Friday, May 4, 2001
NorthJersey.com
www.NorthJersey.com
Dave Matthews' buddy prefers a slower pace
Friday, May 4, 2001
By JONATHAN CASTNER
Staff Writer
Guitar wizard Tim Reynolds is on the road again, somewhere between Ohio and West Virginia, touring with former Moon Boot Lover singer Peter Prince.
"I can't stand to be on the road," Reynolds says by cellphone. "I try to break it up a lot. This tour is six weeks long. I try to make it in two- to three-week hops."
Reynolds, who is promoting his new album "Nomadic Wavelength," which was released by TR Music last month, says his strict Pentecostal upbringing was the catalyst for his three decades of musical experimentation.
"My parents made me stand up in front of everyone at church at first when I was 2. I bolted. I cried. But I [sang and played the guitar] at church because I had to. But it was the music that drew me in."
On his own, Reynolds started performing at local high school parties, often drawing his influences from jazz and Sixties psychedelic rock.
Reynolds, who had been living in St. Louis with his parents, decided on a career in music. So, at 18, he moved to Charlottesville, Va., which Reynolds says was a haven for musicians experimenting in jazz and rock.
"It was a perfect place for musicians. There was no place to compete in. It was just a place to play. I played with jazz musicians like saxophonist Leroi Moore. I just did a lot of gigs with people I didn't know -- wedding gigs, jazz gigs, whatever."
With musicians he met from Charlottesville, Reynolds formed TR3. The band was Reynolds' creative vent from the outset.
"It was originally an excuse to play Bob Marley music. But I had my own music and wanted to play that. After that, I learned how to write solo guitar. The band was an outlet."
In the late 1980s, Reynolds met bartender and fledgling musician Dave Matthews, who was working at Miller's Coffeehouse, a club where TR3 usually performed. The duo discovered a similar interest in music, began performing together, and eventually collaborated on seven albums, most notably their duet, "Live at Luther College," in 1996.
Although the collaboration brought Reynolds more exposure, it did not change him as a musician, he says.
While the Dave Mathews Band routinely plays to sold-out stadiums, Reynolds is content to play the smaller clubs and says his music should be a little slower and introspective.
"I like something that moves me. I kind of get burnt on fast things," he said. "I try to play solo with music that sounds more like landscapes. It's easier to play music that makes you jump up and down than music that makes you think."
Reynolds says the tour with Peter Prince adds a new dimension to his shows.
"[Peter Prince] is a great singer. It's good to have an act with vocals. I just play instrumental music. Some artists try to do both and they do it really lamely. It's good to have people with a lot of different abilities."