Mid-May will mark the release of "HOLDING UP THE WORLD" on Vault Records in the US and Corazong in Europe. The disc will first be available at The Wildflower and Kerrville Festivals in May.

The cd, "Wilderness Plots"-- songs based on the book of the same title, by Scott Russell Sanders, is now available on cdbaby.
You can find more information about the project, which includes songs by Hoosier writers Krista Detor, Tim Grimm, Carrie Newcomer, Tom Roznowski and Michael White by going to:
www.myspace.com/wildernessplots.

"The Back Fields" was named Best Americana Album in the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards held last weekend in Los Angeles. Just Plain Folks is an organization of songwriters and people from all areas of the music business. It is the largest songwriting awards competition in the world. More than 25,000 albums were considered in 80 some categories/styles. To see the complete list of winners, and to learn more about Just Plain Folks, visit: www.jpfolks.org

When I was in my early teens, my parents built a house out in the country. The contractor, Lyman Monroe, worked with his sons on the framing and much of the finish work. My parents still live in that beautiful house, set in the woods on a small lake. My wife and boys and I live about 5 miles down the road.
As a birthday present this year, my Mother "contracted" Lyman to built me a guitar. He's slowed down his housebuilding operation, and loves in his "spare" time to work with his hands. He's made now, he thinks, a dozen guitars. I just picked it up yesterday.... Beautiful walnut back and sides and a neck shaped and hand-sanded to fit my grip. I can already feel his quiet resolve and deep intent on building this instrument designed to please my Mom and to bring me joy in the playing of it. Many of you will, in the future, be hearing it as well. It's now being finished at Jim Bennett's in Nineveh.... should have it back in my hands in a few weeks.... look for the "Lyman" on the headstock.

Hi Folks-

Nice news from the Just Plain Folks Music Awards in L.A. "Coyote's Dream" was runner-up to Doc Watson for Best Traditional Folk Album of 2004, and "Browning Mountain" was runner-up in Best Traditional Folk Song. "Better Days" had previously won Best Traditional Folk Song in 2002, and "Heart Land" was runner-up in Best Traditional Folk Album. Just Plain Folks is a grass-roots organization with many thousand members from all areas and genres of music. Their site is worth checking out--
www.jpfolks.org

Also, glad to report that "NAMES" has done very well in Folk and Americana radio.

"NAMES" was the #1 album on the Folk DJ chart for November, and "Pretty Boy Floyd" was the #2 song.
Also, I was very honored to earn the #1 Folk Artist spot in October and November (the only Artist to be #1
for 2 months in '04). Top Artist is based on total airplay from all recordings (not just the most recent). Other #1 artists this past year have included.... Greg Brown, Ricky Skaggs, Eliza Gilkyson, Bill Staines, The Roaches, Richard Shindell and Bob Dylan.... very honorable company. I am also pleased that all songs from "NAMES" have received airplay. The Folk DJ charts can be found at:
www.folkradio.org

In the Americana World, "NAMES" charted at #3 for the months of October and November in the
Freeform American Roots chart, and was named a Top 10 - Album of the year. Freeform American Roots is a collection of independent radio djs from around the world who play a variety of American-based roots music.
Compiled by John Conquest of 3rd Coast Music in TX, more can be found on their site:
www.accd/tcmn/far/

Spending a couple of lovely days on Vashon Island, WA. I've had a wonderful fall trip-- caught the last bit of color in my native hills as I was driving out.... drove through the mountain valleys in Colorado--golden yellow all along the rivers.... Off to Montana tomorrow....
VOTE.

Back from a wonderful trip out West. Spent a long weekend at the North American Folk Alliance conference in San Diego, then worked my way up the coast visiting old friends, making new ones, and playing music. Was also able to visit friend, Ramblin' Jack (Elliott) at his home in N. CA. We enjoyed an Arlo Guthrie family concert and had lunch with the Guthries. A good time had in Seattle-- great radio station there-- WBCS. Did a show with old Ann Arbor friend, Matt Price. Back home for a bit before heading East again... The new record, NAMES, is in final touches and we'll be releasing that in August.... or October. I'll be writing and compiling music for "The Grapes of Wrath" stageplay, to play in Indianapolis (Indiana Repertory Theatre) and Syracuse, NY (Syracuse Stage) in early 2005. I'll also perform much of the music live in those productions.
Hope to get on here a bit more often.
Best to you all-
Tim

Had a classic road trip with Ramblin' Jack this past fall. A wonderful adventure from Salt Lake City to Ann Arbor. We stopped at every truckstop along the way.....

The new cd, "NAMES" is almost all recorded. Each song title is a person's name, and none of the songs were written by me. Some tunes go as far back as the old, English Child Ballads ("Barbara Allen"- a duet with Carrie Newcomer) and several are by gifted contemporary writers like Robert Earl Keen & Gillian Welch. There will be 13 tracks and all of the many musicians on this project are, in a true sense, neighbors. This are of south-Central Indiana is rich with talented and colorful players ! More on this project later.
Projected release date is late Spring....

"Breathe with unconditioned breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate slowly. Live a three-dimensional life; stay away from screens."

Wendell Berry - poet, essayist, novelist, farmer, environmentalist
(his biography in the new poetry anthology edited by Garrison Keiller)

Now through August 24, the stageplay, "HANDLER" will run Thurs-Sun at The Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis.
Written by Robert Schenkkan, whose last play, "The Kentucky Cycle", won the Pulitzer Prize, "Handler" explores issues of faith, tolerance and forgiveness. The entire play is scored and accompanied by an onstage 3-piece Americana band headed by Jason Wilber (of The John Prine Band... also Iris Dement, Todd Snider, etc.). I had the pleasure of directing this play and encourage anyone out there to try and make a performance. I first encountered the piece a few years ago at The New Harmony Project theatre workshop. I was entranced with the power of the story and the will of the characters, and the amazingly theatrical setting. Also, of course I sensed the texture that a live band could bring to the play. This production is the Midwest premier.

The Phoenix Theatre
749 N. Park Ave- Indianapolis
Thursdays- 7:30 pm
Friday & Saturday- 8 pm
Sunday- 2 pm

through August 24
www.phoenixtheatre.org
317-635-PLAY

"Coyote's Dream" (album) hit the Freeform American Roots radio charts
at #1 for the month of March ! These are mainly roots/Americana
djs reporting. 112 djs/stations worldwide.

"Coyote's Dream" (album) was #3 on the Folk-Bluegrass dj radio chart
for March, and the title track was the #4 song. 134 worldwide djs reporting.

Aaahhhhh. The new cd, "Coyote's Dream", is finally here. We layed down the first tracks 19 months ago.. .I'm happy to bring it out into the world, and in so many ways I feel it is a true companion to "Heart Land". It could not have been completed without the help of so many.... I'm grateful.
Cd release concerts begin tonight in INDY and 2 nights next weekend in my home stomping grounds.

While I'm here-- may FAVORITE CD'S OF 2002:
Patty Griffin- 1000 Kisses
Carrie Newcomer- The Gathering of Spirits

The writing, production, voices and spirit of each of these recordings is beautiful.
I encourage anyone to find these and take a listen. I have. Again and again and again.
And, a cd I'm really looking forward to hearing (also from 2002):
Tom Pacheco- There Was A Time (on Appleseed)-- I've heard a couple of great cuts and think he's a kindred spirit (in some ways) as a songwriter- thematically.

Heart Land recently received an exceptional review in The Green Man Review (www.greenmanreview.com).
You can read it in it's entirety by clicking music reviews and then, singer-songwriters.
Briefly here,

"This is easily the best album I've heard all year. It's an album of beauty, an album of pain, and an album that filled me with wonder.... an album of which I am in awe." Craig Clarke, Green Man Review

Two months ago, Brent Porter passed away. I had met Brent just once, briefly. He had become a fan of my music through the stage play, "Amber Waves." He was a journeyman millwright who had married an actress, and they lived on Lake Lemon in south-central Indiana. He was 50 years old when he died. His wife, Marcia,
had contacted me in the early Spring, asking if I would play at his memorial. Well, Brent hung on for several more months until September... At the service, Marcia told a story of a recent trip they'd taken-- a cruise she
took him on while he was in remission. On the ship of course there was "entertainment", which included, one night, a "talent show". Brent, to the surprise of his wife signed up, and when it came his turn, he took a moment to thank "the farmers" and launched into "Amber Waves." He had written down the words, and Marcia said, knew most of the tune. She had never known him to get up in front of a group before and do anything like that. I thought of that song being sung by that man in the middle of the ocean, and I was grateful that I had been able in some small way to touch his life.
"...I will give you all that I know-- there are some things in our blood and in our bones...
And we will walk, where there are no streets-- where the sky and the valley meet--
these Amber Waves... oh, oh these Amber Waves."

Sometime last winter, I played a show in Ft. Atkinson, WI, at The Cafe Carpe. It was a small, attentive group listening, and when we finished for the evening, someone handing me a note written during the set. In the note, I was thanked for my songs (particularly "Better Days" and "80 acres") and their message, and told of the author, David Grayson, and how much my lyrics embodied his sensibilities in "Adventures in Contentment" (written in the early 1900's). I finally came upon a copy of that book-- coincidently signed by it's first owner/reader on Sept. 27-- the day of my birth. I have since read other David Grayson books and marvel at the simplicity of those times in which he wrote. I'm presently reading his "Adventures in Friendship"...

"Do you know, the more I look into life, the more things it seems to me that I can successfully lack-- and continue to grow happier..... I like to think of an old Japanese nobleman I once read about, who ornamented his house with a single vase at a time, living with it, absorbing it's message of beauty, and when he tired of it, replacing it with another. I wonder if he had the right way, and we, with so many objects to hang on our walls, place on our shelves, drape on our chairs, and spread on our floors, have mistaken our course and placed our hearts upon the multiplicity rather than the quality of our possessions!
David Grayson, 1910.

A wonderful evening in Bloomington (IN) last night. Carrie Newcomer held her cd release concert at The Buskirk-Chumley Theatre to an enthusiastic full house. I did an opening set, and then enjoyed hearing many of Carrie's new tunes. Favorites (of mine) on the album include the beautiful title track, "The Gathering of Spirits" (with Allison Krauss) and, "I'll Go Too"....I'll concede here a truly positive function of the internet-- after you've read this, you can go directly to another site (in this case Carrie's) and take a look and give a listen--(www.CarrieNewcomer.com). I also had the opportunity to meet Scott Russell Sanders, an admired Hoosier author, who introduced Carrie. His books (I'm most familiar with "Writing From The Center", and "Staying Put") are worth seeking out. Scott and I look forward to getting to know one another better.
Wendell Berry's name came up, and I was reminded of a quote of his that jumped off the page at me not too long ago (from the recently released "The Art of the COMMON PLACE: The Agrarian Essays"):

"We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world, will be good for us. And that requires that we make an effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in the processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it."
from "A Native Hill" WENDELL BERRY

I want to let everyone know about a new cd just released: "STILL STANDIN'" by The Clodhoppers. Another homegrown project from here in the heartland of south-central Indiana, on Vault Records. It's a fine, very listenable, acoustic recording that I'm proud to say I had a part of (as Producer). We'll soon have a direct link from this site. In the meantime, check www.cdbaby.com/clodhoppers.

Reviews from Heather McDonald's "AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE" (The Miniature Theatre of Chester, August 2002)

"The performance of Samuel by Tim Grimm represents a quiet miracle...By the end, Grimm enables us to feel something we can neither see nor hear, the intervention into Samuel's life of an amazing grace."
THE BOSTON GLOBE

"What sustains McDonald's play is Grimm's remarkably crafted performance...Grimm's work is as eloquent and graceful in it's physicality as it is in the shifting emotional tones and textures that shape his narrative."
THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

From western MASS. Enjoying the natural beauty of this part of the country. Small farms and markets, gravel roads and so much acoustic music-- folk, bluegrass, etc. to be heard- live and over the airwaves. I'm doing live on-air interviews & songs in New London, CT and Amherst, MA. this week.

HEART LAND is getting significant airplay on folk shows around the country. Tim Grimm was #6 in the Top Artists of July 2002 for Folk Radio airplay. HEART LAND was the 8th most played album, and BETTER DAYS was the #8 song.
Wherever you live, if you enjoy a radio program of folk music, be sure to request tracks from the cd. If the dj/programmer does not have a copy, they may contact us here and we'll be more than happy to get them one !

Many of you have asked about the status on the new recording. Well, it is finished, mixed and mastered and the artwork is virtually complete. Many of the HEART LAND musicians are on this disc as well. I've also enlisted some fine guests, including Stacey Earle, and Greg Cahill of Special Consensus, and my old pals Ramblin' Jack Elliott and mandolin virtuoso,
Don Stiernberg. We're exploring a few release options and WILL keep you posted !

Hey Folks- Wanted to let you know that I'm going to be in the Berkshires for the next several weeks rehearsing and then performing Heather McDonald's one-man play, "An Almost Holy Picture". I've had the pleasure of doing extended runs of this piece in Baltimore and Indianapolis. It's truly one of the highlights of my work as an actor, and I've had more people engage me in conversation about this play, than anything I've ever worked on.
A deep, touching and occasionally amusing journey of faith, loss, love, ritual and reconciliation. If any of you are in the vicinity-- check it out. It's The Minature Theatre of Chester (Mass)-- the play runs Aug. 8- 24.