Tim Thornton’s musical journey began with a Stella Harmony guitar. After years of strumming along with his father’s bluegrass bands, Tim learned a lot of singer-songwriter songs, joined a high school rock band, took a college-era detour into punk and eventually wandered into old time and old string band music – where he began to feel at home.
Tim plays on his own, but he’s also a member of old timey duo Sula’s Front Porch; the cosmic Appalachian string band Eight Point Star; The Reed Tradition, an old time band dedicated to preserving and promoting the music of legendary fiddler Henry Reed; old time dance band Mammoth Donkey and local bluegrass trio Fort Vause. He was one-third of the Ephraim Vause Memorial String Band, a family band with his father Curtiss and his daughter Maggie until Curtiss put away his Dobro and Maggie moved up north. A frequent fill-in with the Indian Run Stringband, he’s also performed with the Black Twig Pickers and a guitar-and-bass trio that keeps changing its name and describes its music as “twenty-minute versions of traditional fiddle tunes – rarely the melody.” He’s backed up five-time world champion fiddler Buddy Pendleton and renowned old time fiddler Earl White, among other folks.
A veteran of performances at weddings, funerals, festivals, farmers’ markets, fiddlers’ conventions, cookouts, house concerts, square dances, the Floyd Country Store, The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech and the United Methodist Church Virginia Conference Annual Conference, Tim has an eclectic repertoire with roots in Appalachia and branches that reach into blues, gospel and storytelling Americana.
“I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground” recorded live at The Floyd Country Store
“Wednesday Night Waltz” recorded live at The Floyd Country Store
“Say Darlin’ Say” recorded live at The Floyd Country Store
“John Henry” with Isak Howell recorded live at the Pocahontas County Opera House
Tim Thornton 