How an EDM Prodigy allowed a Bluegrass ICON to make one of the best albums of 2017.
In the winter of June 2013, mainstream radio was dominated by a young Swedish DJ Avicii and his #1 single “Wake Me Up”. The country influence in this track and the album was quite clear, Avicii had created a new musical movement – Country House.
Country House divided fans, EDM fans couldn’t understand why country was infiltrating their genre and country fans were trying to figure out how EDM had found its way into their world. Avicii debuted this new music at an EDM festival Ultra in 2013, reviews were mixed initially to which Avicii observed:
“…it helped out tremendously how kind of controversial it was at first when I premiered it at Ultra Music Festival because then people’s expectations where lowered so much that they had no idea … could this be this … Country and House… you just listen to it as music you know I think a lot of people realise that its pretty good”.
Irrespective of the initial hesitance from fans on both ends of the spectrum, Avicii’s vision worked and “Wake Me Up” held the #1 position around the world including going 9 x Platinum in Australia. Then in October of 2013, Avicii released ‘Hey Brother’ with Bluegrass titan Dan Tyminski lending his unique vocal to the track.
In the beginning Dan’s reaction was “Thanks, but no thanks” to the request from Avicii to collaborate, but after advice from his 20-year-old daughter, he acquiesced. A decision that would ultimately change the way he thought about music and allow him to make a record like ‘Southern Gothic’.
“It ultimately gave me courage to step out and try to write different music that I probably wouldn’t have tried to write before” Dan said of his experience working with Avicii. “I think it definitely helped me feel secure stepping outside of the box. I think it made me feel a little more strongly that there’s good things if you try to do something different and just experiment, just kind of explore… I’m not going to say that we tried to do anything like Hey Brother on this … on Southern Gothic, on the new record, but I definitely got some courage from the process of figuring out that my voice fits in other places as well, so we tried to see where we could go”.
Dan Tyminski had been a part of the Bluegrass industry for decades, having both a solo career and most notably as a member of Allison Krauss and the Union Station – which earned him 14 Grammy’s collaboratively and individually. For those of you who don’t recognise the name, you will definitely know the voice.
Dan provided the vocals for George Clooney’s character in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” on the track “Man of Constant Sorrow” which went on to sell over 11 million units. As a part of the Dan Tyminski Band he released two albums Carry Me Across the Mountain and Wheels, but it’s 2017’s ‘Southern Gothic’ that has seen Dan finally take the solo artist road.
Collaborating with a number of Nashville’s finest songwriters including Josh Kear, Ashley Monroe, Sarah Buxton, Kyle Fishman and the records producer Jesse Frasure, Tyminski has created an album that transcends genres and labels.
“It’s poppy, rocky, country bluegrassy, folky, swampy, creepy, nerdy, it has a lot of attributes to come together to make it what it is, but it is a blend of genres”, is how Tyminski describes his album.
This album is derived from so many influences, but its brilliance is that is never feels lost or confused. From the opening title track “Southern Gothic” you are immediately transfixed from the thumpy haunting beat to the depth of the lyric. “Devil is Downtown”, “Gone” and “Numb” are painfully beautiful and can’t help but hit you straight in the heart, an attribute that sits quite comfortably in the traditions of bluegrass and country music.
In the age of singles, and label cycles that churn out track after track, an album like ‘Southern Gothic’ stands out as a beacon, each track on this record as important and impressive as the last. We can’t help but be grateful for the vision of Avicii back in 2013 when he reached out to Dan Tyminski, for had that phone call not happened we might not have been blessed with this remarkable masterpiece of an album.