Buncearoo Presents: Erin & The Wildfire + Tim Jones (from Truth & Salvage Co. + Zach Broocke

Tim Jones

You need only spend a few minutes talking to Tim Jones, one of the four songwriters in the band Truth and Salvage Co., to realize that he is a man without a generation. And I mean that in a good way. Read the book Hotel California: The True Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends by Barney Hoskyns, and you'll see what I mean. It's about the singer/songwriter scene in southern California from the mid 60s through the 70s. The artists in that scene valued the craft of the song, sat around and played a lot of guitar and piano, and spoke of the emotional connection between them and their instruments. This is where Jones belonged.

He lives a bungalow in LA--an obvious connection to the 70s singer/songwriter scene. There is a close bond, a spiritual connection, between him, his musical instrument, and his song. It's a genuine affection, to such an extent that he writes only when he needs his instrument or it needs him. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship.

It should come as little surprise, then, that Jones's writing process is neither methodical nor regimented. But over his twenty-year songwriting career (he's been writing since he was fourteen), he has relied, in the purest sense of the word, on the inspiration of his muse. Jones writes when he feels like it, not when he is supposed to. He waits for his muse. And when it strikes--when he is inspired--he heads right to the piano or guitar. His muse is in the form of a melody, not a lyric, so he'll just start humming. And from that melody come the lyrics. Oh, he's got pages and pages of lyrics that he has frantically written down throughout his life, when he thinks he has a great line. But nothing ever comes of it. It's the music that moves him first.
For Jones, it's all about emotion. Creativity is never meant to be defined. So if you ask him to explain why he likes a work of art--whether it's a song, a poem, a sculpture, whatever--don't expect him to tell you why he likes it. Art is meant to move you emotionally, not intellectually. And that's not something you are meant to explain.

Truth and Salvage's debut release (out May 2010) was produced by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. David Fricke of Rolling Stone had great things to say about it. I think I earned some cred with Tim when I told him that I caught the Black Crowes show at Club Eastbrook in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1990 on the day Shake Your Money Maker went gold. Read the interview with Tim Jones. You'll learn his thoughts on pop songs, his plans after music, what it's like to work in a band with four songwriters, his favorite fiction and poetry writers--and what happens when he plays Hall and Oates on the piano.

Zach Broocke

Leaving Boston in the early fall of 2001 Zach headed for Nashville, where he recorded his first full length album “Be Somebody.” This album was independently released by Suburban Sweetheart Productions, LLC, a production company/publishing house that Zach started in April of 2004. While in Nashville, Chad Brown, engineer/producer (Ryan Adams, Bob Seger, Steve Earle) introduced Zach to his writing partner Troy Johnson (Warner Chappell, Dixie Chicks, Keith Urban). The two of them penned many songs that were included on “Be Somebody” and Zach’s latest release “Last Call” EP. For seven months Zach toured everywhere east of the Mississippi and filled rooms in Nashville such as Twelfth and Porter, Third and Lindsley and Exit/In, performing with great acts like Shawn Mullins, Carbon Leaf, Mack Starks, The Bees and Bob Schneider.

Zach left Tennessee in 2005 for California. In L.A. he formed a band with a new group of musicians including Lester Nuby/drums and bgvs, Jamie Wollam/drums and bgvs, Jared Leifert/bass, Joe Corcoran/guitars and bgvs. L.A. is where he finished writing and recorded “Last Call” EP. Zach has played many L.A. venues including The Hotel Cafe, The Troubadour, The Viper Room, and The Roxy and the El Rey Theatre splitting bills with Josh Radin, Tim Jones, Amos Lee and Todd Snider.

Still penning songs with Troy Johnson, Zach is also writing songs with Mike Busbee, Scott Bennett (Brian Wilson) and David Hodges (Kelly Clarkson, Evanesense, Chris Daughtry). Zach’s song “Pullin up the Drive” from his “Be Somebody” album was featured in the motion picture “The Feast of Love” from Lakeshore Productions, released in 2007, starring Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear. Plus, "Why Can't You," which he wrote, recorded, and produced by himself in three days, was featured in the motion picture "Henry Poole is Here" also from Lakeshore Entertainment released in 2008, starring Luke Wilson and George Lopez. He has had songs featured in MTV’s “The Real World”, Oxygen Network’s “Bad Girls” and an online television show “Port City P.D.” Zach’s song “Remember Me” from his “Last Call” EP was featured in the April 07 issue of Paste Magazine.

In 2011, Zach released WatchDogLookOut via Dualtone Records. Contributers to WatchDogLooKOut include producer/engineer Chad Brown (Ryan Adams, Faith Hill), percussionists Ken Coomer (Wilco, Steve Earle) and Fred Eltringham (The Wallflowers, Rivers Cuomo), upright bassist Frank Swart (Morphine, Norah Jones), keys guru Curt Perkins (Josh Rouse, J.J. Cale), guitarist Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt), complete with the mastering being done by Andrew Mendelson (Van Morrison, Rolling Stones). With a half a dozen more ancillary players, the team’s total discographies account for well in excess of 40 million records sold.

Lakeshore Records released Enjoy The Ride: Solo Writes 2001-12 on May 22, 2012. The album is a retrospective of Zach's solo writing skills and features the brand-new single, "Enjoy The Ride." Recorded and mixed in studios in Tennessee, Massachusetts, and California, this collection, written over a span of 11 years, showcases his personal and professional journey as a songwriter.

Tickets and more info available here: https://jamminjava.com/events/buncearoo-presents