Tim Grimm
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Tim Grimm

Columbus, Indiana, United States | INDIE

Columbus, Indiana, United States | INDIE
Band Americana Folk

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"A dozen, mostly vintage, Tom Paxton tunes cleverly arranged and beautifully performed"

Born in Chicago, Illinois folk legend Tom Paxton’s teen years were spent in Bristow, Oklahoma a town he considers home. Singer-songwriter Paxton landed in Greenwich Village in time for the folk music boom of the early 1960s. Signed by Jac Holzman’s then nascent New York City based Elektra Records,
Tom’s debut studio album RAMBLIN’ BOY appeared in 1964. In a recording career that spans close on half a century, including collaborations, compilations and live recordings Paxton has released in excess of fifty albums, although this Tim Grimm tribute draws material from only half-a-dozen titles. In his liner note Grimm recalls that around the age of ‘five or six years’ Paxton’s music entered his life and has been a constant inspiration and reference point in the decades since.
This twelve-song tribute opens, appropriately, with Rumblin’ In The Land a selection from Paxton’s 1964 debut. Supported by Jason Wilber’s electric guitar and Joe Crookston’s banjo, Tim and Joe share the lead vocal. Years ahead of its time and doubling as a road song, Paxton’s lyric focuses on blue-collar America’s financial struggles. RAMBLIN’ BOY also supplies the later segue of the perennial Last Thing On My Mind—a 1967 number 7 US country hit for Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner—and the less well known Fare Thee Well, Cisco—a tribute to folk musician Cisco Houston. Replete with swampy sounding organ Bishop Cody’s Last Request
hails from Paxton’s fifth studio outing THE THINGS I NOTICE NOW (1969), as does the later All Night Long—which features the sweet and addictive vocal harmonies of the Bowmans, Sarah and Claire and also Anne Hurley’s darkly hued cello—and this collection’s closing tune I Give You The Morning. Being a careful custodian of this planet’s environment was hardly a hot subject back in 1970, but Paxton’s album #6 featured the ‘totally on the money’ apocalyptic ballad Whose Garden Was This? The Bowmans share the lead vocal with Grimm on the latter.
The rambunctious and rhythmic My Favourite Spring finds the narrator reflect upon his days playing baseball as he anticipates his talented teen son’s career. The latter tune hails from UP & UP (1979) as does the later Home To Me. Supported by animated bluegrass quintet the White Lightning Boys, Paxton’s Warner Reprise debut HOW COME THE SUN (1971) supplies General Custer, and it’s followed by #6’s Forest
Lawn on which Grimm and Krista Detor share the lead vocal. The most recent Paxton composition How Beautiful Upon The Mountain—which recalls the Selma and other 1960s Civil Rights marches—opened Tom’s Grammy nominated release COMEDIANS & ANGELS (2008)
Arthur Wood
- Maverick Magazine (UK) / Arthur Wood


"Award winning haymaker and actor makes a sublime album"

Now let’s get this straight. Just because an artist covers "Blowin’ in the Wind" does not mean he sounds like Bob Dylan. Just wanted to get that straight from the start.

"Holding Up The World" is Grimm’s fifth solo album and his first for Corazong, and if the quality of his previous outings are only half of the songs here, then I’ve been missing out on a real treat. Isn’t it annoying when an album comes along from an artist that you’ve never heard of and you really like, only to find out they’ve been around for ages. But I suppose it now means I can explore some of his old stuff with the thought that it’s gonna be pretty good.

Recording songs live with just voice and guitar and then adding layers of instruments that fit the song, Grimm has delivered a mighty fine modern folk record.

The title track opens the album and you know what? It just gets ya! There and then, it grabs you and doesn’t let go. My god it’s beautiful. Instantly hummable, with lyrics that engage your thoughts and make you both sad and happy simultaneously. What initially seems like a love song to his wife, like all the best songs it also says something else. But what is it? “...Holding up the world, so many things get broken, when you’re holding up the world, you can’t protect your heart...”.

Grimm is a storyteller, up there with the likes of Crowell, Earle and Jackson Browne. He sings of families being lost, the loss of rural America, returnees from Basra, slaves escaping a horrendous life, floods, yearning, anguish and the reason why people faced with such adversity carry on whilst being totally empathetic toward their plight or feelings. He also brings in other music genres within the Americana field like some Appalachian on "Or Bust". Bit like Woody Guthrie.

Supported by Jason Wilber from John Prine’s band, and label mate Krista Detor, Grimm has restored my faith in today’s folk music. It was starting to wane, but this guy has bought it back.

I’m not going to single out any other tracks for praise. I can’t, because they’re all excellent. It’s taken me ages to get around to reviewing this album and that’s simply because I’ve been too busy listening to it.

Oh yes, he does do a version of "Blowin’ in the Wind". But it is a good one.

Reviewer: Phil Edwards

- Americana UK - 9 out of 10


"Highly Recommended"

Tim Grimm has toured and recorded with his friend, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and appeared with Harrison Ford in the film Clear and Present Danger. His songs and performances have established him as a unique voice in Americana music as he walks the fine line between folk and country, while maintaining a strong footing in tradition. He grew up in the woods and small town settings of southern Indiana, and he now lives with his wife and sons on an 80 acre farm close to where he grew up. His songs are full of the rural rumblings that have shaped his life - rich with descriptive details, and sung with warmth and intimacy. Holding Up The World, Tim Grimm’s fifth solo release in the past decade, is flavoured by the rural Midwest places and people he knows so well. The production is simple and he records his songs ‘live’ with guitar and vocal before layering instruments and voices to suit the song. Jason Wilber plays electric guitar, banjo and mandolin. Most of the players hail from Indiana, including Kristta Detor (vocals, piano), Jan Lucas (vocals, harmonica) and Jennie Devoe (vocals). Holding Up The World examines what it means to be human, with songs that thoughtfully express anguish, uncertainty and yearning. Grimm has been compared to Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen, but his wise, reflective songs stand on their own. He even risks covering Bob Dylan’s Blowing’ In The Wind and gets away with it. Other highlights include the contemplative title track, Long Way Round, Heart So Full and the beautiful Krista. Highly recommended. - New Classics (UK)


"Lessons that history can teach us, told in ten accomplished parts"

During the early 1980s Tennessee-born, Ohio-bred, former Indiana University Professor of English Scott Russell Sanders made his debut as a published author. Wilderness Plots (1983), a collection of fifty, historically based, short stores, recalled the settlement of the Ohio River valley during
the period 1780 to 1860, while his novel Bad Man Ballad (1986) focused on an infamous 1813 murder in Portage County, Ohio where Sanders grew up. In truth Wilderness Plots began life as the author’s research notes for his 1986 novel. Hopefully the foregoing explains their shared synergy …
and their appearance in the title of Grimm’s latest musical opus. Inspired by Sanders writing, during the spring of 2007, Grimm, Carrie Newcomer, Krista Detor, Michael White and Tom Roznowski released a nineteen song, acoustic disc titled WILDERNESS PLOTS. Over the ensuing years those musicians have penned further Wilderness Plots-inspired songs and performed them in a stage production, with Sanders taking the role of narrator. WILDERNESS SONGS AND BAD MAN BALLADS is a ten-song collection, featuring three songs from the 2007 release, respectively, Fruit,
Frostbite Of The Soul and Zenas Carter, while Squaw and Rebecca Versailles hail from Tim’s 2008 album HOLDING UP THE WORLD. The foregoing songs, respectively, focus on
military madness, a shoemaker/preacher, an accident prone fool, a wayward Native American nurse, and, finally, the education of black people. Having defined the history of the foregoing handful of songs yields the deduction that WILDERNESS SONGS AND BAD MAN BALLADS contains five, thoroughly engaging, new ‘untamed frontier’ compositions. Well almost … as Law And Order first appeared earlier this year on BAREFOOT NELLIE the latest album by Bloomington, Indiana-based
country/bluegrass six-piece the White Lightning Boys. It’s the sonically rambunctious tale of lawmaker/usurper Jonathan Lynx, and features Grimm’s lead vocal. Another of the new songs, China, co-written by Tim and his wife Jan Lucas, was included in the most recent Wilderness Plots stage production. Introduced by what sounds like a pump organ (un-credited) a banjitar soon takes the lead, supported by Lucas’ harmonica and Jamey Reid’s drums, as the narrator, Robert Le Salle, relates his plan, nay dream, to navigate the Ohio River to the California coast, and thence to China and untold riches. So now you’re wondering how Le Salle fared? Salt And Bullets from Sanders (short) story of the same name recalls how entrepreneurial travelling salesman Joseph Vance, through unwavering personal endeavour, eventually became state governor. According to Grimm, Cover These Bones possesses more affinity with Bad Man Ballad than Wilderness Plots, while the ensuing Whippoorwill is a darkly-hued period piece that could have been drawn from either source. In terms of subject matter Cover These Bones relates how settlers from the east drove the native people from land that had been in their custody for centuries. Finally, the ‘untamed frontier’ is not new to Grimm. The front cover of the CD portrays, Tim Grimm—movie actor—in the role of Hank Drako
and was taken during the filming of Shaughnessy (1996) which in turn was based on the Louis L’Amour western novel The Iron Marshall. - Arthur Wood.
- Maverick Magazine (UK) / Arthur Wood - 4 1/2 stars


Discography

Wilderness Songs and Badman Ballads (2011)
Thank You Tom Paxton (2011)
Farm Songs (2009)
Holding Up The World (2008)
The Back Fields (2005)
Names (2004)
Coyote's Dream (2003)
Heart Land (2000)
Amber Waves (2000)

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Bio

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.

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. Grimm toured several times successfully in Europe. Especially in the Benelux countries they love his songs and story-telling.

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.

European contact: bert@cavalier-musicmanagement.com / Tel. +31 (0)251235420 - Bert de Ruiter