BIOGRAPHY

A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, Tim began playing guitar seriously at the age of 18 after starting out on the banjo four years earlier. He played with various groups in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee as a teenager, including Mountain Memories. As a member of Kingsport's Boys in the Band, he was a judge at the 1980 National Flatpicking Championship in Winfield Kansas. Later, he helped found the band Dusty Miller, which was named SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band champions in 1990. A few months later he joined Alison Krauss and Union Station, along with Adam Steffey and Barry Bales. The band was named IBMA Entertainer of the Year in 1991. He left Krauss's band in May 1992 in order to spend more time with his son Daniel, who was born in January of that year. Tim won a Grammy in January 1993 for his work on “Every Time You Say Goodbye” (Rounder, 1992).

In 1994, he organized the group Blue Highway, whose first project, “It’s a Long, Long Road,” spent six months at the top of the Bluegrass Unlimited charts and went on to win IBMA’s Album of the Year Award (1996). The band has also been awarded Emerging Artist of the Year (1996) and Gospel Recording of the Year (1997). The band’s project on Ricky Skaggs's Ceili Music label, “Blue Highway,” spent two months at #1 on the Bluegrass Now charts. Blue Highway's gospel recording, 'Wondrous Love' (2003) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album category. 'Wondrous Love' won the Dove Award in 2004 for Best Bluegrass Recording.

Before playing music full-time, Tim was involved in higher education. He finished PhD coursework in History at Miami University in 1986 and has taught courses for seven years at four different Colleges and Universities, including both Western Civilization and American History surveys and one upper-division course on Mass Communications and Popular Culture. He was a research associate/instructor at the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University for over three years. The documentary record "Down Around Bowmantown," which Tim co-produced there, was placed on the Library of Congress American Folklife Center's Selected List of American Folk Music Recordings for 1989. He also taught guitar and banjo at ETSU’s famed Bluegrass and Country Music Program.

Tim has taught guitar and bluegrass at Augusta Heritage in Elkins, WV; Rockygrass Academy of Lyons, CO; CBA Music Camp at Grass Valley, CA.; Camp Bluegrass in Levelland, TX; Steve Kaufman’s Flatpicking Camp in Maryville, TN; Bluegrass at the Beach at Nehalem, OR; Sore Fingers UK; Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend in Roanoke, VA; Wintergrass in Tacoma, WA, and Nashcamp in Nashville, TN plus numerous festival and event workshops across the country. Acutab Publications published a transcription book of his solos on Blue Highway recordings in 1998, while Flatpicking guitar magazine released his first instructional video, “Acoustic Guitar Fundamentals,” in 2001. In January 2001, Tim was voted the guitar performer of the year in bluegrass music at the 27th Annual Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America Awards Show in Nashville.

In addition, he’s a former Vice Chair of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Board of Directors as well as a member of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance based in Bristol. Tim’s songs have been recorded by Ronnie Bowman, Claire Lynch, Mountain Heart, Dan Tyminski, Jim Hurst, Mark Newton, Scottie Sparks and the Lonesome River Band, in addition to Blue Highway. "Born With A Hammer in my Hand" by Tim and Shawn Lane, was nominated for song of the year at the 2000 IBMA Awards. At the 2001 IBMA Awards, Tim was honored as producer and performer on “Knee Deep in Bluegrass: The Acutab Sessions,” which won Instrumental Recording of the Year. He is also co-chair of the Music Group of the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Curatorial Committee.

• Ketron Ruritan Scholarship, 1978
• Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Alpha Theta honor societies
• 1980 Brown Scholar Award in History
• Outstanding Student in History, ETSU, 1981-82
• Colonial Dames Award, 1981-82
• President, Tennessee Eta Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu, 1981-82
• Pi Gamma Mu International Scholarship Award, 1984
• Judge, 1980 National Flatpicking Championship, Winfield, Kansas
• Graduate prize, Carolinas Symposium on British Studies, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, October, 1986.
• Member of Dusty Miller, 1990 SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band Champions
• Member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, 1991 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Entertainers of the Year
• Grammy Award Winner, 1992
• Judge, 1993 Pizza Hut International Bluegrass Showdown
• IBMA Board of Directors, 1993-98
• Vice-Chair, IBMA Board of Directors, 1995-98
• Best Bluegrass Album, National Association of Independent Record Distributors, 1993
• IBMA Album of the Year, 1993 (Every Time You Say Goodbye, AKUS)
• Business Journal/Sheraton Plaza "40 Under 40," 1993
• IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year, 1996 (Blue Highway)
• IBMA Album of the Year, 1996 (It's a Long, Long Road, Blue Highway)
• Member, Ruritan National, 1997-2000.
• IBMA Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, "God Moves in a Windstorm," 1997
• Bluegrass Now Emerging Artists of the Year, 1998
• Kentucky Colonel, 1998
• Member, BCMA (Birthplace of Country Music Alliance) Board of Directors, 1996-2000.
• Blue Highway, "Blue Highway" #1 on Bluegrass Now Sales chart, October 1999
• Guitar Player of the Year, SPBGMA Awards, 2001
• IBMA "Instrumental Recording of the Year," Knee Deep in Bluegrass: The Acutab Sessions, 2001.