Tonglen Tunes: Tim Easton
August 13, 2023 @ 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Returning to Tonglen Lake as a local favorite:
American songwriter Tim Easton was born on the Canadian border in upstate New York and spent his formative years living in Tokyo, Japan and Akron, Ohio. Traveling early and often, he learned the ways of the road and rails and spent 7 years as a bonafide troubadour, making his way around Europe, playing the streets and clubs, living in Paris, London, Madrid, Prague, Dublin, and wherever he laid his hat. It was this period of time when he developed his songwriting style – folk based storytelling and personal traveling tales, often peppered with bold confessions or “tell it as it is” reality. Rolling Stone Magazine praised him as “having a novelist’s sense of humanity.”
Returning to his roots in North America, moving to New York City and then Los Angeles, he signed with New West Records and released five critically acclaimed solo albums starting with 2001’s “The Truth About Us,” which featured three fourths of WILCO as the backing band. Invitations to be a support act from mentors Lucinda Williams and John Hiatt arrived. Easton settled in the burgeoning art and music scene of Joshua Tree, California between worldwide tours. After becoming a Father and re-locating to Nashville, Easton recorded an album for THIRTY TIGERS (“NOT COOL” 2013), which accented the stripped down Memphis & Sun Studios sound of the Tennessee Three. His next album 2016’s “AMERICAN FORK,” was a grand departure from his previous efforts, featuring a fully flushed out backing band with elaborate songs arrangements. Next came “Paco & The Melodic Polaroids,” a stripped down, direct to lacquer LP of love songs to his beloved Gibson J-45 named “Paco.” That was followed up with 2020’s full band recording “You Don’t Really Know Me,” beginning a new relationship with Oklahoma based Black Mesa Records, which will re-release “Not Cool” and Easton’s solo debut “Special 20” on vinyl in 2023. In between composing songs for his next original album and the re-issue projects to be released, a twenty song interim project called “NORTH AMERICAN SONGWRITER” will arrive early in 2023. This double LP–the first two volumes in a series–will feature acoustic recordings of favorite songs from his vast catalog of original material. Worldwide tour dates are a constant addition to the Tour page of TimEaston.com.
Easton reached the milestone of having 100 Published original songs which he celebrated by releasing 100 solo performance videos on 100 consecutive days, all posted on his personal YouTube channel.
He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.