TIM GOODIN Q&A WITH JAY
Photo by Manuel Lopez
Seasons change. Time moves swiftly. There are few constants in this life. But every June, I know that I’ll find myself trekking through the hills of Eastern Kentucky in search of music that heals, and friends that give hugs as opposed to handshakes. Each year I return from this pilgrimage replenished in a way. A true sense of community sweeps over me. Every Laurel Cove Music Festival brings with it new discoveries, and with them, new tales to tell.
A month prior to last years festivities, a good friend shared Tim Goodin’s debut EP with me. Originally from Pineville, KY, Goodin’s ‘Son of Appalachia’ proved to be mountain music showcase, plain and simple. His voice is a timeless one and sounds as if were wrapped in a veneer of Appalachian toughness and gritty optimism. The title track begins the effort and sets the table for the songs that follow. In precisely 3 minutes and 19 seconds, he manages to craft for us a view of his world, and more importantly he demonstrates how that world has shaped him. For the duration of the five song effort you not only empathize with its narrator, hell, you feel like you’ve known him forever. When he speaks of familial strife and existential turmoil, you already know the characters. You were there for those hard times. As he recalls the wise words spoken by his PaPaw down at the fishin’ hole, you remember them. It’s as if you were standing on the bank as those words were delivered. By the EP’s conclusion, you’re overcome with a sense of nostalgia for a life you never lived, and a land that was never yours.
And so it was. This past summer I once again found myself on a narrow path in Pine Mountain State Park, searching for a stage. Along the way I couldn’t help but gaze into green world that surrounded me, taking in the serenity of the mesophytic forest. Undergrowth on the earths floor is all that stopped me from taking a detour along the way. Soon I reached the paths end and made my way through a swarm of people, filled with anticipation, scattered around a stage. I got as close as I could, and settled in. Tim Goodin was about to perform.
Coupled with the scenery, the set itself was a euphoric blur. The crowd remained whisper quiet as Goodin’s powerful voice reverberated all around us. At one point during the set, someone nudged my right arm. I looked over to see that it was an older, silver haired man, his faced gently creased by his years. His deep blue eyes never left the stage as he spoke to me. “You know he’s from here. One of ours. I really wish we could keep him.” He said with a wry grin. I smiled and nodded, but I remember thinking “With a voice like that, your chances aren’t looking good, man.”.
Soon after, Goodin finished up, and it was time to make my way back through the forest. This time along the way, I noticed a clearing to my right and decided to take the detour into the woods that I’d contemplated an hour before. Moments later I found myself alone in the forest, surrounded by lush greenery and sedimentary rock. Above me, there were bright green swirls of sun-stained leaves. Fluorescent beams of light pierced the canopy, bringing warmth with them. I took a seat near an old White Oak tree patina’d by soft green fungus at its base, and took a moment to appreciate this magical place. I swept my fingers into the dirt, exposing mycelium that seemed to connect everything around me. Through the trees echoed the voices of Appalachian legends, you know the names. Then suddenly a new voice and a new lyric came screaming past me. “There’s nothing more powerful than the drug called nostalgia, sounds like home to me”. I laughed. In a weird way, the old silver haired man may get his wish after all. Tim Goodin’s voice will no doubt take him across the world in the years to come. But it will be in Eastern Kentucky forever.
Tim, this past year has been a wild one for you, man. I tried to researching some of your backstory, but there’s not a lot of information out there. When did music become your focus?
Well, this is really kinda my second go-around with music. I was playing pretty heavy in probably 2012-2015. But the music scene in Appalachia wasn’t then what it is now, so I was doing a lot of cover gigs and bar gigs and things like that. We moved to Alabama and I quit playing for a while. After some time, I got the itch to start playing again. I called by buddy Jason Partin. Jason is just a great guy and a close friend. He actually used to play rhythm for me years back. He’s been deep in the music scene back home for a long time and had made a lot of contacts in that world. I asked him to manage me because I trust him like a brother. He thought about it for 4-5 days and said “Absolutely.”. We decided that we were gonna really go after it this time around. All original songs, no cover gigs or anything like that. Man, that’ll burn ya out playing cover songs for too long.
I think you made a great choice. I met Jason, and it was obvious that he really cares about what ya’ll are doing. He gives a shit. I could see right away that you picked the right fella for the job.
Awe man he’s awesome. He believes in me as much as my wife does haha. It’s good to have someone that I consider family in my corner fightin’ for me!
So let’s back up a bit. Where’d you come up, Tim? Were you born into a musical family?
I was born and raised in Bell County, Kentucky. Pineville, actually. Nobody in my immediate family plays music or sings really. I just had the bug to sing since, well, as long as I can remember really. Grew up in Kentucky, blue collar family, my dad was a diesel mechanic back then on a strip mine and mom worked at the school that I went to. I grew up just listening to music. I always had a guitar but didn’t know how to play the dang thing. When I was maybe 11-12 years old, I started going to church with my Mamaw Ruby (my dad’s mom) and she knew that I liked to sing. But I was scared to get up in front of the church and do it. She got up there in front with me, and we sang “Amazing Grace” together. That was the first time I ever sang in public, and it’s just a great memory. Makes me smile every time I think about it.
A few years later when I was goin’ into my senior year of high school, I decided to learn how to play guitar. Took me all summer to learn G, C, D, and E minor and how to transition. The first song I ever learned was “It Ain’t Easy Being Me” by Chris Knight. Took me months to get that one down! That’s really how music came into my life.
Alright so you got the bug, learned to play guitar, what happened after you finished high school? Where did music take you then?
Man, it really didn’t take me anywhere. Somewhere between singing in church and graduating school, I developed stage fright real bad. I was scared to death to sing in front of anybody. I went to Union College, a small school in Barberville, Kentucky. Played football for the first two years and ended up getting hurt. Luckily, they let me keep my scholarship though. I went to work part-time at the strip mine on days I had short classes. I worked at the college on days I had a full slate. So, I was just working two jobs all through college.
After I graduated from college, I met my wife, Leanna. The first thing we ever bonded over was music. Tyler Childers music. I had met Tyler a few times. He used to be roommates with one of my college roommates. I met him a few times and tossed one of his CD’s on. Right away we realized we had the same taste in music. Later, she found out that I could sing and she started pushing me. She was the one that pushed me to play my first real gig. There was 12-15 people there and 10 of them were family and I was scared as all get out. But we made it through that, and slowly, after playing maybe 10 shows the stage fright wasn’t an issue. I learned that if I just got out of my own way, playin’ in front of folks much easier.
Any gigs that stand out, looking back?
Haha! I think we played like a fashion show at a strip mall in maybe 2011. It payed $25 and nobody there was interested in what I was doing. Hell, they may have overpaid me! This is a great trip down memory lane, buddy!
It’s cool that your wife is so supportive. I distinctly remember seeing Leann right up front, mouthing every word during your set at Laurel Cove last year. That kind of support is such an asset. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that.
Absolutely. She’s just as supportive of my day job as she is in my music too. She encouraged me to move down to Alabama and pursue a career in mining down here. To have someone that has that much faith in you, it means the world. I credit all my success to her, truly.
Leann has multiple co-writes on the new record, is that something you’ve always done together? It certainly seems like she has a knack for it.
Yea, we’ve been writing together ever since we’ve been married I guess. Track #8 “Miss you when I’m sober” was the first song we ever wrote together. That was right at 10 years ago I guess. Songwriting takes two main ingredients in my opinion. Creativity and brutal honesty. We have those in equal parts., I can’t tell you how many times, I‘d say a line and she would be like, “That don’t belong.” haha. I do the same to her, and the results are songs that people seem to relate to. That’s all you could ever really ask for, which is a cool damn feeling man.
So y’all played bar gigs, strip malls…What brought all that to an end? You mentioned earlier that you quit playing for a time.
I lost the job I had in June of 2015. The coal company I worked for went bankrupt. That happened at the same time that was getting burned out on those kinda gigs. I just got so tired of playing other people’s songs for 3 ½ hours to a room full of people that couldn’t care less that you’re even on stage. You go out, try to put on a good show and get golf claps at best. It was just deflating. Just a joy killer. I wasn’t writing much. It just wasn’t a fulfilling time, creatively.
After I got laid off, I tried to start a new career selling insurance which I sucked at, so bad haha. I’m just not a salesman. I worked that job for a little while and we still played music but it nothing we were pursuing as a career then. Just a hobby. That’s really when I started writing and getting much better on the guitar. When it was just a hobby.
What was it that made music a priority again? What changed during that hiatus to make you pursue it as a career again?
It sounds crazy, but during covid a good friend of mine named Fee Brown told me I should get on TikTok. He really thought that people would follow me on there and that it could kinda take off. I got on TikTok in February of 2021.. I started posting videos and they got a little interest. But then I posted “Pills and Poverty”. It hit 100,000 views in maybe a day and a half. It was wild. I posted more originals, and they got more interest than any of the covers I posted. That lit the fire. I really credit TikTok for my EP charting on iTunes and Billboard like it did. I made a lot of friends there that really helped me push that EP. It made a world of difference for me.
The EP, ‘Son of Appalachia’ was my introduction to your music. Such a great little sampler. How’d that come together?
Well, after I got some traction on social media, I looked into recording in a studio. You ever looked into that? It’s crazy expensive just for acoustic work. I didn’t have the money for that at the time. But what I did have was good credit! I researched what laptop and what software, and microphones would be best for recording at home, and with the help of my friend Ernie Hill, we just made it happen! Couple more payments and that MacBook will be paid off haha!
I was really hoping that EP would crack the top 200 on iTunes or something. I didn’t know if that was achievable, but that was my goal. The reception was great. Beyond imagination. Far exceeded what I expected, and I learned so much during the process about how to set up pre orders and pre saves and how that affects the numbers towards the first day sales. That can really affect how your record charts or whatever. Learned a lot. We decided to drop that EP the day before I was set to open a show for Chris Knight, obviously one of my heroes. It was wild how it came together, really.
The success of that EP really spring boarded you to where we are right now, ‘True Stories and Flat Out Lies”. A record produced in whole by the best damn backing band in the game, The Food Stamps. How did y’all hook up?
Charles Hatcher (Arlo McKinley’s manager) heard “Pills and Poverty” and reached out to my manager, Jason Partin. He wanted to know what we had planned for the future. Jason told him we were planning on recording a full-length album, and that we were just trying to figure out where to record and how much it was all going to cost. Charles told Jason, “Hey, I know a guy. James Barker with the Food Stamps has a studio at his house in WV, he might would want to work with y’all.”. He gave us James number and Jason reached out to him. He told Jason, “Let me do some figuring, I may be able to get The Food Stamps to play with Tim too.”. Of course, we thought that’d be great! Barker called back a couple days later and said that “The Boss” (Tyler) had signed off on it and that him, Jesse Wells, Craig Burletic and Rod Elkins where in, so we set a date and made it happen!
Crazy! I gotta ask, man…Was it intimidating being in the studio with that band? Had to be a trip haha!
Wasn’t terribly intimidating. I’m kinda an awkward guy anyways in new situations. I have what I call a “warming up” period. But those guys were so great, they really made us feel welcome and it flowed pretty smooth, I think. The really cool thing for me was that they bought in. They had suggestions for intros and breaks, and it was really collaborative. It was just a cool experience all the way around.
What about this record are you most proud of?
That we were able to pull it off. Haha. I’ve been playing these songs for a while now, but never really played them with a band, and they took on a whole new life. That was cool to experience. It took me nearly two months to record the EP, and that was just with me playing.. But I remember thinking, “We only have 2 days to get this album done.”. I didn’t know if we could do it or not. Those guys were confident enough in me and the songs, and we knocked it out in 2 days. I just went in saying, I want to make a country album, and that’s what I think we did. I just hope people like it. I really feel like it’s the best possible album I could have been a part of making and I’m extremely proud of it.
I think it’s great, man. I love the new songs and I think the new treatments on the songs from the EP work so well. Tim, with as wild as the past year has been for you and your career, what do you think the next year will hold? What’s the future looking like, buddy?
I honestly hate to guess man. I never thought we’d have the kind of year we did this past year. It’s been a fun ride and I’m excited to see where it goes. I know we’re moving towards putting a band together. Got the opportunity to play at some big festivals coming up soon. The next record is half way written. I really don’t know exactly what the future holds, but I’m just gonna keep putting in the miles and see where they lead.