The man sings the blues, about the wrong and the light

Arts

October 20, 2011|By Nancy Shohet West, Globe Correspondent

Bedford singer-songwriter Tim Gartland launches his first solo CD with… (Wilson Brown )

Playing the blues may be an old tradition, but no one can accuse Tim Gartland of being behind the times. The title song on his first solo CD, “Looking into the Sun,’’ released last month and to be officially launched Saturday night in Acton, is about the recent national financial collapse.

“I read an article that described an e-mail written by one of the workers in the credit default swap industry dealing with subprime loans,’’ Gartland said. “The e-mail said something like, ‘I hope we’re rich and retired before all of this comes to light.’

“To me, that indicates that while what they were doing may have been legal, they knew it wasn’t right. That kind of behavior, benefiting personally through immoral actions, bothers me a great deal. I felt passionately about how wrong it was. And one of the keys to successful songwriting is to write about the things about which you feel passionate.’’

Gartland also writes songs incorporating funny or random phrases that catch his ear. One evening while out for dinner with his wife, he heard a young woman at a nearby table asking a friend whether she had recently been in touch with a particular man. The friend replied, “I don’t know, but my phone says we talked last night.’’ He turned that phrase, “my phone says we talked last night,’’ into a song lyric.

The Bedford resident is not only a songwriter, he also sings, plays harmonica, teaches at the Winchester Community Music School, and writes books about performing, including “The Talking Harmonica.’’ Raised in northeast Ohio, he pursued a business career that took him first to the blues-centric cities of Chicago and Kansas City, and then eventually to the Boston area. Gartland settled in Bedford about 12 years ago.

An opportunity to take an early retirement from the business world has allowed him to spend the past few years focusing exclusively on his music.

“My music features original songwriting in the blues and jazz tradition. Within that genre, lyrically, I like to approach songs from a very personal level,’’ Gartland said.

“I learned the craft of songwriting through old-fashioned listening and through reading about great blues and jazz artists, and their philosophy on songwriting. It became clear to me that you can’t write about themes traditionally associated with blues if that’s not true to your own experience. It’s important to have an appreciation for the genre’s history, but nonetheless, when you sit down to write, you have to write about your own passions and experiences. Blues is a cathartic genre in which singers are often venting or emoting. That approach gives me plenty to write about.’’