska." Break Your Mother’s Heart is firm testimony that Tim Easton is a unique and identifiable song stylist, an assured and compelling performer whether playing solo acoustic or with a full band. This time out, Tim has made a career record that ought to delight, provoke and engage all who listen. |
