Where: The Grey Eagle in Asheville (828.232.5800)
When: Friday, July 20, at 9 p.m.
How much: $18

Life would be amiss without wallpaper.

Sure, it’s never a focal point, yet it is the mood foundation. A barren landscape can plant seeds of the mundane. Cocktail parties would become anxious and offices would be become hubs of non-creativity.
The same can be said about “musical wallpapers,” the gals and guys in the back that make the bandleader look like the immaculate composer. Would Bruce Springsteen be the man without the E Street Band? Or would Duke Ellington’s genius have been fully recognized without behind-the-scenes stalwarts like Billy Strayhorn?

A recent example of this phenomenon can be found in Alison Kraus’ powerhouse band, Union Station. It’s given that Kraus is a mercurial talent and her band members ooze of the same desire for otherworldly picking. Alison’s guitarist, Dan Tyminski, has chosen the background status, but his octopi talents (i.e. multi-instrumentalist, harmony and lead singer) has propelled him into a (sometimes) reluctant spotlight.

Many of you (bluegrass freaks excluded) probably still don’t know who Tyminski is. I’ll bet my whole bluegrass collection that you do. Remember the movie, “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?” George Clooney’s voice seems to sprout gold during the rendition of “Man of Constant Sorrow.” The real culprit was none other than Mr. Tyminski, who loaned his voice to the soundtrack. Of course ,that’s the way he likes it. The lofty throne of a front man is something Tyminski does not thirst for, but there’s been so much hoopla regarding the singer (thanks to the movie and his solo album, “Carry Me Across the Mountain”) that he’s going on a mini solo tour. Don’t fret, Union Station fans, Tyminski has no inclinations of giving up his “dream job.”

“Front man is definitely not my first choice,” said Tyminski in a recent interview from his home in Virginia. “But I feel great with the people I have up there with me. I don’t feel alone by any sense of the word. There’s a lot more work being the bandleader. I’m just so happy what I do with Alison. To me that’s my perfect setting, so that’s why I’m a little tentative with the whole frontman thing. I try to suck it up as best I can and go out there and do them.”

Poor guy, but I guess that’s what happens when your talent drips off the strings and latches onto the hearts of the growing faithful. The initial 10,000 copy pressing of “Carry Me Across the Mountain” (Doobie Shea Records) sold out by advance order before its official release last June, and Dan was floored by the reception he got when he did a solo showcase at last October’s International Bluegrass Music Association showcase.

The album speaks volumes about the musician. Union Station bandmates showed up for the recording (check out his smoldering duet with Kraus on the title track), as well as members of his old outfit, The Lonesome River Band. It fits snug in the bluegrass genre and even staunch traditionalists will have trouble keeping the tap foot still.

“It seemed like the right time,” Tyminski recalls. “I had a good relationship with Tim Austin [Lonesome River Band] and everything worked out. I didn’t have any big goals. I wanted to do an album that I liked. I went into it pretty selfishly. I wanted to record music with people I thought suited the songs best, and folks that were my friends and heroes.”

One thing that didn’t suit Dan was the prospect of maybe being called a taskmaster.

“My situation was that I had the final say, but everyone threw in their own ideas. To say that I cracked a whip pretty hard would be ridiculous. I was in there to have fun, and I made sure that everyone was feeling good while they were playing. I’m as much a front man or boss man as nothing [laughs].”

Tyminski’s birthplace — Vermont — is not exactly a hub for cultivating the hums and strums of bluegrass. However, his parents, and older brother, Stan, were hard-core fans of the sounds of Appalachia.

“I couldn’t be where I am without supportive parents,” Tyminski said. “There was not a lot of bluegrass where I lived. I was very fortunate that my parents loved the music and would travel a 4- or 5-hour radius around my house.”

A 13-year-old Tyminski found he had a third appendage in the banjo. He would hermitize himself in his room, learning the machinations of the complicated instrument. His older brother, Stan (who does a duet with Dan on “Carry Me Across,” titled, “I Dreamed of an Old Love Affair”), was a catalyst in the learning curve. He gave his younger brother a five-year music lesson by allowing Dan to play in his band, Green Mountain Bluegrass.

“Stan was probably my earliest inspiration. He was 12 years my senior and I idolized him. He was the big guy. In his own right, he is as talented a singer as I’ll ever be.”

Lonesome River Band’s Tim Austin knew a talent when he saw one. Tyminski plucked the banjo like a veteran, and Austin needed someone who was versatile on the strings. At the time, Dan had horseblinders only for the banjo. Austin threw these shades to the side, informing Tyminski that he would be playing the mandolin (an instrument Dan actually learned before the banjo) if he joined LRB.
This was a first in a series of lessons Dan would have to learn about life. Everyone knows things never go according to plan, and Dan was no exception. However, he credits Austin for opening up a jungle path he hadn’t dared explore before.

“I couldn’t be where I am right now without (Tim). He is the first guy that I ever hung around that made me think about the foundation and rhythm section of a song. I was not that interested in rhythm when I met Tim. In the early years with LRB, I spent alot of time concentrating on rhythm sections of songs.

Gigs were tough at first, and Tyminski had to take on part-time jobs to survive. Then came Sammy Shelor (banjo) and Ronnie Bowman (vocal). The addition would trampoline LRB to the apex of bluegrass, and their reputation was solidified with the release of the now classic album, “Carrying the Tradition.”

Tyminski, however, was growing restless. He was happy with the success, but LRB wasn’t exactly the band he fore saw himself being with. Dan had gotten to know Alison Kraus during this time, and her Union Station band’s versatility — the rhythm section, Alison’s singing — appealed to him on every level.

“(Alison has) more talent than any one person should have,” said Tyminski. “Her talents really go far beyond what I think the general audience would ever be able to pick up on. She has an amazing ear for finding and arranging songs. She’s just a generous and kind soul. She’s on my ‘A’ list as far as people go.”

When Tim Stafford quit Union Station, Tyminski left LRB and joined AKUS for a smidgen of time. However, the guilt of leaving his first band gnawed away at the musician and he soon rejoined Tim Austin and company. Like a waffle fresh out of the griddle, Dan began to think that he had once again made a mistake by not staying with AKUS.

“I mean we had a stellar band in LRB back then,” he told Bluegrass Unlimited’s Bob Allen. “But AKUS at that time — boy! When I listened to that stuff, I felt it burn inside of me! That was ultimately what made the decision for me. I felt that I would be the happiest there. And lo and behold, here I be!”

His new gig with with AKUS demanded yet another 180 from what he was used to playing. He was now required to play guitar, although he had nary a six string in his possession. He learned that the guitar was a much harder instrument than the mandolin, but he took it as another of life’s ladders and he soon was laying the molten picking with the rest of Union Station. He is still a full-time member and calls his 65 gigs a year with AKUS a “dream job.”

“I think pretty much that we get to play a broad enough spectrum of music that we stay content,” said Tyminski. “I grew up with very straight-ahead traditional bluegrass. I had my margins way in.
Anything outside of traditional bluegrass, I didn’t really do. The things I think that are so cool about Alison’s band is that we get to play some bluegrass music (which I love) and some other styles, which I’m extremely fond of. Alison is so popular, and the attendances at the shows are always good. We love each other as people. We all know our place and we’re really comfortable there.”

The glow of Tinseltown lit into Tyminski last year. Stellar moviemakers, the Coen Brothers, called Dan to see if he wanted to lend his voice to their new movie, “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou.” The movie is set in 1930s Mississippi and is based on Homer’s “The Odyssey.” The Coens wanted authentic music from that era, and the song, “Man of Constant Sorrow,” was the tune Tyminski would sing (with actor George Clooney providing thespian lip-sync).

The Coen Brothers, Tyminski revealed, were professional in every way. They treated everyone with the utmost respect, and the music mattered just as much as the filmmaking.

“(Working on ‘Oh, Brother’ was as) easy as I could ever dreamed it could be. (The Coens) were totally into the music. They had this air of excitement just waiting to see what would come out. A lot of people were nervous going in because the Coens are held in such high regard. They were so easy to be around. There was no one standing around with a clipboard and an agenda. They wanted everyone to arrive at that place when it was right for them.”

Tyminski was also floored by the authenticity that the Coens put towards making the music congruous to the 1930s.

“Hats off to the way they recorded the soundtrack,” said Tyminski. “It’s as organic as you would probably hear again. Since the movie was set in the ‘30s, they tried in every way imaginable what it would have sounded like in that era — with no headphones, they had ribbon mics they had in the ‘30s, recorded tape with no overdubs, and all the instruments we played were actually from that time period.”

The end result has been over 1.5 million in record sales of “Oh, Brother,” as well as a tidal wave of folks wanting to soak in every orifice of bluegrass music.

“I know a lot of people coming out to my solo shows that I can’t imagine would have come out if it wasn’t for the movie,” said Tyminski. “One guy came up with his 12-year-old brother and said, ‘this kid is a die-hard rocker, except for the soundtrack, which he plays all day, everyday.”

Dan Tyminski may think he’s just a floral pattern on the great scheme of things, but a lot of folks are looking past the obvious and pilfering glimpses of his blossoming talent. He came by this destiny without his personal pen to write it. He didn’t necessarily find his dream; it was more like the dream found him. I don’t think a complaint has been issued.

“Listen to things out of the normal confines of your music,” he advises, “because there’s inspiration in it. Even though you may think a certain style doesn’t fit you, there’s knowledge there. I wish I had had broader musical views growing up, because I found the more I let other forms in, the more inner music I had in myself. Stubborn to change is fine, but remember there are little treasures out there in every form of music.”

 

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