Tim Krekel, 1950-2009 « Jimmy Guterman’s Jewels and BinocularsJimmy Guterman’s Jewels and Binoculars
thanks for the post, J.G.
Tim Krekel, 1950-2009
Tim Krekel died today (june 24, 2009).
He was a magnificent songwriter, singer, and guitarist. His career extended back to Crazy Love for Capricorn in the late 1970s, but I met him in the mid-1980s when he fronted The Sluggers, part of the Praxis family, that genius cluster of performers and entrepreneurs in Nashville who casually invented the next few generations of American rock’n'roll. Two of his songs for Jason and the Scorchers, “I Can’t Help Myself” and “Greetings from Nashville,” stand among the most exhilarating and hard-headed American rock’n'roll I’ve ever heard. They will last as long as people care about music: i.e., forever.
One of the great pleasures in making The Sandinista Project was reconnecting after a long, long time with performers I knew back when I made a meager living on the outskirts of the music industry. Tim was one of the first people I asked to contribute to the record, and he responded promptly with one of the collection’s standouts: a swamp-soul reworking of “Version City” (M4A format). [I've got VC up on my fake Our Favorite Band- Last.Fm Site, if anybody wants to hear it, along with other weirdities, like Jerry Lee Lewis tracks from 'Catch My Soul' and Mickey Newbury's original of Jerry Lee Cover "why you been gone so long" etc.]
The performance captures Tim’s deep knowledge of many kinds of American music (I got goose bumps the first time I heard the horns kick in), his original take on anything you could throw at him, his humor, and his knockout guitar and arrangements. He was an artist and a gentleman, a rare combination.
