City: NEW YORK
State: New York
Country: US
Signup Date: 9/18/2005
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
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Someday I promise to post something about a Louisvillian you can still walk up to and shake hands with.
I am sure it comes through a personal filter of a lot of thoughts about coming (hi Trixie!) and going and leaving a mark while still here-and a need to tip a hat to the soul(s) of my hometown-keeping them alive.
Tim Krekel was a West Ender, like me- from the Shawnee neighborhood.
 
Pictured
Feb. 1, 2008: (L-R): Krekel's producer Mike Webb, Sam Bush, Tim Krekel,
Marshall Chapman, Darius Rucker, Beth Neilsen Chapman, Peter Holsapple and Bill
Lloyd.
First, watch these.
With Marshall Chapman in Louisville on May 30th, 2009 at a
newish, I guess, venue at the bowling alley where my father had league night on
Thursdays, Vernon Lanes.
"Angel's Share" from 2007.
With pal Terry Adams and the Tim Krekel Orchestra (including Donn Adams of the Whole Wheat Horns) at Zena's Cafe (Louisville) in 2007.
With Jimmy Buffett on SNL on 5/13/78. Also in the band-Kenny Buttrey (drummer on Tonight's the Night, Harvest and After the Gold Rush).
Tim
Krekel is an American original. He’s dedicated himself to creating
music that is a real testament to life, love and, mostly, rock &
roll. Tim’s gifts to the music world are plentiful. He has a warm,
personal vocal style and has perfected his own distinctive guitar
style. He is a master craftsman of songs that "get across with fire and
conviction and without a trace of pretension". (CD Review) Tim’s approach is straight-up rock & roll and nothing short of phenomenal. Rolling Stone said, "Krekel unleashes a monster riff".
Tim
is based in his hometown, Louisville, KY. He also spends a good deal of
time in Nashville, where he is on the creative team at Bluewater Music.
The "Krekkies" know that the best ticket in town is to a Krekel show.
Filmmaker Morgan Atkinson even has a documentary about Tim in the
making. It’s titled, appropriately, Local Hero.
Tim
has enjoyed success on many levels: He’s earned acclaim by writing hit
songs for numerous artists, toured the States and Europe a few times,
and collaborated live and in the studio with many performers. He also
found time to record several critically acclaimed albums of his own
prolific brand rock and roll tunes that are as about as infectious as
they come.
Tim’s
songs have been recorded by artists such as Rick Nelson, Lonnie Mack,
Jerry Reed, Dr. Feelgood, Shakin’ Stevens, Canned Heat, Kathy Mattea,
Jason & the Scorchers, Vern Gosdin, BJ Thomas, Delbert McClinton
Aaron Tippin, Deana Carter and Kim Ritchey. Many artists have had great
success with Tim’s songs. Crystal Gayle had a number one hit with Turning Away in 1984. Patty Loveless also went to number one with You Can Feel Bad, a song Tim co-wrote with Matraca Berg and that also earned Tim a BMI Country Award in 1997. Cry on the Shoulder of the Road, another Krekel/Berg penned tune was a chart topper for Martina McBride. Kim Richey’s version of Come Around, a song she co-wrote with Tim, was used in the 1999 Kevin Costner film, For Love of the Game.
There
have been many people who have been thrilled to play with Tim Krekel.
Some of them are well-known, but it’s also important to emphasize that
Tim regularly encourages other musicians to join him for a song: His
humility onstage makes it easy for those performers to do their best.
They might be a little more nervous if they realized that Tim has
played with performers like Jimmy Buffett, Billy Swan, Bo Diddley,
Delbert McClinton, Skeeter Davis, Steve Forbert, Tracy Nelson, Pam
Tillis, Marshall Chapman, Lonnie Mack, and Sam Bush. Tim has appeared
with Mark Germino on Late Night with David Letterman. He has also performed on NPR’s Mountain Stage with Matraca Berg. Speaking of public radio, Tim is a favorite of the pioneering Louisville station WFPK. He was named among their Essential Artists A-Z in 2000. Four of Tim’s tunes were voted among the 2001 Greatest Songs All Time by WFPK listeners.
 Tim
was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1950. He became interested in
music early and his first lessons were on the drums. He began taking
guitar lessons at age 10 or 11, when it dawned on him that "the guitar
player was up front getting all the attention, [like] Rick Nelson". He
was singing and playing his guitar for audiences by the time he was 12,
gigging in Lebanon, Kentucky, at places like The Golden Horseshoe and
Club 68. He began to write his own songs in high school, although he
was reluctant to share them with anyone for a few years.
 Tim’s
first band was an eight-piece basement band called, cleverly, The
Octaves. He continued to sharpen his skills and, by the late 60’s, he
was in a popular Louisville band called Dusty. It was around this time
that two of Tim’s peers, Steve Ferguson and Terry Adams, went off and
started NRBQ then came back to Louisville with a record contract. For
the first time, Tim thought seriously about music as a profession and
realized what he had to do. He and Dusty moved to New York, where they
played gigs for a few months while Tim got more serious about writing.
After about six months, Tim decided he’d be happier pursuing his career
closer to home and moved back to Louisville.
Still
using the name Dusty, he started another band which developed a strong
local following. "We played most every Sunday night at this place
called the Storefront Congregation. There was always someone really
good sittin’ in with us, like Sam Bush, who would bring his electric
violin and tear the place up."
Around
that time, Tim made friends in Nashville and was soon playing gigs
there. He even did some recording for Jack Clements. It wasn’t long
before Tim got a road gig with Billy Swan (who had a huge hit with I Can Help). That
band toured the States and Europe for a year. Billy went back to
playing with Kris Kristofferson, and Tim resumed gigging around
Nashville. One night, Tim performed in a showcase where Chet Atkins and
a friend were in the audience. The friend turned out to be Jimmy
Buffett’s manager. He and Chet were quick to recommend Tim to Buffett
who needed a new guitarist. Tim was hired by Buffett and was his lead
guitarist for a couple of years in the late 70’s and again in the 80’s.
During his first stint with Buffett, Tim played on the Son of a Son of a Sailor album and appeared with him on Saturday Night Live, as well as in the 1978 film, FM. They also toured with the Eagles who were enjoying immense popularity at that time.
 Tim
was offered the opportunity to make his own record and decided to leave
the band to pursue his own musical vision. His first solo effort, Crazy Me,
was released in 1979; however, the Capricorn label folded a mere three
months after the albums debut.It was the first album ever produced by
Tony Brown and was a critical success.
 Tim continued to write, perform and play with other musicians. He recorded his next album, Over The Fence, with The Sluggers, and it was released in 1986. Rolling Stone called the Sluggers "a roots-based guitar band that matters".
Tim
and the Sluggers toured the country for a few years performing with
folks like Carl Perkins, the Blasters and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
 The Italian record company, Appaloosa Records, released his Out Of The Corner in 1991. It received a four star rating from CD Review,
which also touted Tim as "One of American Rock ‘N Roll’s great
unknowns." By 1991, Tim had acquired a dedicated following in the U.S.
and in Europe
 In
1993 Tim found himself a bit frustrated with the music industry and
with some concern over what direction his career should take. Again, he
moved back to Louisville. Rejuvenated by his return to familiar
surroundings, Tim remembered why he began to make music in the first
place. He started a new band, The Groovebillys, and pursued music with
a renewed vigor.
 Tim Krekel & the Groovebillys first release, L&N, quickly became the best-selling record in Louisville--outselling national releases. The bands next release, 1999’s Underground, hit number one in local sales its first week. In reviewing the album, The Courier-Journal said "Krekel works the roots-rock territory with an authority gained from 25 years in the business".
 In
2002 Happy Town was released across the U.S. on the Envoy/FFE label.
Tim along with drummer Mike Alger and bassist Rick Harper
recorded the CD over the latter part of 2001. With the assistance of
ace engineer David Barrick (Barrick Recording Studio) and co-producer
Ben
Ewing (Nashville-based Artists Envoy Agency).
In May 2005 a horse named Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby and Tim
resurrected a song he wrote in the early nineties named, No Mo Do
Giacomo. The new recording soon took on a life of its own and caught
the eye of NBC Sports which filmed Tim and his band and showed
highlights of the performance during a pre-Preakness National
Broadcast. About the same time that Tim's album World Keeps Turnin’ was
being pressed onto thousands of CDs, millions of racefans were sitting
in front of their TVs seeing Tim and the band play No Mo Do Giacomo.
 In
2007 Tim successfully captured the energy of his full-band live
performances with the release of Soul Season on the Natchez Trace
Label. Backed by the incredible talent of Michael Webb and the Tim
Krekel Orchestra the album has received rave reviews and has achieved
listing on many Top Albums of the Year charts including those of
Philidephia Inquirer’s Nick Cristiano, The Kingsport Herald (TN) and
XM’s X-Country Channel 12.
In
March of 2009 Tim Krekel was diagnosed with cancer. By mid June 2009
Tim Krekel's health took a drastic turn for the worse and at the final
stages of what he described as, "A most wonderful life!" Tim was able
to die at home under the loving care of his family and hospice on June
24, 2009. And the Courier-Journal obit by Paula Burba:Tim Krekel, a musician whose career started in Louisville before he
was a teenager and soared to two stints as lead guitar for Jimmy
Buffett's band and a reputation in Nashville as a hit songwriter, died
Wednesday afternoon at his Louisville home. He was 58.
Krekel died of cancer, which he had been fighting since a diagnosis and surgery in March, according to his family. "He had a major, successful career, but he was still based here. He's just a hometown boy," said friend John Gage. Krekel
"had a way of writing and performing and singing that just put people
in touch with a more spiritual sense. He was all about that," Gage said.
Stacy
Owen, program director at WFPK-FM, where Krekel was a perennial
favorite of listeners, said Krekel "did so much to champion the local
music scene." "I'm sure if you talked to a lot of local musicians here in town, they would consider Tim a mentor," Owen said. Owen said the station would "spend the day (Thursday) playing his music and celebrating his life." "I think the wonderful thing about Tim is, he shared himself in his songs," Owen said.Brigid Kaelin, 30, a musician and fan of Krekel since she was 15, said "No one's ever going to forget Tim," "Not
only is he the best songwriter to come out of this town, he makes
everybody want to play music," Kaelin said. "He makes everybody
appreciate music." "He was all about peace and love and
happiness. It sounds so trite, but that was Tim. He meant it and he
lived it," Kaelin said. "He played on my very first record. I probably
wouldn't have made a record if it weren't for Tim. He was just so
encouraging to everyone."One of Krekel's sons, Jason, who also
is a musician, said he and others were going to gather Wednesday night
at Zeppelin Cafe in Germantown "to play a sendoff." "It's an
ongoing Wednesday night gig that was originally his gig. When he got
sick it was carried on by a bunch of his friends," Jason Krekel said.
"This is the way that Dad lived his life and this is what he would have
expected us to do and so this is what we're gonna do."During
four decades in the music business, Krekel went on world tours and
lived in bigger music industry cities like New York and Nashville,
Tenn. But he always found his way back home. He grew up in the
Shawnee neighborhood and graduated from the old Flaget High School. One
of his earliest bands, Dusty, was popular in the late 1960s and early
1970s. During a brief residence in New York, they played gigs with the
likes of Van Morrison and Sha Na Na. "They covered a lot of The
Rolling Stones," said Sheila Pyle, co-owner of Louisville's Rudyard
Kipling, who remembered Dusty playing "at our old place on Bardstown
Road, The Storefront Congregation. It was kind of like a '60s
coffeehouse, only with beer." "They filled the place every night
they played," Pyle said, "and everybody just rocked on down and
hollered and waved their hands in the air."Among that crowd was Gage, then 19. "To me what really was mind-blowing for people was the guitar. That guitar — not too many people could touch it," Gage said.That talent twice landed Krekel a touring gig as lead guitarist with Jimmy Buffett, first in the mid-1970s. Krekel told The Courier-Journal
in 1978 that he was proud of his work on the singles "Cheeseburger in
Paradise" and "Livingston Saturday Night" on Buffett's "Son of a Son of
a Sailor" album.Soon after that album's release, Krekel focused
more on establishing a solo career. He recorded on two major labels:
His first album, "Crazy Me," was released in 1979 by Capricorn as it
went bankrupt.He started another band, the Sluggers, which
released two albums, including "Over the Fence" on Arista in 1986. When
that band broke up, he hooked back up with Buffett, including for a
1987 appearance on "Saturday Night Live." Through the years, Krekel also performed with Bo Diddley, Delbert McClinton, Pam Tillis, Sam Bush and Billy Swan, among others.His
notoriety off-stage included a songwriting streak with such country
hits as "Turning Away" recorded by Crystal Gayle, which hit No. 1. He
co-wrote two hits with Matraca Berg, "You Can Feel Bad" sung by Patty
Loveless, and "Come Around" recorded by Martina McBride. "That
was a kind of interesting side of him," Owen said. "He would spend time
in Nashville, writing country songs, and when he did his own material,
it was strictly roots and rock 'n' roll."Gage said Krekel was
"very respected in Nashville" and had several songs recorded by "major
stars," including Rick Nelson, Jerry Reed, Kathy Mattea, Delbert
McClinton, B.J. Thomas, Vern Gosdin, Jason and the Scorchers and Aaron
Tippin. By the early 1990s, Krekel had returned to Louisville
for good, performing with bands like Krekel and the Groovebillies and
the Tim Krekel Orchestra.Krekel is survived by his wife, Debora
Cooper Krekel, his partner for years to whom he was married on June 14
in a private ceremony in their back yard with a wedding reception at
the Rudyard Kipling. He also is survived by his children, Jason,
Nathan, Katy and Anna Krekel, and sisters Jane Humphries and Jill
Brewer.Krekel's body will be cremated and a public memorial service will be planned.
....
4:47 PM
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