In Search of a Song: Tim Grimm Part 2

TIM GRIMM PART TWO: BROADCAST  4 / 21 / 2012
IN SEARCH OF A SONG originates in BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA and is sponsored by: THE BLUEBIRD NIGHTCLUB,  AIRTIME RECORDING STUDIO,  and VISIT BLOOMINGTON.COM
Host Jason Wilber interviews singer/songwriter/actor Tim Grimm about his life and music. This interview was recorded in Bloomington, Indiana at Airtime Recording Studio. This is part two of an ongoing series of interviews.

Tim Grimm has toured and recorded with his friend,  Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, appeared with Harrison Ford in the film Clear and Present Danger, and has shared the stage with writer and poet Wendell Berry. His recording, The Back Fields was named Best Americana Album in the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards in Los Angeles (the largest and most diverse music awards in the world). Named 2000’s “BEST DISCOVERY in Roots/Americana Music” by The Chicago Sun-Times,  and “2004 MALE ARTIST of The Year” by the Freeform American Roots DJs, his songs and performances have established him as a unique voice in Americana music.  Each of his past 5 recordings have reached the top of the Folk or American-roots charts. Grimm walks the fine line between folk and country, while maintaining a strong footing in tradition.  We hear the rural rumblings that have shaped his life, but we are also invited in to a bigger picture, as evident in so much of his work. Critics searching for comparisons most often cite Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie and (Nebraska era) Bruce Springsteen.  Tim is an award-winning songwriter, and actor on stage and screen .  After several years working in Los Angeles (where he co-starred for 2 seasons on the NBC drama Reasonable Doubts and appeared in several films), Tim returned home to Indiana.  He grew up in the woods and small town settings of southern Indiana, son of schoolteachers and grandson of farmers, and his return home was a conscious choice to live a life of significance rather than one of “success’. He now lives with his wife and sons on an 80 acre farm close to where he grew up. Tim’s songs are full of the rural rumblings that have shaped his life—rich with descriptive details, and sung with warmth and intimacy—recognizing the inextinguishable national romance with the idea of the family farm and the vanishing landscape of rural America. His recordings include Heart Land (2000), Coyote’s Dream (2003),  NAMES (2004), and The Back Fields (2005). In 2007, Grimm put together a concept cd with several of the Midwest’s finest songwriter’s—including Corazong artist-- Krista Detor, Carrie Newcomer, Tom Roznowski, and Michael White. The recording, Wilderness Plots, was drawn from the short stories of noted author, Scott Russell Sanders, and explored the settling of the American Wilderness in the Ohio River Valley Region between The Revolutionary War and The Civil War. His newest records are Wilderness Songs and Bad Man Ballads, and his tribute to Tom Paxton called Thank You Tom Paxton.

Tim has performed in theatres and coffeehouses around the United States, as well as significant Festivals, including the Kerrville Folk Festival, Wildflower Festival, Fox Valley, the Pawtucket Arts Festival, the Indiana Festival at Conner Prairie and he hosts The Americana Music Series and Americana Downtown in Indiana. Still very active on stage and onscreen, Tim's most recent projects include guest spots on television's, CHICAGO CODE and DETROIT 187, work on the upcoming untitled feature film with director, Ramin Bahrani and starring Dennis Quaid, and he will appear in Indiana Repertory's production of GOD OF CARNAGE in early 2012.

Topics discussed include: "Wilderness Songs and Bad Man Ballads". How the project got it's start with the book "Wilderness Plots" by Scott Russell Sanders. How "bad man" songs or songs about desperate situations, or violence don't show up much in modern culture, except maybe in Rap and hip pop music anymore. How Tim's acting experiences influence his songwriting in terms of being able to write in first person and in another character. Also about writing a personal experience in a song, and having it become part of a more universal feeling or experience in the listener's lives. The themes behind his last few albums, honoring great artists through performances based on their music, and his record "Thank You Tom Paxton".  Stage and film projects he's involved in, and a track on his "Wilderness Songs and Bad Man Ballads" called "China". Tim talks about another song from the same record called "Cover These Bones."

Musical selections include: Rebecca Versilles, Whippoorwill, Salt and Bullets, Home To Me, China, Cover These Bones.

This program is "Evergreen" and not date specific.

For more information, visit IN SEARCH OF A SONG.COM