Interview: Dave Matthews Band’s Tim Reynolds to bring different vibe to Strand Theatre Jan. 21

By Louise Hoffman Broach

It’s 2 p.m. at Tim Reynolds’ home in North Carolina on a day shortly before Christmas. He’s hungry for breakfast, so he’s making scrambled eggs.

That’s what happens when you’re jet-lagged; you eat your morning food in the afternoon. He and his wife Kristin had just come back from about a week in South Africa where Reynolds shared the stage in Pretoria and Cape Town with one of his musical collaborators and closest friends, the legendary Dave Matthews and the rest of his band.

“It was great,” said Reynolds between bites, explaining that he and Kristin got to be tourists while Matthews, who spent part of his childhood there, caught up with people. “I’d been with him there once before, but this time, we had a couple of days between shows. We did things; we went on safari; we had a driver.”

They went to the Cape of Good Hope and other places that Reynolds missed the first time he was there with Matthews in 2013. Reynolds, now 66, has been throughout the world with DMB several times over with plans for a new tour in Europe with the band starting in February. Amsterdam, Reynolds said about the place he’s most looking forward to seeing again. He loves the music, the culture and the laid-backness of the Netherlands.

But he has miles to go first. DMB is just one part of Reynolds’ long and storied musical life. He is about to embark on tour with his own band, TR3 (Tim Reynolds Trio), to promote their latest album, “Watch It.” A show at the Strand Theatre in Hudson Falls is set for Jan. 21.

He describes playing with TR3 as a vibe completely different from the huge stage extravaganzas he performs as Matthews’ lead guitarist. In fact, TR3 does not play DMB music, although they still can rock out.

Still, Reynolds appears perpetually chill behind dark glasses in both situations, bringing to mind an insanely good and yet unassuming guitarist no matter. While Matthews is often stomping around during songs like “Crash,” Reynolds, next to him, is understated, ultra-cool and swallowed up in the moment.

The TR3 shows are always in much smaller venues (the Strand holds just over 300 people) and tend to be less galvanic and arresting than electric, with Reynolds playing much of the time on six- and 12-string acoustic guitars.

“Acoustic just gives you a more personal voice,” Reynolds says. “And I’ve (started) playing the acoustic more and more as I’ve gotten older. It’s a steady sonic platform, but it also gives one a chance to use it as a voice like a singer.”

He said he doesn’t sing much, that his voice is soft, the result of an injury several years ago. Alongside his band, TR3, the power trio harnesses the pure emotion of simply being present and in-the-moment. And it’s this closely-held philosophy by Reynolds to always chase after the emotion of a melody and the space between notes, rather than just showcasing proficiency.

Always nose-to-the-grindstone, it seems, Reynolds said no matter where he is playing, in the rare solo show (although not so rare during the pandemic, when he was broadcasting on YouTube from his living room with a great hardwood floor), with TR3 or DMB, he said he becomes almost immediately lost in the music.

“Watch It” is also a celebration of sorts, seeing as this chapter of TR3 recently crossed over the 15-year mark. Featuring longtime bassist Mick Vaughn and drummer Dan Martier, it’s not lost on Reynolds about how that — beyond the intricate nature and sheer talent involved — what matters most is the time spent together, for that’s where the real melodic bounty emerges from.

He said that was why it was easy to take the songs for the new album, mostly the instrumentals he wrote and then played from home during pandemic days, and morph them into TR3 compositions. The pretty seamless process, he said, is borne from a sense of trust in the band he started 35 years ago, before DMB came together.

“Everybody really gets along, so that comes through in the music,” Reynolds says. “We love each other, and with that we’re able to unlock all kinds of possibilities. We understand the drill, we understand the process — if it wasn’t working, we wouldn’t have been here this long.”

It was why, especially at first, TR3 was a greater priority to Reynolds than Matthews.

In a 1999 interview with MTV, Matthews said he was working in a bar in Charlottesville, Va., Millers, the first time he met Reynolds. “I heard this incredible symphony coming from onstage. I looked up to see this short, little guy playing this big guitar and making all of these incredible noises,” Matthews said.

Reynolds had been playing music since he was a child in the Midwest, after being an Army brat (He was born in West Germany). He said he started with piano and after his uncle taught him to play guitar and his older siblings snuck Beatles’ albums into the house, his reach into the music world exploded.

Because his parents were uber-religious, he was allowed only to play church music at first. But as he was exposed to more what he called “cool” sounds, he said he made the bass his own, and he couldn’t wait for the day when he could play what he wanted.

What that eventually morphed into, besides guitar, bass and piano (on which he said he can only play uncomplicated pieces), includes sitar, drums, violin, bass, ethnic percussive instruments, solo djembe, harp, among other instruments.

Reynolds helped Matthews put together the original Dave Matthews Band, played with them on and off, and as a duo with just Matthews, until officially becoming a band member himself in 2008. But at first, he told Matthews that he was happy where he was, with TR3. Still, their friendship blossomed; they were collaborating constantly. Reynolds finally joined on more or less a full-time basis, but was also determined to keep TR3. 

There are overlaps. TR3 used Matthews’ famed Haunted Hollow Recording Studio, just outside of Charlottesville to record “Watch It.” The 10-song LP was captured by longtime TR3 and DMB sound engineer Rob Evans.

“[Rob] is so seamless as an engineer/producer,” Reynolds said. “He’s so passive, but he’s also a great teacher who doesn’t say anything about how he’s teaching you, because he’s doing his magic — he’s like a member of the band.”

Having “Watch It” and the rest of the TR3 catalog at his disposal, Reynolds uses the selections as a platform by which to expand upon within the live setting — this sacred realm of improvisational brilliance only found in those happenstance instances onstage, in front of a captive audience of longtime fans and the curious alike.

He also loves improv and long solos with DMB, mostly on the songs like “What Would You Say,” “Jimi Thing,” and their version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower. ” But it’s “Looking for a Vein,” a raspy quiet song about self-discovery from Matthews’ most recent album, “Walk Around the Moon,” that Reynolds said he enjoys the most playing with him live right now.

For Reynolds, this juncture of his whirlwind career also signals a shift in his intent, perhaps perspective, about what he does — and ultimately wants to do — as he pushes up and down the fretboard with a timeless, seamless sense of self.

 “[Nowadays], I would rather play some music and try my hardest to play something that goes inside of you — it’s not something you have to see, it’s something you hear and feel.”

Pondering the live realm of performance and improvisation, Reynolds himself will be the first to tell that his quest within TR3 remains to keep wandering down the endless rabbit hole of sonic possibility.

“When you want to express yourself, it’s always kind of a journey,” Reynolds says. “Because there’s always (the) thing that you (know) how to play, but then, once-in-a-while, in the middle of something, something fresh happens and it’s hard to describe — it’s this different feeling, and you try to hang on to that.”

Reflecting on his life and career — either with TR3, his longtime collaboration with Matthews or his continued work with DMB — Reynolds can’t help but offer up a wellspring of appreciation for his artistic trajectory that continues to soar across the ether of passion and purpose.

“I guess I’m lucky that things you thought would happen and things you didn’t think would happen, well, did,” Reynolds said. “Over the years, you’re trying to find a balance. And I’m lucky to be able to do two things that I really love with TR3 and DMB — it’s nothing but gratitude.”

And with TR3, he can rekindle the intimacy.

“I like small places because you can see the whole room,” he said. “And it’s a different pull with the audience. I make it good. And it’s great to be playing with these guys, who I love and have been playing with for so long.”

On a YouTube video, one of his fans describes him as awesomely weird, and when told about it, Reynolds broke into laughter, noting he loves the description.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “Put it in your story.”

Louise Hoffman Broach is the Sunday editor at the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva, NY. She is also a longtime freelance music journalist in a career that has spanned four decades in upstate New York. Tim Reynolds and the Dave Matthews Band are her hands-down favorite musicians on the planet.