Plucky Guitarist Tim Reynolds

Rolling Into Ridgefield, Hartford

 

By John Voket

It’s no secret that virtuoso guitarist and so-called “sonic innovator” Tim Reynolds got his first gig plucking electric bass in his family’s church quartet.

But the plucky guitarist who is as well known for his long-time collaboration with Dave Matthews as he is for his own unique brand of playing also remembers how, as a young teenager, he had to move his bedroom into the basement just so he could pursue his love of playing “forbidden” rock and roll songs.

In a chat with The Newtown Bee ahead of two Connecticut appearances, December 1 at Hartford’s Arch Street Tavern and December 2 at the Ridgefield Playhouse, Reynolds recalled how one day when he was quietly staying from the church music and into some rock and roll licks, his father burst into his bedroom and threatened to cut all the strings off his first guitar.

He’s since made peace with his dad, who now apparently appreciates that his son’s talent has permitted Reynolds to thrill so many people around the world.

Reynolds moved to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2007 where he met bass player Mick Vaughn and drummer Dan Martier. After a few rehearsals and several stealth appearances later, Reynolds decided to resurrect TR3 — a band he first established in the late 1980s and early ‘90s — and they’ve been touring ever since.

The reactivated TR3 can pump out quite a repertoire of originals and eclectic covers from Led Zepplin’s “Kashmir,” to James Brown’s “Get Up (I Feel Like a Sex Machine)” to a power chord laced “Hocus Pocus” by Focus.

Reynolds was eager to chat with The Bee one recent afternoon by phone from his North Carolina home, and the conversation quickly turned to his newest project.

Newtown Bee: So you’re heading out on the road with TR3 to promote your new live album From Space and Beyond. Are any of the tracks brand new or written exclusively for this project?

Tim Reynolds: There are a couple of new songs on it, yeah. There’s one called “I Must Be Going Insane,” and another one “Belly of the Beast.” Those are new songs we’ve been playing. So we recorded the album in late 2009 on a tour, in November. The band had really started to gel and we just wanted to represent that, so we decided to record a few gigs — one in Chicago, one in Maryland, and one in Pennsylvania. And we just kind of culled a bunch of tunes from those three gigs. We took our time because at that time I was on the road a lot, so it took awhile to kind of go through that process. And there was no deadline, so there was no hurry.

Newtown Bee: Did you take out recording equipment to capture every show and these three were just the best, or did you say “We’re going to record Philly, Maryland and Chicago and find a record in there”?

TR: A little bit of both. We knew we were going to record at Space, the place in Chicago. They have recording facilities there and we played there a few times. That was the first gig of the tour, so we were a little bit — well, sometimes the first gig is the one you’re feeling like you’re just getting used to it, so maybe that wouldn’t be the best one. But sometimes the first one can have a lot of good stuff in it, it’s kind of exciting. So actually about half the tunes are from that gig. And there were even problems ... the drum head was broken and a couple of little things, so we thought maybe we’ll record this gig but we don’t know if we can use anything, but it turns out that gig had a lot of great energy. And the other two gigs, we brought out our own nice recording equipment. So over the course of three shows we got a lot of good stuff. And if there was a little mistake here and there, you live with that if the rest of the song’s good. We were psyched to get all that music. And it turned out like a live old school CD where you try to represent a typical show, taking the three nights and make a set. All three nights kind of had a similar arc of energy.

Newtown Bee: How does the TR3 on From Space and Beyond differ from the projects you produced as TR3 going back into the late 1980s?

TR: The earlier period stuff was when I was living in Charlottesville and the band at the time was based there. Over the course of a few years there were a few people who changed out over a few years. But then I moved to New Mexico, and I got more into playing solo gigs. And logistically, it was getting kind of frantic trying to hook up the band thing. I was really starting to focus on a lot of acoustic solo things and for about ten years I’d been playing solo, and electric things with a drum machine. But when I moved to the Outer Banks, I started playing with Mick and Dan, learned some old TR3 songs just to have some music to play that people might be familiar with. And we started thinking of names for a band, which is always kind of fun. But my agent and manager said, “Tim, you just ought to call it TR3, it’s a name that people know.” So since then it’s been kind of the same thing with these guys.

Read the full interview with Tim Reynolds at NewtownBee.com under the Features tab, and hear an exclusive audio clip from his interview where Reynolds discusses his favorite guitars.

For tickets to see TR3 at the Ridgefield Playhouse on December 2, visit RidgefieldPlayhouse.com. For details on the Hartford stop, go to ArchStreetTavern.com.