Tim Easton @ Jammin' Java

Tim Easton
Jammin' Java, Vienna, Va.
July 1, 2005

Discovering a great musician none of your friends know about is one of the treasures of fandom. Aside from feeling like you're the only one to make this find, you get an extra-cool feeling when you share it with others. Sometimes the secret is too good to keep, even for a little while. That's why for the past few years I've been talking up Tim Easton to just about anybody who would listen.

Unfortunately, the word doesn't seem to be getting around. Easton played to an appreciative crowd of fewer than 75 on Friday night at Jammin' Java, a small club but one that comfortably holds at least twice that number.

So I'll give it another shot.

The small group in on the secret was treated to a set of well-written, well-played and well-sung songs deserving more than critical acclaim. You can go to many little clubs and hear guys and gals with guitars and harmonicas banging out their three-minute slices of life. When it's done by a skilled crafter, there's a discernable difference. One is IKEA � functional, even attractive. The other is old-world workmanship � built to last. If Easton's music was a Queen Anne table, your great-grandchildren would still be using it.

Maybe Easton isn't better known because of his gentle, unassuming demeanor. His light show was a candle attached to the mic stand. There was no entourage. There was no pretension. He strapped on his road-worn Gibson acoustic, greeted the crowd with the simple introduction "My name is Tim, and I'm a songwriter," and began gently fingerpicking an unreleased song titled "Next to You."

Part of Easton's appeal is his mastery of the trade. He's been paying his dues for years, busking in Europe and traveling around the States, all the while communing with the ancient voices on the lost highway. The road has made Easton skilled in many American song forms, including country, folk, rock and country blues. He has a pleasant, husky voice that sounds like a less nasal John Prine. He's a good guitarist with his fingers or a pick, and clearly has learned the value of getting a song across with a minimum of instruments and fanfare. I've heard some of these songs live before, but they seem to have subtle embellishments or slightly more complex picking patterns each time. More mileage is gained from the sparse instrumentation by tapping the top of the guitar, or whistling into the harmonica as he did on "Next to You."

A little more than half of the show was composed of Easton's recorded work. From his latest album, 2003's "Break Your Mother's Heart," he played "Poor, Poor L.A.," "Man That You Need," "Lexington Jail," and "True Ways." "Lexington," a rambling tune in which the protagonist "went to see some friends down Kentucky way; spent the night getting sober in the Lexington jail," went over particularly well.

Easton performed "Carry Me" and "Don't Walk Alone" from 2001's "The Truth About Us." That album was made more or less with Wilco minus Jeff Tweedy. That the songs translate so well without the extra texture is a testament to the strength of the lyrics and melody.

From his debut, 1999's "Special 20," Easton brought out the title track and "All The Pretty Girls Leave Town."

He even reached back to his 2000 EP for its title track, the bluesy "They Will Bury You," and to his brief stint fronting Ohio roots-rockers The Haynes Boys in the mid-'90s for "Bitters Past."

The real highlight of the show was the new material. Aside from "Next to You," there was the somber, pleading "Back to the Pain"; "Dear Old Song and Dance," which celebrates a (presumably fictitious) victory over a grocery list of drugs and was appropriately written in Amsterdam; the strummy "O, People," which was inspired by seeing a celebrity-fronted band in Hollywood (though Easton declined to name names); and the urgent "News Fast Blues," which channels a bit of early Bob Dylan, targets a smooth, fast talker ("I could tell he was lying, because his lips were still moving") and ends up with the TV and the newspaper in the trash.

As further proof that Easton earned his degree in troubadour school, he paid tribute to a long tradition with his "gentle murder ballad" titled "Baltimore." Getting into the mind of a thrill killer wreaking havoc up and down I-95 is no easy task, but Easton handles it with aplomb. I've heard this song three times, done in a different way each time, and each has captured my imagination with the grit of a Jim Thompson novel. (New West Records, if you are reading this, I beg of you: Get this song on his next album and get it on XM or maybe even a Paste magazine sampler. It will sell. It also will make my wife stop frothing at the mouth and asking me when Tim Easton is going to put out "Baltimore").

Speaking of the new music, Easton indicated that he's hoping to release his next album in early 2006. In the meantime, you can go to timeaston.com and myspace.com/timeaston to hear mp3s of "Next to You," "News Fast Blues," and "Dear Old Song and Dance," among others.

I don't want to be bragging and showing off my old Tim Easton discs someday when there's a fancy reissue on Rhino Handmade or Bear Family or some other designer label that sheds light on deserving artists after their time. It's shame enough that talents such as Nick Drake and Judee Sills didn't get appropriate notice in their lifetimes. There's an accomplished artist in our midst, waiting to be discovered by the masses. Get in on the ground floor, people, and you can impart the aura of coolness on your peers when you show them the secret handshake.

If Easton is coming to your town, go check him out. If not, get yourself online or to a record store. Next time he's in northern Virginia, I'd like to see more of you out there. It would be even cooler if tickets were hard to get. My work would be done. Otherwise, too busy or not, I'll have to join the street team.

Setlist
1. Next To You
2. Poor, Poor L.A.
3. Special 20
4. (My apologies to HickoryWind readers. I approached Easton after the show to firm up the setlist but forgot to get the title of this one. It was a new song, and my only note on my pad was the intriguing line "She came all the way to California, just to watch me fail.")
5. Man That You Need
6. Lexington Jail
7. Back to the Pain
8. News Fast Blues
9. Dear Old Song and Dance
10. Bitters Past
11. Baltimore
12. They Will Bury You
13. All The Pretty Girls Leave Town
14. True Ways
15. O, People
16. Carry Me
Encore
17. Don't Walk Alone