Tim Reynolds’ endless tour arrives in Hermosa Beach
Tim Reynolds plays Saint Rocke Nov. 2. Photo courtesy TR3
by Whitney Youngs
Born in Germany, guitarist Tim Reynolds lived out his formative years in a religiously conservative household in the Missourian city of St. Louis. His foray into guitar playing represented a musical revolution in his own bedroom.
“[The conservative upbringing] made me a rebellious player,” Reynolds said.
While on tour in the late-1970s, Reynolds met a girl and grew fond of the Virginian landscape, eventually leaving the Midwest and moving to the college town, Charlottesville. He founded the trio, TR3, in 1984, and also played a solo show every Monday night at Miller’s, where guitarist and singer Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) was working as a bartender.
“I have some great memories tied to Charlottesville. It’s where I learned how to play jazz,” Reynolds recalled. “Every place you live, you kind of get a from-the-ground-up education of what it’s like to be there. You get different insights; it’s hard to explain how that is, but it’s just the channel of learning. Life experiences in different places have different things to offer. ”
Charlottesville became the locale where Reynolds and Matthews established a longtime musical relationship that has spanned decades, countless live shows as a duo and in the context of DMB and numerous live and studio recordings. Reynolds said that he and Matthews share a similar philosophy on the seemingly endless lifespan of songs and how they are performed live.
“You can play a song you’ve known for 20 years, but sometimes when you get out in front of an audience, there is a different enough vibe that the music comes out differently,” Reynolds said. “That’s what he [Matthews] lives for as a live musician. The goal is to be informed by the different places you play, and if you are trying to be sensitive to that, it does kind of inform the music.”
Touring the western United States, Reynolds nurtured an obsession with New Mexico, relocating to Santa Fe for 10 years, where he concentrated on his solo career. He now lives in the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina, where he has lived for nine years. He revived his Charlottesville trio, TR3, with two new members, drummer Dan Martier and bassist Mick Vaughn.
“We started a new chapter of TR3, which has now been going on for almost 10 years,” Reynolds said. “It’s the longest singular running of this trio’s personnel.”
TR3 recorded its most recent album, “Like Some Kind of Alien Invasion,” over two years at a local studio, Swampworks. Reynolds sings on the album, and of course, plays guitar, either displaying the full range of the instrument or only one aspect of it. Reynolds is a master of both minimalist and expansive styles, using the time and space of a song to express both extremes. Reynolds, who was in a car accident in the early 1980s that resulted in the severing of his left vocal cord, sings with a raspy cadence reminiscent of Tom Waits.
“I used to play violin for a while, and I feel like it’s one of my favorite instruments — I’m infatuated with string quartets,” Reynolds said. “The guitar is my perfected voice, whereas my singing is the challenging voice. I’m very inspired by singers, I don’t consider myself a real singer, but I like to sing. It feels like you’re sharing a true experience or whatever [laughs] as much as possible without being cynical.”
TR3 plays at 8 p.m., Nov. 2, at Saint Rocke, 142 Pacific Coast Highway, Hermosa Beach, (310) 372-0035. www.saintrocke.com.