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TIM
GARTLAND
MILLION STARS
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New Release From Triple-Threat Bluesman Tim
Gartland
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Tim
Gartland doesn't like to play loud.
He
likes to hear himself and the musicians around him, and wants his audience to be
able to take in the subtleties of the music, the lyrics, the tones. I suspect
he may even want them to be able to share a word of appreciation between his
well-penned verses. For a blues musician, particularly a harmonica player, this
is rare. Trust me on this, I know.
Singer/songwriter/harp
player Tim Gartland is a rare breed, indeed. After being bitten
by the blues bug at a Muddy Waters show as a young teenager in Ohio, he soon
found himself in Chicago, playing harmonica with the likes of Bo Diddley, Carey
Bell, Big Jack Johnson and Pinetop Perkins. Tim became increasingly interested
in songwriting, and began writing melodic songs with relevant lyrics and
elegant, funny turns of phrase.
Tim
moved to Boston in 1991, where he became a well-respected player in the
burgeoning Boston blues scene. He became a founding member, lead vocalist and
harmonica player for popular group The Porch Rockers, who released three CDs.
In 1998, he was a finalist in the Boston Blues Challenge. In 2011 Tim
wrote and published an instructional book entitled, "The Talking Harmonica,"
and launched a teaching career, becoming the first harmonica instructor at
the prestigious Winchester Community School.
Tim
embarked on his solo recording career with the 2011 release of the critically
acclaimed "Looking Into the Sun".
Tim
became a skilled harmonica player fairly quickly. And somewhere along the way,
he became a first-rate singer and songwriter with a supple baritone and a very
specific idea about how his songs should sound. On MILLION
STARS, Tim is surrounded with exactly the right musicians and
producer/engineer to bring his vision to life. Tim's organ/piano player and
songwriting partner, Tom West, has long been regarded as a key
player (pun unavoidable, sorry) on the Boston scene, gracing stages and
recordings with Susan Tedeschi, Peter Wolf, and many more.
Producer/engineer/guitarist Chris Rival has been the hands and
ears behing some of the best-sounding, most soulful recordings to come out of
the Boston area — including Paul Rishell and Annie Raines, Peter Wolf, Susan
Tedeschi and many more. Drummer Forrest Padgett (Charlie
Musselwhite) and bassist Paul Justice are well-respected
longtime staples on the scene.
One
of the first things to strike the listener about MILLION STARS
is the sonority of the performance and the production; nothing is
fighting for sonic space, the instruments and voice nestle comfortably together
so your feel like you're in the room with them, and glad to be there. The
players are all tasty and relaxed, which lets them cover a variety of grooves
and feels — mid-tempo shuffle, funky R&B, strutting "Exile on Main Street"
era Stones, driving down-tempo blues, haunting ballads — and bring them all
under the same umbrealla.
Then
you start absorbing the lyrics, which are real-world meaningful, funny, ironic
and clever. The bouncy opener "Let Me Keep the Dog" (also the first radio
single) puts the spoils of a broken relationship into perspective, while "Mess
Me Up" states "I could use some attention/from someone with bad intentions", and
the title track has the classic line, "If you'd just extract our head from your
behind / you'd see a million stars that can shine." "I Should Have Cared Less"
is a heartbreaking ballad worthy of an aritst like John Hiatt.
A
fine harp player, Gartland keeps it concise, then stretches out and nails it in
a few different harp positions when the song calls for it. He favors an
acoustic sounding, undistorted tone on most of the tracks, though he does
occasionally pay homage to his Chicago influences, particularly the intrumental
"Tippin' Time" and the straight ahead blues "I Can Add".
It
is my distinct pleasure to introduce you to Tim Gartland.
— Richard Rosenblatt, VizzTone label group/Vizzable
Music
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