Tim Easton on Thai Food and the Importance of Songs

Photo credit: Madison Thorn

Tell us about your tour vehicle.

I used to rock this world in a 1987 GMC Conversion Van I dubbed the “Sweet Black Angel” which racked up 200,000 miles and is still in my driveway because I refuse to sell it. I’d like to turn it into a museum! It has been searched by plenty of police over the years, and has had multiple surgeries of course. I wrote a story about it here.

Today I roll simple in a 2023 Nissan Kicks.

How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?

I visit the local hippy supermarket. I get all the good stuff. I consume ginger and lemon quite regularly out here. I have to. I spare no expense on getting good Thai food. It makes me happy.

How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?

I don’t break strings anymore. I change my strings every week on the road. About every four or five shows. The cost is of no matter. Sure, I could use a D’addario endorsement. Hello?

Where do you rehearse?

My rehearsal space is my couch. If there is a band it is my garage.

What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?

“Realize” was the title. I was copying John Lennon’s “Imagine” but the lyrics were about how my parents didn’t understand me. “When will you realize, it’s useless to try.” I am laughing at myself right now.

Describe your first gig.

I had a pretty good one. I supported Columbus, Ohio’s “The Gibson Brothers” and “The Beetkeepers”. I had a skiffle band called “The Woodpecker’s”. We covered Sonny Terry and Brownie Maghee and we also covered “Love Potion #9”.

Before that I was a street musician on and off for seven years so I had my schtick down pretty good by then. Putting a microphone in front of me wasn’t that big of a deal. I was able to project on my own without one.

What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?

I was a mover. I also drove for Kinkos. I have worked various lawn maintenance gigs over the years. My favorite day job was teaching.

How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?

It is still very precarious. Ups and downs all the time.

What do I expect it to look like 5-10 years from now? Steadier would be nice.

What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?

Where do I start? The most important thing to know is that you should concentrate on writing the best songs and performing them the best that you can. Learn your instrument and never stop learning. Read more books. All of the other stuff is irrelevant. Yeah, I know you need to be aggressive and pursue all the business goals, but really none of it matters if your songs are not happening.

Few poets follow their own arrow as devotedly as Tim Easton, whose songwriting career has woven in and out of folk music and rock ‘n’ roll, of erstwhile bands and solo songwriting, of his birthplace of America and all the other places he’s called home. Whether surviving as a busker in Paris and Prague, living and working on both US coasts, touring relentlessly through remote Alaska or recording with some of the most famous sidemen in rock history, Easton has followed his inspiration to every point on the map.

As an upstart three decades ago, Easton’s vision of melding folk tradition with a little rock ‘n’ roll preceded the music scene his records might fit into today, known widely now as Americana. Like all the greats of the genre, his music serves, simply, as medium and purpose for his storytelling. Keen listeners will hear the threads between Easton and the ultimate storyteller, John Prine, who instructed Easton to write his own songs at a chance encounter in the late ‘90s. (After Prine’s death, Easton penned the gentle tribute “Voice on the Radio” for 2021’s You Don’t Really Know Me.)

Now, though, Easton’s lens is fixed on a particular one of his homes away from home, the birthplace of his mother and many of his dearest friends. Find Your Way, out in May 2024 via Black Mesa Records, was produced by Leeroy Stagger and recorded, mixed and mastered in Canada with an all-Canadian crew of studio musicians: Geoff Hicks (Colin James, Barney Bentall), Jeremy Holmes (Steve Dawson), Jeanne Tolmie, Ryland Moranz and Tyler Lieb (both play with Leeroy Stagger).

Connect with Easton online and on the road.