If
you were not fortunate enough to have caught a show by the Nashville-based
group Crucial Smith during its fifteen-year run, flatpicking guitarist
Tim May has probably managed to fly under your flatpicking radar.
If that is the case, then get ready for him to pop up on your screen
and be added to your list of favorite flatpickers because he is
starting to fly high. While Crucial Smith was active Tim turned
down a number of high profile touring and recording opportunities
because he wanted to focus on the band. When word got out in Nashville
that the band had dissolved, the offers came pouring in and Tim
has been a very busy flatpicker.
In
the past couple of years he has toured with Patty Loveless, played
on an all-star-cast Rounder project called Moody Bluegrass: A Nashville
Tribute to he Moody Blues 
and
recorded a bluegrass gospel project with Charlie Daniels. Additionally,
FGM Records is getting ready to release Tim’s new solo CD
and he is featured in a new FGM Records concert DVD with Brad Davis
and Cody Kilby.
If
you own the Flatpicking Favorites: Hot and Spicy CD and have listened
to Cody Kilby and Tim May tear up “Lonesome Fiddle Blues,”
you’ll know why Tim is now getting called to play so many
prominent gigs in Nashville. As they say here in southwest Virginia,
“The boy can pick!”
If you have listened to Crucial Smith’s music, either live
or on CD, you may have assumed, like I did, that Tim grew up listening
to and playing rock music as well as bluegrass and country. In the
realm of bluegrass, the band was pretty progressive. When I sat
down with Tim to conduct the nterview for this article, I found
out that this was not the case. Tim May grew up in Mississippi playing
the banjo in a family bluegrass band. Tim’s grandfather loved
bluegrass and owned Bill Monroe records. His older brother, three
years his senior, began learning how to play the banjo and guitar,
but when he turned his full attention towards the guitar, Tim bought
is brother’s banjo from him. Tim dove into learning how to
play the banjo and a short time later the May family—with
older brother Ben on guitar, Tim on banjo, Dad on vocals, and younger
brother Riley on bass—formed a band. While Tim continued to
play the banjo with the family band, he said, “I heard Tony
Rice and Dan Crary playing the guitar and I had to learn how to
do that!”
When asked about learning how to flatpick, Tim said, “I’ve
got to be one of the last guys that completely learned how to flatpick
by slowing down records. Back then I would desperately try to find
some kind of tab, but I couldn’t find anything. Dan Crary
was a really big influence, so I would find Dan Crary records and
Tony Rice records, slow them down and try to learn what they were
doing. I also listened to Mark O’Connor later, when I was
in college, and that was an eye-opening thing. People think now
that since Pat Flynn has been such a big influence that I had done
the same thing with him. I tried, but I couldn’t figure out
what he was doing. I mean, I would listen to that stuff, but he
was so unique, I didn’t get it. Now I can see it, but back
when I was learning how to flatpick, my brain could not wrap around
what Pat Flynn was doing. So before I met Pat he wasn’t much
of an influence because I couldn’t figure it out.”
Although he developed some flatpicking skills and built up a repertoire
by slowing down recordings and figuring out what the professional
players were doing, Tim says that he felt as if he was not progressing
at an adequate pace because he could not improvise. He says, “For
ten years I felt as if I was going nowhere. In Mississippi there
was absolutely no one to show me what was going on. If I wanted
to play music with people, other than my brother, I had to teach
them how to play in order to have someone to pick with. And I found
out later, I was doing it all wrong!”
When asked to clarify “doing it wrong,” Tim said, “I
was playing the notes like I heard them on the records, but my picking
was way off. For instance, I felt that if you hit the G-string with
a down stroke that you were not supposed to hit the D-string with
an upstroke. It seemed odd to me and I thought, ‘Well, surely
they are not doing that.’ So I would start a solo on an upstroke.
It wasn’t until I got to college and met a guy named Dave
LaRouche, who showed me what was going on, that I started to straighten
out my pick direction. I said, ‘I didn’t know you were
supposed to do that!’ I felt like there were about ten years
early on where I gained what I should have gotten in two. The only
shining light is that in learning how to play in isolation like
that I developed my own thing more. It was so aggravating trying
to find stuff that I just started jamming and coming up with my
own stuff. My brother was the same way; we were kind of operating
in the dark.”
While he was still in high school Tim heard a guitar player named
Kent Wells who was playing in the band Time of Day at Harding University
in Arkansas. Tim was interested in attending the college and the
band recruited for the school by playing gigs at various high schools
and then talking to the students about attending Harding. Tim’s
goal was to audition for the band when he was ready to go to college,
so he bought the band’s album. Tim said, “I listened
to their album and there was this flatpicking monster on there!
I said to myself, ‘The competition is just out of control!
Is this the way it is in every small college in America?’
The guy [Kent Wells] was incredible. His playing on the album pushed
me. If he had been a lesser guitar player, I know that I would have
said, ‘Well, I can do that,’ and it wouldn’t have
pushed me as much. But since I wanted to be in that band, I thought
I needed to be at least as good as he was, so I worked hard at it.
At the time, I had no idea how exceptional he really was. But it
was good for me.”
Tim did not end up going to Harding, but he did follow his dream
of playing in a college recruitment band by auditioning for and
getting a spot in a band called Wind Song at David Lipscomb College
in Nashville. Regarding the decision to try out for the band at
Lipscomb instead of Harding, Tim recalled, “I knew that I
wanted to end up in Nashville and play music anyway, so it made
sense to try out for the Lipscomb band.” When asked about
the band’s function, Tim said, “What those bands did
was go out and play at high schools and recruit for the college.
It was a Christian college, so we mostly played at Christian schools.
We would play for kids and say, ‘We are David Lipscomb, come
to school here.’” For Tim, the attraction of playing
in this kind of band was that the school paid each band member’s
tuition. When asked about the band’s repertoire, Tim said,
“At that time (mid-1980s) country music was not very popular.
It was out. So we would play a little bluegrass set and some country,
but mostly it was pop and rock. It was a completely different musical
format then you would have had even a couple of years after I graduated.
Country hit big after I left.”
Tim looks back at the experience playing with Wind Song favorably.
He says, “It was a good experience because it introduced me
to playing some different styles that I absolutely would not have
approached in a million years otherwise. The guys in the band were
electric players and were more schooled than I was, so they could
show me what to do and guide me on the pop and rock stuff. It introduced
me to pop culture and let me know what people were listening to
outside of bluegrass. Previous to college I had never trained myself
as anything but a bluegrass player.”
Tim continued, “Kyle Wood played electric guitar in the band
and he was a big Randy Rhoades fan. I listened to that stuff and
I became a fan too. If you grow up and you don’t listen to
that stuff you don’t think of guys like Ozzy Osbourne being
legitimate musicians, you just think of them as crazy rockers. You
don’t realize the musicianship of people like Randy Rhoades
or Eddie Van Halen. I began to discover that in college. They are
some of the greatest guitar players that the world has seen. Kyle
would get me in a room and say, ‘You’ve got to listen
to this!’ He’d hold me hostage and take my musical education
out of Mississippi. But then I’d declare a ‘Flatt &
Scruggs night’ and I’d force Kyle and Dave to sit in
a room and listen to Flatt & Scruggs at Carnegie Hall.”
[laughs]
Kyle Wood had grown up playing rock and roll music and had never
really listened to bluegrass. When Tim invited him into the world
of bluegrass Kyle was amazed that someone could play a guitar non-stop
in the flatpick style. “He was astounded at that,” Tim
said. Although he had spent his whole life playing electric guitar,
one day Kyle told Tim, “I’m going to get a mandolin.”
Tim said, “He went home over Christmas break one year and
came back playing all of these fiddle tunes on mandolin. He had
never played mandolin before. That is where it all started.”
It was during those college years that Tim says he made a great
leap forward in his ability to improvise. Today Tim is a great improvisational
player, but he said that it wasn’t until he got to college
that he began to learn how to improvise. When asked how he accomplished
that, Tim said, “Basically Kyle and I jammed three to six
hours a day for six years. I tell people all the time, ‘You
can sit around talking about improvising all day long, but if you
can get somebody to sit in a straight back chair across from you
and just wail on it—don’t worry about it, and just see
what comes flying out—that is the way to do it.’ If
you go to France and you want to learn the language, you start speaking
French. You don’t break into English. You do it and screw
it up until you eventually get it. I think if you explore the guitar
for just massive amounts of time, you also develop your own style.
Even though I loved Tony Rice and Dan Crary, I basically stopped
trying to figure out what they were doing. By the time I was in
college I stopped learning other people’s solos. I would listen
to them because I loved their music, but I stopped pursuing their
styles.”
While he was in college, in addition to playing with Wind Song,
Tim also played the banjo with country star Eddie Rabbitt. Tim recalls,
“He had this song out called ‘Tennessee Born and Bred’
and he wanted me to play the banjo part as it was played on the
recording. I told his manager, the guy who hired us, that I could
handle it. The manager said, ‘It was Bela Fleck on the record.’
But I still thought, ‘How hard can it be? It’s on an
Eddie Rabbitt album.’ It turns out that while they were in
the studio Eddie told Bela to play the craziest thing that he could
think of. He told Bela that! So it is this crazy banjo lick that
is like the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life! It was
the kind of thing where the band stops and there is this banjo thing.
To this day I still don’t know how Bela really did it, but
I figured out my own way of doing it.” Tim’s Wind Song
bandmate, Kyle Wood, was also in the Eddie Rabbitt band on mandolin.
Although Tim and Kyle were busy playing in two bands while attending
college at Lipscomb, they also had plans of forming their own band
and, working towards that goal, had recorded a demo. Kyle and Tim’s
mixing of rock and roll with bluegrass was certainly not something
that was new. A number of progressive bluegrass bands had found
this formula starting back in the seventies and none had been more
successful at it than the Newgrass Revival. Interestingly, former
Newgrass Revival guitarist Pat Flynn had enrolled at Lipscomb after
Newgrass broke up and was attending classes at the same time as
Tim and Kyle. Kyle found out Pat Flynn’s class schedule, waited
outside a classroom door and ambushed him, handing Pat a tape when
he walked out of class. Instead of saying, “Hey, I came to
college to get away from this!”, Pat not only listened to
the tape, but also called and said, “I’d love to work
with you guys.” Tim said, “So, we started writing and
he produced us.”
With Tim and Kyle as the core, an old buddy of Kyle’s, Chris
Joslin, came in to play banjo and Dobro and Dave Holladay joined
them on bass, thus forming Crucial Smith. While many reviewers,
DJs, and fans compared them to Newgrass Revival, Tim says that he
feels like their material and arrangements were more along the lines
of what J.D. Crowe and the Seldom Scene had done in the seventies.
He said, “When I wrote a song, that is who I thought of. But
the way we played it with that particular group of guys came across
as being like Newgrass. But we never said, ‘let’s get
that sound,’ it just happened that way. Of course Pat had
some influence too.”
Regarding Tim May’s guitar playing, Pat Flynn has said, “It
has been a distinct honor and pleasure to know and play music with
Tim May. Tim’s ideas are at a depth and range that is rare
and he expresses these ideas with a rich tone and confident touch.
Tim always says that I influenced him, but the truth is that I learned
something every time I played with him.”
During the fifteen years Crucial Smith was together, the band recorded
three CDs. Two were studio projects produced by Pat Flynn, and the
third was a live recording that also featured Tim’s wife,
Gretchen, on fiddle. Although the band enjoyed some success, Tim
says, “It got the point where we felt like we needed to take
things in a different direction to see what would happen. We are
still all good buddies. But after that long it just seemed like
it was time to do something different.”
Soon after Crucial Smith broke up, Tim got the call to play with
Patty Loveless. He stayed on the road with Patty for about a year
to help her promote her Mountain Soul album. He also toured with
her when she went out to promote her Christmas album. Additionally,
Tim announced the formation of his new band, Tim May and Plaidgrass.
Although some members of Crucial Smith are with him in Plaidgrass,
Tim says, “It is a different direction musically. A lot of
the songs that I have written are still there, but we play a lot
more of the Celtic instrumental music.” Tim continues “Before
Gretchen came to Crucial Smith I felt like our instrumentals were
weak. We wrote so much vocal stuff that it was like we didn’t
have the energy to write creative instrumental stuff. It was a shame
because we all considered ourselves pickers as much as anything.
When Gretchen came in the band, she brought in all of these great
Celtic songs and Contra dance songs...just great stuff. So we began
to play that and now Tim May and Plaidgrass has a heavier mix of
instrumental stuff than we used to do with Crucial Smith.”
In addition to playing music, Tim is also skilled at woodworking
and specializes in finish work. Tim’s father, who was an instrument
builder and woodworker, taught him this craft from an early age.
Tim says, “I was always real interested in finishing for some
reason, so I ended up working with my dad at historic sites, like
Civil War houses. I learned a lot about historical preservation
and restoration. That is what my dad did, and still does. He restores
historical homes. I always leaned more towards the finishing, so
I learned to do French polish. That is the way I kept myself alive
during the years I was with Crucial Smith: I would do a lot of finish
work pertaining to historical preservation. I did, and still do,
a lot of French polish work on old furniture. I enjoy it. I also
still build furniture and instruments. I’ve built a couple
of guitars, three mandolins, and a couple of resonator guitars.”
About three years ago Tim started working at The Violin Shop in
Nashville doing violin repair. He met Dave Harvey at the shop and
started picking with Dave on a regular basis. In addition to jamming
together, Dave and Tim also pick with the Gibson Mandolin Club,
which consists of Dave Harvey on mandolin, Tim, Brian Christianson
(a fiddle player who also works at the violin shop), and Jon Weisberger
on bass. “We do a lot of swing material in that band,”
Tim says, “and I’m having a great time learning that
stuff. We all play Gibson instruments, so I play a Gibson L-7 when
I pick with them.” As a result of jamming with this group,
Tim is now learning how to play Gypsy jazz music. “I feel
like I’m going back to the way I was when I was fourteen,
trying to figure out what is going on with the Gypsy stuff.”
For several years Tim has also played on the river barge The River
Explorer with Dan Knowles. He has also played on the Grand Ole Opry
with Dan.
Although he does not teach many private lessons on guitar, Tim enjoys
teaching at workshops and seminars. “I enjoy teaching people
who come to that kind of thing. I just did the Nashville Guitar
College and I really enjoyed it because these guys are all on fire!
But to take someone day-in and day-out...I’ve rarely had students
who have had enough interest to keep it interesting for me. And
I don’t claim to be much of a teacher because nobody ever
taught me. I guess in some ways that can be an advantage because
I’ve had to take a close look at what was going on because
I didn’t have a systematic way of teaching,” Tim says.
Tim said that one of the things that aided his development in putting
together a systematic way of teaching guitar was learning the Nashville
number system. He says, “It was then that I began to understand
the mathematics of music. I learned what a ‘9’ is and
I discovered that it really wasn’t this big mystery. I would
listen to country radio for a few hours a day and chart songs. When
I charted them, I’d look up what it was that I didn’t
know. I finally learned the system that way. Then I began to study
and talk to a lot of people about theory in general...scales...the
way chords were put together...then I was able to figure out what
I was doing. Figuring out the numbers and how they relate to chords
was a big thing. I think that helps with improvising too. If you
can know the relationships of chords and how to play over them it
helps. It has made a big difference in my playing to know what is
going on.”
One of the projects that Tim has recently been involved in, Moody
Bluegrass: A Nashville Tribute to the Moody Blues, was the brainchild
of Randey Faulkner. Randey’s dream was to put together an
album that was the bluegrass version of the Moody Blues music and
he approached Dave Harvey to produce it. Dave called on Tim to write
up all of the charts for the songs and then Tim (guitar), Andy Hall
(Dobro), Dave Harvey (mandolin), and Andy Todd (bass) went into
the studio and cut all of the basic tracks. After that was accomplished,
Dave Harvey brought in a “who’s who” of bluegrass’
greatest to overdub different parts and sing the vocals. Participants
included Harley Allen, John Cowan, Stuart Duncan, Charlie Cushman,
Tim O’Brien, Alison Krauss, Daniel Carwile, Patty Mitchell,
Jan Harvey, Alison Brown, Larry Cordle, Fred Carpenter, Bob Mummert,
Jill Snider, Barry Crabtree, Sam Bush, John Randall, Lionel Cartwright,
Russell Smith, Tom Shinness, and Keith Little. The project also
includes the vocal quartet of Odessa Settles, Ira Wayne Settles,
Calvin Settles, and Todd Suttle. Quite a line up! Tim said, “It
is something that I am very proud of. It is very listenable and
the vocal performances are just amazing.” Rounder Records
released Moody Bluegrass in the fall of 2004.
Another new project that Tim has been involved with recently is
a bluegrass gospel recording by Charlie Daniels. Scott Rouse produced
the project and brought Tim in along with Ronnie and Robbie McCoury,
Jason Carter, Mike Bubb, and Andy Hall as the core band. Mac Wiseman
and Charlie Daniels sang the songs live with the band and then a
few other special guests, such as Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, and
the Whites were brought in ater. Tim said, “It was one of
the most fun albums that I have ever done. Charlie was just like
a quarterback in there saying, ‘OK, you do this, and you do
that’ and within ten minutes he has an arrangement that is
just killer. Every song was like that.” The song list includes
bluegrass gospel standards.
A few years earlier, Nashville producer Scott Rouse had been introduced
to Tim when Scott was working on the music for a comedy video he
was producing. The video stars Nashville comedian Shane Caldwell
as Van Heffer, an effeminate Elvis impersonator who sings Ozzy Osbourne
songs bluegrass style. Kyle Wood was brought in to play mandolin
and he asked Tim to play the guitar. The soundtrack includes an
Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath hit list, including songs like “Iron
Man” and “Crazy Train” played by a bluegrass band
and sung bluegrass style. Regarding his introduction to Tim’s
guitar playing, Scott Rouse said, “Van Heffer wouldn’t
have been as killer without Tim’s playing. He is awesome.
I used him on the Charlie Daniels Band bluegrass gospel album and
he is one of those guys you can totally use to your advantage as
a producer because he’ll do exactly what you ask him to do.
Then if you say, ‘Why don’t you lean into the solo a
little on this one?’ he’ll haul off and lay it in there
like a cop on a car thief. His studio manner is excellent and everybody
loves him. Tim’s my first call on all my bluegrass sessions.”
As if performing with Patty Loveless on the road and playing on
some pretty high profile sessions wasn’t enough, Tim has also
found time to record his own solo project. Tim said, “We had
been working on a Crucial Smith album when we decided to go our
separate ways. There were a couple of songs I’d written that
we already had ‘in the can.’ I thought, ‘Well,
that’s a good start.’ So I took those and added a few
things here and there.” The album includes the members of
Crucial Smith, plus Tony Ray (banjo), Fred Carpenter (fiddle), Brian
Christianson (fiddle), Al Goll (Dobro), and Todd Cook (bass). We
feature one of the tunes from Tim’s solo recording, “Limehouse
Blues,” on this issue’s audio CD companion and have
transcribed it on the following pages.
Look for the Tim May’s solo record from FGM Records in March
2005 and watch for Tim May and Plaidgrass at your local festival.
Also, watch for the Tim May, Brad Davis, and Cody Kilby live concert
DVD, which will be available from FGM Records in April or May of
2005. Everywhere you turn you will be seeing Tim May this year,
which is a good thing because once you hear him pick, you are going
to want to hear more!
Tim’s Guitars: For many years Tim May played a 1980 Martin
D-35. It is the guitar he recorded all of the Crucial Smith projects
with and he used it when touring with the band. On one such tour
he handed the guitar to an airline employee to gate-check the instrument.
He never saw the guitar again. After than guitar was lost/stolen,
Tim bought a new 2001 Martin D-28. He played that guitar for a short
while, and then bought a 1966 Martin D-21, which is his current
guitar of choice.
View
Tim's Website
