Hey friends ...

We realize there's been very little activity on the site lately, but it seems as if everything has been upside down as of late (it definitely feels like the change slipped out of my pockets anyway).

Back in the spring, Susan and I both lost our day jobs at the same time. If that doesn't throw you into turmoil, I don't know what will. But they say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so we're getting back on our feet and feeling like Shaft, Superfly, Kung Fu and James Bond all put together.

The band soldiered on through all that, playing some cool shows during the summer and working up a couple of new songs. We returned to few of our favorite haunts such as the Hummingbird in Macon; the Surly Girl in Columbus, Ohio; the Downtown in Morristown, Tenn.; the Garage in Winston-Salem, and the Shed in Maryville, Tenn., as well as a few new joints such as the fabulous Summit City in Whitesburg, Ky. (one of the best times we've had in a while, and you know our motto: "Have a good time, all the time."), the equally great Kavarna in Decatur, Ga.; and the Rock n' Bowl in New Orleans. We're generous people, so we've shared stages with all kinds of good folks such as the Tenderhooks, Black Atticus, Kevin Abernathy Band, Jane Starship, the Beatdowns, Shanghai Gesture and others. Besides stages are generally too large to fit in your pocket, even if all the change fell out when you were upside down.

Among our extra-curricular activities, I co-produced and played on a new solo disc by ex-Judybats singer Jeff Heiskell. Susan did the package design and played bass on one song. That'll be out in mid-November, and Jeff's playing a release show here in Knoxville at Barley's Taproom on Nov. 14. Susan and I are playing with Jeff, and the TL3 is opening.

I also added guitar to the new EP from Knoxville band Kevin Hyfantis and the Bishop's Band (Susan did the art design) and played on one song on Todd Steed's new one, "Eskimo Hair."

Susan and I also played a great fun show in Winston-Salem last month as part of Gravel Truck, our pal Mitch Easter's combo that only plays songs by his old band, Let's Active. We had a blast opening for the reconstituted Pylon, who are better than ever. Now it looks like there are several Gravel Truck shows on the horizon, many of which will include the TL3 as openers. Keep checking back here for more information. Gravel Truck consists of Mitch on guitar and vocals, Susan on vocals, Shalini Chatterjee on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Chris Garges on drums and your truly on bass and guitar. We play songs from all of the Let's Active releases, many of which I played with Mitch more than 20 years ago. It's a blast. Check it out.

Looks like we're gonna get pretty busy in the coming weeks, so I hope we cross paths with many of you out there in clubland. Check out Heiskell's record (It's called "Clip-on Nose Ring") when it's available. Also check out our pals the Tenderhooks' upcoming disc ("New Ways to Butcher English"). I've heard an advance copy and it's already got my vote for the best release of 2008. It's outstanding.

Hope everybody is well ...

Tim

The local Knoxville press has been exceptionally kind to us lately as we prepare for the release of "good2b3"

Metro Pulse story:
http://www.metropulse.com/news/2008/apr/30/its-good-be-here/

Maryville Daily Times from a coupla weeks ago:
http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20080418/ENT/395436715

From last week's News-Sentinel:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/25/tl3-delivers-rock-and-roll-with-tlc/

Greetings, friends...

The Tim Lee 3 is celebrating the local release of our new CD, "Good2b3," here in Knoxville this week (the national release date is May 20) with two shows.

On Tuesday, April 29, we're doing an in-store performance at the Disc Exchange on Chapman Highway. We're taking the stage at 7 p.m. The disc will be available for sale at the show.

Then on Friday, May 2, we're having a release party at Sassy Ann's in the 4th & Gill neighborhood. Joining us that night are our friends, the Tenderhooks and Black Atticus. The show kicks off around 9:30, and CDs will be available.

We'll also have copies of the new WUTK benefit compilation CD, "Re-Distilled: 25 Years of Knoxville Rock," at our CD release show. This 17-song collection features Knoxville artists covering songs by other Knoxville artists from the past quarter-century. "Re-Distilled" sells for $15 and every penny goes to support WUTK 90.3, which has been on the air for more than 25 years. UTK is a strong supporter of local music and deserves your support. Included on the disc are contributions from Scott Miller, Superdrag, Mic Harrison, Tenderhooks, R.B. Morris, Todd Steed, Westside Daredevils, 1220 and others. It features our version of R.B.'s "Distillery," on which we collaborated with Black Atticus. Also, former Judybats singer Jeff Heiskell contributed a version of Tim and Susan's "Dead Guy Story" from "Concrete Dog." For more information visit www.wutkradio.com.

If you're not going to be in Knoxville next week, you can pre-order "Good2b3" from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/good2b3-TimLee3/dp/B001795W6K/paisleypop-20/102-5217888-1914569 .

Tim, Susan, Rodney

www.timleethree.com
www.myspace.com/timleemusic

Howdy gang ... hope all is swell with our cyber-friends.

The Tim Lee 3 is currently residing in that limbo that occurs right before your new record comes out. Our first full-length release, "Good2b3," drops locally on 4/29 and nationally on 5/2. The promos have been mailed out, and we (along with Paisley Pop) have hired Becki Carr at Yarr PR! (anything with a pirate motif, of course) to do the follow-up. The disc will be available for sell at www.paisleypop.com and www.timleethree.com, as well as discerning indy record stores and online retailers.

Lately, we’ve been keeping our gigging to here in east Tennessee, hitting such illustrious burgs as Morristown, Maryville and Johnson City. Honestly, we have as much (if not more) fun playing small towns like these. People seem to be more excited about live music in these places, and they like rock n’ roll, which seems to be becoming less fashionable by the day. To paraphrase the old Stiff Records slogan: "Fuck Fashion, Let’s Dance."

Once the record’s out, we’ll expand our horizons again, making forays into some of our familiar territories, as well as a few unchartered terrains. We hope to cross paths with you out there somewhere. Watch the myspace page for gig updates.

The band’s been working on some new material together (we have one new song that ends by sliding into a version of Funkadelic’s "Maggot Brain," one of my fave guitar pieces of all time), and everybody’s had their various projects going as well.

We’re all three heavily involved with an upcoming compilation called "Re-Distilled: 25 Years of Knoxville Rock," which is a collection of Knoxville artists covering songs by other Knoxville artists to benefit WUTK 90.3 Radio, the local college station that is a huge supporter of local music. We covered an R.B. Morris song, "Distillery," with our friends Black Atticus, Star and Mercedes. Also included on the disc are Scott Miller, the Tenderhooks, Mic Harrison, Superdrag (original band reunited), Angel & the Lovemongers, Westside Daredevils, Todd Steed, R.B. Morris and John T. Baker, among others. Former Judybats singer Jeff Heiskell did a cool version of mine and Susan’s "Dead Guy Story" from the Concrete Dog disc. This disc will be out on April 15 and will be available from www.wutkradio.com. We’ll probably have some on our site as well.

Our first CD release show is an in-store at Disc Exchange here in Knoxville on Tuesday, April 29, at 7 p.m., and our big blowout is that Friday, May 2, at Sassy Ann’s. The Sassy Ann’s show also features our pals Black Atticus and the Tenderhooks. The first Friday in June will find us back at the Hummingbird in our adopted second home, Macon, Georgia, where we’ll have another CD release party. Local photog/all-around good guy Adam Smith is also having a photo show opening earlier that evening, so a good time is guaranteed for all.

(For our Knoxville friends, here’s a heads-up about a cool show in town on Sat., April 12. TL, along with Dave Nichols and Nate Barrett, will be backing spoken word artist Jack Rentfro at the Time Warp Tea Room as part of a triple-bill with R.B. Morris and Marshall Chapman. Tim, Dave and Nate, along with Phil Pollard and whoever else is on hand, will probably back R.B. some as well. Should be a great night of words, music and caffiene.)

That’s enough for now ... keep those cards and letters coming.

yr. pals,

Tim, Susan, Rodney
www.timleethree.com
www.myspace.com/timleemusic
www.myspace.com/susanbauerlee
www.rodneycash.com
www.myspace.com/rodneyccash
www.timleemusic.com
(if you can’t find us, you ain’t lookin’)

It's just after 10 on Sunday night, and we're home now. There's only one word to accurately describe the TL3's weekend in Georgia - fun.

After I left off with yesterday's blog, we gathered the troops - myself, Susan and Rodney - and headed to downtown Macon to find some food. After checking in with the club and dropping off our guitars, we hit the streets looking for sustenance. A couple of places on the same block as the Hummingbird were closed or had a long wait for a table, so we moved to the next block and found an excellent Mexican restaurant where we were seated immediately.

Susan ordered a chicken taco salad, Rodney went for the chimichanga and I ordered something called the taco combo, which was in fact a taco salad with steak, chicken and shrimp on top. It was all good, and we ran into Adam and his girlfriend, April, who were hanging out partaking of margaritas.

After stuffing ourselves appropriately, we walked back down to the Hummingbird, where local openers Magnificent Bastard were rocking the stage. It was fairly early, maybe 8-ish, but people were already hanging out, drinking and having a good time. Aaron and Justin, who were staging the S.U.G.A.R. Festival were on hand, and things seemed to be off to a good start.

Justin pulled me aside, and I learned that my lobbying from the previous evening had paid off. You see, we were supposed to "headline" (I have no idea what that word means anymore) the festival, which would have put us on last of six bands at about 12:30. I convinced Justin to move us up a bit in the running order, so we'd do a better job and have a better time hanging out (it's not that we drink too much, it's just that ... okay, we have a tendency to overdo it when we have time on our hands). So we were fourth out of six acts, which looked like it would put us on about 10:30. Perfect.

Magnificent Bastard was followed by the Delusionaires from Florida. They were a heavily-reverbed surf-abilly kind of thing. Loud, fun and the upright bass player wore a fez and clown shoes. I ask, who could ask for more? Oh yeah, the drummer (who was on loan from Thee Crucials) had a spinning "Outer Limits" looking front on his kick drum with a hypnotic pattern and a band logo.

Next on the agenda were the Booze from Atlanta - extremely young kids with uber-slick sharkskin blazers, pegged slacks and turtlenecks a la the Stones circa the Ed Sullivan years. Vox AC30s, Epiphone Casinos, Rickenbacker bass ... all '60s all the time. It was fun to watch them deliver a seamless take on music that was created way before they were born. They ended with a smoking version of Them's "Gloria" that kicked into double-time during the chorus. Nice enough kids, but kinda stand-offish.

During the first three bands, we hung out and had a coupla drinks while visting with all our Macon pals - Adam, April, the entire 'Bird staff, Chad and the rest. We also saw our pals from Atlanta, Adam & the Pinx, who were scheduled to play after us.

While the Booze were doing their deal, we started getting our gear together so we could demonstrate the world's quickest changeover, something in which we take a great deal of pride. Once our stuff was in place, the emcee Roger Riddle gave us a warm introduction and we kicked into one of the best sets we've ever played. The 'Bird crowd peaked toward the middle and end of our set, and the people were dancing and yelling and carrying on. It was way too much fun. We closed out with a long, rocking version of the R.L. Burnside/Kenny Brown song, "Snake Drive," with a bunch of folks up front singing along. Soundman Catfish had a few drinks under his belt by this point and was heckling us through the monitors, exhorting us to "work 'em into a Republican frenzy!" As card-carrying pinko commy libs, we had not idea what he was talking about, but we whooped 'em up to the best of our abilities. (Rodney's chimichanga threatened to make a reappearance, so we made sure he had a plastic bucket - the "chuck bucket" - behind the kit, just in case. Fortunately, it proved to be unneccasary.)

Again, we moved off the stage quickly and got our gear packed away as the Pinx took the stage. They rocked hard, and Susan set up the merch table, where she sold a bunch of CDs. Susan's really good at handling the merchandise and stuff. We hung out and enjoyed ourselves through the Pinx's set, which eventually gave way to the final band, Thee Crucials, another Atlanta band.

Thee Crucials played manic garage rock, and their singer was out of control, writhing on the dance floor, climbing on top of amps and generally raising bedlam. Good stuff.

As the evening wound down, we loaded our gear out, then came back in for one last drink before we got our HoJo working and headed back to the motel, where we all crashed pretty quickly, tired and satisfied at the end of a good day.

I awoke this morning, feeling pretty well. So I made myself get up and take a shower. In time, we all got ourselves together, checked out and hit Starbucks for coffee and pastries before gettng on I-75, heading north to Knoxville. Other than Rodney's delayed-reaction hangover, it was uneventful.

It was an easy drive and we made record time. As we pulled into town about mid-afternoon, our pal (former drummer and sometime producer) Don Coffey Jr. called and invited Susan and I over for an impromptu cookout at his and his wife Kym's home. After getting home, unloading, picking up the dogs and getting things under control, we went to the Coffeys for burgers and veggie burgers and watched a bit of the Oscars before heading home, where Falstaff and Scooter were ecstatic to see us again.

We're worn out now, but it was a great weekend ... we played some good shows. We made some new friends and hung out with some old friends. We ate some kickass barbeque (Whoo hoo, White Lightning!) It was everything a rock 'n roll band could want.

Next weekend, we play with our old pals Blue Mountain here in Knoxville on Saturday. Friday night, I'm supposed to sit in with Rob Russell & the Sore Losers at Manhattans when they do their Tom Petty tribute. I'm looking forward to that on a leap year's night, one day after my birthday.

I have a good feeling about this week ...

Hope y'all all have a good one,

TL

It's Saturday afternoon, and the Tim Lee 3 is hanging out in Macon, Georgia, the home of Otis Redding.

Our weekend trek began Thursday night in Augusta, Georgia, the home of James Brown. We drove down from Knoxville that afternoon through the foggy mountains and down through a rainy South Carolina. We hit town around 6 p.m. and met Jeff & Julie Kennedy, who were our host and hostess for the evening, at a pizza joint just down the street from the appropriately named Soul Bar, where we were playing later that night.

The Kennedys are nice folks, and we had a nice time visiting with them before loading in at the club, where we met the club's owner, a really friendly music lover named Coco Rubio. Coco and his staff are among the most accomodating bar folk you could hope to meet and they treated us well on a dreary, rainy cold night. We hung out, Rodney and I playing pinball, while Susan tried to follow the CNN Democratic debate before the close captioning gave her a headache. A local band, Language Arts, opened the show. It was their first official gig, and they went over well.

We rocked, then hung out for a while, talking to the locals (there were actually several Windbreakers fans in attendance) before heading over to the Kennedy homestead, where we had another beer or two and sat up chatting for awhile. Eventually, we all crashed, and when we got up the next morning, Julie was in the kitchen, preparing an unexpected spread of eggs, toast, cereal and fruit. Washed down with a coupla cups of coffee, it was an excellent way to start the day. Jeff had taken the day off from work, so we watched his DVD of "You're Gonna Miss Me," the Roky Erickson documentary before hitting the road for the two-hour drive down to Macon.

When we hit Macon, we checked into the same Howard Johnson where we always stay here. We touched base with Vic, who runs the Hummingbird Stage & Taproom, one of our absolute favorite venues. He gave us directions to White Lightning BBQ, an outstanding smokehouse owned by Chad, who plays in an excellent local band called Hank Vegas. The food was great, and it was with full stomachs that we headed over to the 'Bird to load in.

Due to some complicated local political bullshit, the Hummingbird has been closed for the better part of the last two months, and this is the first weekend of business since reopening. It was great to see Vic and the crew, and we caught up a bit while loading in. A little while later, the Hummingbird's sound man, Catfish, showed up and we did our usual half-song soundcheck before pronouncing everything perfect and heading back to the HoJo for some quality digesting (i.e. napping) time.

We got back to the club around 9:30 and saw that a good crowd was developing. Local band the Liabilities opened the show. Their lead singer, Aaron, works at the Hummingbird, so we knew him from previous visits. Bassist Justin also plays with Hank Vegas, and they were all really good. They laid down a smoking set, then we took the stage right about midnight. The Macon audiences are always enthusiastic, and we played a fairly long, really energetic set. Afterwards, we hung out a little longer than we should (like we always do) to visit with Vic, Chad, Catfish, Adam Smith (HV's manager and a great photographer) and others.

We're playing the S.U.G.A.R. (Southern United Garage and Rock) Festival tonight at the Hummingbird, so we only had to pack up our gear, not load it out. We eventually got around to that task, then beat a trail back to the HoJo for some hard-earned sleep.

This morning, I went to the office to make sure we still had rooms for tonight, then went to BP station next door for coffee. It's amazing how convenience stores and travel centers now have reasonably drinkable java with amenities such as real half & half. It's a sign of the modern world that I can get behind.

Around noon, we went back to the White Lightning and took Chad up on his offer to ply us with more barbeque. Again, damned good food and the sweetest sweet tea on God's green earth.

The day shaped up to be a beautiful, sunny one with temperatures in the low 70s. That worked for us, as our main plan for the day was to hook up with Adam to do a photo shoot (that's right, friends, in the near future, TL3 will have official promo photos). We met Adam at the house of Rob, another member of Hank Vegas, where Adam showed us around the band's studio before whisking us away to a friend's house, where we started the shoot. Adam was great to work with, had really creative ideas, and made the whole thing fun and easy. The more we chatted, the more we realized that Susan and I have a lot of mutual friends with Adam and that we all lived in Oxford, Miss., at the same time in the '90s.

We went to several sites for photo ops before we were done. Then we came back to the motel for some rest and relaxation, which brings us to here. We'll check in with the S.U.G.A.R. folks (Aaron and Justin from the Liabilities) and figure out a game plan for the evening. Right now, Susan's watching bad sci-fi on the television, Rodney's down the hall in his room (he was propositioned in the hall by a young lady who offered him "adult fun" when we got back here after the gig last night at 2:30 a.m. ... he declined).

Looking forward to tonight ... more later.

TL

If you're keeping score at home, the release date for our upcoming full-length CD, "Good2B3" seems to keep moving. Do not adjust your set; you're not imagining things. We've just moved the "official" street date back a coupla weeks to accomodate pre-release publicity.

Our Knoxville release celebrations will go ahead as planned. Only the "national release date" has been changed to protect the innocent. The release is now slated for May 20.

Hope this clears up any confusion or messy spills.

Tim, Susan, Rodney

The Corner Lounge has closed. We've lost our home base, our favorite hangout and watering hole, and one of the few music joints that seems more like home than just a place to play a gig.
Myself, I've spent a lot of hours, dollars and sweat in that place (which the readers of Metro Pulse affectionately voted the town's "Best Dive" a coupla years ago, while also voting it into the top three venues for rock and country, if I remember correctly). I've put away dozens of Timmy's chicken wings and downed many cold bottles of Shiner handed across that old wooden bar with a smile by Adrienne or Nichole. I've watched Ed throw a few colorful tantrums when the P.A. had problems (coining such descriptive phrases as "pinecone fuck" and "stoopass" along the way). I stage-managed three Hottfests there too.
I saw countless bands in there, including the Genders, a glammy punkish hard rock band from Tel Aviv who weave Middle East politics and oral sex almost seamlessly into the same song. Actually, I saw them three times. I saw Sara Borges on a Tuesday night on her first trip to Knoxville. I saw bunches of those shows and more local band sets than I could even estimate. That little joint had a great sounding stage and P.A., and it worked with alt.country types such as the Last Train Home or the hard-rockin' American Plague (one of Knoxville's finest).
I had a lot of good times there, spent just as many happy hours as I did midnights, and always had fun.
But alas, it is gone.

---

It's almost ironic that the night they announced the Corner would not be re-opening, the TL3 was playing five blocks away at Sassy Ann's, an old blues bar located in an aged Victorian home in the Fourth & Gill neighborhood (some 30 yards from the back door of Independent/Rock Snob recorders). I haven't been there much (Rodney says he hasn't played there in over ten years) and had never played there. But when our friends in the Kevin Abernathy Band asked us to play the show with them, we said, "Sure." Local madman/singer/songwriter Jon Worley has been booking the "New Fridays" series at Sassy's, and he'd told me they were doing well.
Apparently, a lot of younger hipsters have latched onto the place, which makes for a strange but wonderful mix of patrons. After we loaded in and sorted out sharing equipment with the KAB, Susan, Rodney and I went around the corner to Jake Winstrom's apartment, where he'd invited us to join him for some homemade potato soup he'd whipped up that afternoon. Jake's one of my favorite people (and the singer in the Tenderhooks, one of my favorite bands).
After a bowl of Jake's excellent soup and a coupla beers, we got back to the club (with Jake in tow) in time to visit with Kevin before they hit the stage (they talked us into playing second). We commandeered a table in the middle of the room, where a revolving cast of friends and fellow musicians joined us throughout Kevin's set. (I saw more Knoxville musicians in one place that night than I have in a long time).
Seated directly behind us at one of those tall tables were three women who seemed to be having a great time and imbibing more than a couple of drinks. The well-dressed blonde one (who looked to have come straight from the office) kept flirting with Jake, who is no doubt a good 15 years younger than her. It started when she kept pulling the hood of his jacket over his head (for photographic evidence, check out Larry C's photos under our Comments section - the first shot is Rodney, Susan and I, along with Johnny S. from the Leningrads and Judybats, and Jake, whose face is hidden under the hood as the blonde woman asks him to dance). She eventually drug him onto the dance floor, where Jake proved to be as awkward in Chuck Taylors as she was in four-inch heels. He did have this one excellent slow-motion-walking dance move that I found most impressive.
Jake survived the dance, but the woman proceeded to down drinks, eventually putting on quite the floor show as Kev and the guys continued to crank out the tunes (oh yeah, I'd be remiss in omitting the fact that the KAB was righteously rocking). I mean, we were just a polished pole away from strip club at that point.
Our set was a lot of fun, although nobody did any dirty dancing. Well, you can't have everything. It was a good night, everybody had fun, and it was encouraging to see a good turnout for a rock n' roll show.
And by the end of the night, Jake seemed completely freaked out by the seemingly endless line of middle-aged women who were hitting on him. Ah, to be so young and cute (he's the one on the right in the second of Larry's pics).

---

The following night, Susan and I were going to go see the Tenderhooks open for the Fiery Furnaces, but the 'hooks were only getting to do a short set, so we checked out the Matgo Primo CD release show at the World Grotto. MP is a young, glammy new wave band from here in Knoxville, and they were celebrating their first CD, which they recorded with our pal Don Coffey Jr. They were quite good that night (and they had a good turnout), as were another one of K'ville's strong young bands, Cold Hands.
Susan and I have seen Cold Hands on several occasions, and they've really come a long way. I always thought they were good, and that Henry is an engaging front man, but they've recently switched drummers (Gene from My Lost Cause now mans the throne), and it's really made a difference. During their set the other night, I really sensed a new chemistry between the players, as well as a confidence that allowed Henry to really cut loose. It was a truly exciting set, and I'm glad I didn't miss it.

---

I also wanna mention our Oxford, Miss., show from a coupla weeks ago. We played at Two Stick, a combination sushi joint/music venue, with the Sleepwalkers, my 21-year-old nephew, Andrew Mullins' band. The gig was great, and there was a really good crowd of folks of all ages (well, 18 and up). Susan and I saw some old friends, and I finally got to see Andrew play. The SWs were great, bookending their original set with "Strutter" and "Kick Out the Jams." I was awfully proud.

So now the rambling must cease ...

Tim

News from Tim Lee 3 world:

• The folks at Knoxville's Paperthin magazine were kind enough to feature the band on the cover of their January 2008 issue. To see the cover, the opening layout and read the story (entitled "The Glorious Racket of the Tim Lee 3), go to http://www.timleethree.com/press.html and click on the Paperthin thread.

• Rodney's new website is up and running at www.rodneycash.com. Go check it out to see some examples of his outstanding metal work. It's way cool stuff.

• Susan has posted a video to her myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/susanbauerlee) that was sent to us by Sharon's Flicks. The clip is from our Valarium show with Southern Culture on the Skids in December and features snippets of three songs (Chronic Liar/Real Bad Habit/Chuck Berry in Space). Check it out.

• "Knoxville Re-Distilled: 25 Years of the Rock," a benefit compilation CD for 90.3 WUTK (appropriately referred to as "Local Music's Best Friend") will be released in late March. The disc includes our version of R.B. Morris' "Distillery" featuring guest performances from Black Atticus, Star and Mercedes.

• Our first full-length album, "Good2b3" will be released on Paisley Pop Records on April 29. We're planning a big blowout for the following Friday, May 2, at Barley's Taproom. Stay tuned for more details.

More later...

Tim

Here at TL3 headquarters, we're a good week or so into the new year, and things are picking up already.

We continue to work on getting our first full-length CD, "Good 2B3", ready for release in the spring. If you haven't already, you can check out a few of the songs on our myspace page.

We're also putting together an interesting track for a local compilation CD. The disc, which is being produced to help raise money for WUTK-FM, a local independent college station that strongly supports local music. The CD features several Knoxville artists covering songs by other Knoxville artists.

I've been involved in the planning, and things are coming along nicely with lots of good versions of good songs already in the can.

The TL3 opted to record a version of our friend R.B. Morris' song, "Distillery." We cut it mostly live at Jim Rivers' Kat P Studio, then brought in local freestyle poet Black Atticus to overdub some stuff at the end with his friends, Star and Mercedes. It made for a cool collaboration. Atticus and company were a blast to work with - super creative folks.

We played the Corner Lounge for New Year's Eve with our friends Todd Steed & the Suns of Phere and 1220. We had Ricky Dover from 1220 play "Cinnamon Girl" with us, and our pal, Andy Pirkle (Speedshifter, Carl Snow's Summer of Love) joined us for a rousing version of his song, "Cheap Bourbon Whiskey." I sat in with the Suns on their set-closers, "Chapman Highway Motel" and "Free Bird 2." It was a blast, and if you weren't there, you were probably somewhere else.

Here's to more rock n' roll in the coming year. Cheers...

Tim