Tim Easton has been singing and writing songs since he was 14 years old. He never considered another career. After finishing college, Easton hit the road with his guitar and spent seven years singing and playing on European street corners. When he got back to Ohio, Easton joined the Haynes Boys, a roots-rock outfit that made one album before breaking up. Free again, Easton picked up his guitar and returned to the road, touching down long enough to make nine albums that earned him a loyal following with their blend of gritty roots-rock and heartfelt songwriting. Every LP took a slightly different approach and his latest, Not Cool, shows off his love of rockabilly and early R&B. Easton will be quest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on him.
Easton: Your rock ‘n’ roll freaks will just say “no shit, Sherlock” to all of this, but here’s the case of a Stones album that just grabbed me and kept me. Everybody has a few albums that really made a strong impression on them, and this would be one for me. I was in the seventh grade when it came out, and as we listened in Akron to “Miss You” play on The Home Of The Buzzard (Cleveland’s WMMS), I recall asking my basketball coach who these funky black dudes were on the radio. He cracked up and said it was the Rolling Stones. In my mind, there was no way this could be the same band who sang “Get Off My Cloud,” which was melded into my brainwaves after playing the High Tide and Green Grass LP on repeat on a turntable that sat just on the other side of my pillow. The speakers were on each side of the bed. I would listen to it at a soft volume all through the night and wake up to it in the morning, until one day the needle didn’t work anymore.
I thought disco was supposed to suck, but apparently it could be melded with punk rock to make Some Girls. When I finally bought the LP, I remember it was on orange vinyl. Most the songs are in the key of A, and I just got to work at jammin’ with the Stones, as they say. The search for the weave had begun. Keith and Ronnie just swapping licks and slashes and kicks and lasses.
