An interview with Belgian bluesman Tiny Legs Tim
Belgian bluesman Tim De Graeve, who goes by the stage name Tiny Legs Tim, is a rather new and worthwhile artist in the one-man band scene. Even though he has only been writing and recording original songs and performing for a few years now as a one-man band, Tiny Legs Tim has a very well-developed sound. Using an exceedingly basic setup consisting of a beat-up acoustic guitar fitted with a Stratocaster pickup and nickel strings, a miked stomp board for percussion, and expressive vocals, he not only plays genuine blues but a combination of its more notable styles. To be sure, it isn’t your average white boy blues.
For such a young man, De Graeve knows the blues all too well – in a very personal way, that is -, having suffered a near fatal illness over the years, which resulted in two liver transplants to date. That experience, among others, finds its way into his music. So too does the music he grew up listening to from his father’s record collection of old blues greats. Also in Tim’s sound one can easily detect a bit of the rural isolation in which he was raised. Of course, he didn’t come up in America’s Deep South, but rather in the Flemish countryside of Belgium. Certainly a place one doesn’t exactly associate with the blues. Then again, if there is one thing the current crop of international bluesmen has proven with their music, it is that geographical location means very little.
Though there is something undeniably pure about Tiny Legs Tim’s approach to the blues, with that whole raw and dirty quality somewhat reminiscent of the early pre-war Delta artists, full of pickin’ and bottleneck slide, the varying levels of natural distortion on his shabby acoustic coupled with a slight infusion of boogie in his sound give it a slight Hill Country quality as well. There is something else, too; something all his own that goes beyond the influences, establishing him as a true bluesman…and not just of the one-man band scene in specific but of roots music in general. This is evidenced on his brand new full-length album titled One Man Blues. With Tiny Legs Tim, it is indisputable that we have a real talent on our hands.
Recently I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing Tiny Legs Tim. What follows is the content from that interview in its entirety.
For starters, in the interest of giving the readers of this piece a better understanding of the artist, I would like to ask: Just who is Tim De Graeve, a.k.a. Tiny Legs Tim, not just as a singer/songwriter but as an individual, a human being of this mad world in which we live?
I was born 1978 in the Flemish countryside (Belgium). I have an older sister and a younger brother. We grew up far away and protected from the madness of the big city. We didn’t have television, so external input was kept to a minimum. As a result we played a lot outdoors in nature, read a lot of books, listened to the radio, and I especially to my father’s records (Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemmon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Sonny terry and Brownie McGhee…). In a very early stage it became clear to me I wanted to play guitar and make my own music. When I was five years old I stumbled upon a guitar in my grandfather’s attic. I still play on that guitar now. My parents sent me to the local music school and there I learned to play guitar (the classical way). I was only eight years old. I started experimenting with my own music at the age of eleven. That’s also the age I bought my first CD. It was John Lee Hookers’ That’s my Story/the Folk Blues of John Lee Hooker.
I was not a bad student (my father took much importance in school results), and by the time I finished high school it was in evidence that I would go to university. I chose Biology. I finished my studies in 2001 and started working as a teacher. As I look back at it now, my life started to get sidetracked. I still played music and had a lot of fun with my blues rock band The Heartfakers. But if nothing had happened I think I still would have been teaching and music would’ve been a hobby or a forgotten dream.
When I was twenty-three I got ill. Seriously ill. From my early childhood there had been some health issues, but like the doctors said, things would be better once I grew up. What happened was to the contrary. In 2003 I had my first liver transplant, followed by four years of life threatening complications. This came to an end with a second transplant in 2007. It took me a while to get back on my feet again, but since then I’m totally focused on my music. At the end of 2008 I started playing slide guitar on my grandfather’s guitar. That was the real start of Tiny Legs Tim as you can hear it today.
There are very few young white males doing the whole genuine blues thing, and there are even fewer who do it remarkably well. You are definitely one of those few who do it, and do it very well. What inspired you to go in that musical direction?
I have known some of the old blues masters since I was very young. My father had a few records and I remember listening to them all the time. I was fascinated by it. When I was younger I tried to play all kinds of music, but what really pushed me back to the old blues style was the six years of solitude and illness. That experience was so intense, and it changed the way I look at life. Surviving this gave me the courage just to do what I like the best, without thinking of what might be cool or hip. And in a very short time I learned to play slide guitar, had written a one-hour set and was on the road again! It was like a natural thing to do for me.
Why the moniker Tiny Legs Tim?
Blind Willy Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Sleepy John Estes, these are examples of three-piece blues names. Quite often they also describe a physical characteristic. Tiny Legs Tim can fit in that row. There’s some irony to it, too. Since my illness I lost a lot of weight, and when I first started playing I was very fragile and my legs were like match sticks. Still very thin these days. It’s a funny name, and puts myself in perspective. It’s a way to cope with my ‘new’ body.
Your first full-length album has only just recently been released. All of the songs, save a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Ramblin’ on my Mind,” are Tiny Legs Tim originals. How long did you work on that material? And to make this a two-part question, what does your songwriting process consist of?
Some of the songs were written during my illness, but others just popped up when I started experimenting with slide guitar. But all of them were written in the past three years. I had a peak in songwriting in 2007, if I remember well; at this moment I still write but at a lower frequency. However, the songs on the disc are only a selection of what I played during the live recordings. I still have a lot of unrecorded songs, so I hope it won’t take too long to make the second album. Normally lyrics and music originate separately and come together somewhere along the process. So I have a bunch of lyrics and some ideas or riffs on guitar. On a good day the pieces fall together!
As far as your sound, I am able to detect a few different blues styles blended into it – classic blues styles like Delta and country blues combined with hill country and Chicago blues, along with a little bit of boogie and something all your own. What style would you say you favor when it comes to the blues? And…which style do you think is represented most on your One Man Blues album?
I think you put it right when you say you can hear all those styles mixed together into something of my own. In general it tends more toward the original Delta blues style, but that’s partly because of the slide and the one-man setting, I guess.
At this point I prefer listening to and studying on the real old Delta blues and hill country blues. Robert Johnson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mississippi John Hurt, Charley Patton. But the funny thing is that it’s more of a post-hoc study. I got more interested in the old singers because what I did sounded like that.
Clearly, you play shows when you can, and embark on the occasional mini-tour. What have been some of your most memorable gig/tour moments so far?
That’s a tough one. In 2011 I played like a hundred and twenty-five shows all over Europe. It’s hard to pick one out. But in general the long tours I did (about one month) were quite a unique experience. The feeling of total detachment when you’re in the middle of a tour. Lots of shows behind lots of shows to come. All you do is drive your car, meet people, play a show, sleep, and the next day the same all over again, but in a total different setting. Different places, different people, different atmosphere… it’s hypnotizing in a way.
Soon, the 4thof May, I play at the Moulin Blue Festival in Ospel (The Netherlands). That’s quite an achievement over here in the Belgian and Dutch blues scene. I hope that will be a memorable gig.
Not only are you the first bluesman I have come across from Belgium, you are the first one-man band as well. Is there a scene for such music in your home country, or are you sort of a freak phenomenon there?
One thing’s for sure, there are not many here in Belgium. However, I know a few one-man bands. Two I can think of right now are The Goon Mat and Billy Joe. Both form the French-speaking part of the country. With the latter I will release a split 7-inch in Spring.
As for the blues in general, there’s quite a bit of blues around here. We have several small festivals and a bunch of dedicated blues clubs. Many American blues musicians come to Belgium to play at the clubs and festivals. We even have a European Blues Union that organizes a European Blues Challenge every year. The blues circuit is not that big and more or less a closed society. Same people everywhere.
But I don’t stick to the blues scene. I try to play in the alternative circuit as much as possible. Keeping things open. Reaching out to new people, young people!
Over the years I’ve come across a lot of artists from non-English speaking countries that tend to sing in English, especially when their music involves the blues in one form or another. You are among these artists, obviously. Do you sing in English primarily because the music that influenced you to do what you are currently doing was sung in English?
In Belgium everybody sings in English. There are some bands and singer/songwriters that express themselves in Dutch but they are a minority. And very often it’s more folk-like music (and by folk I mean the ancient European Folk music).
Maybe we all hope to become more successful when we sing in English.
Reaching a bigger audience…
It’s just something most of us don’t think about. We just write our lyrics in English.
Which blues artists would you say are your favorite – from the classic blues set and the modern set? If you have favorites from both, that is.
This could become a long list of names! I don’t have, like, one favorite. I’m still discovering lots of new old stuff…
I must confess, I don’t keep track of new releases, so I’m not familiar with the modern blues bands. But let’s say I’m open to everything as long as it’s real and pure. And I think that’s something that’s hard to find these days. However, I know it’s out there and it will gain importance again! I hope.
Is there anything of note coming up for Tiny Legs Tim? Further releases, collaborations, tours, gigs, etc?
Well, the 21th of April One Man Blueswill be released on vinyl! I’m very happy with that. With the first seventy-five copies comes an unreleased instrumental EP. Songs I made for an exposition of the British Romantic painter John Constable.
Very soon there will be a 7-inch coming out, too – a split single with Billie Joe.
And last week I recorded “The Cortisone Blues.” This song will be released as 7-inch as soon as possible. On one side the electrified version for partying, and on the other side a very intimate acoustic version of the same song.
Meanwhile I’m busy with the preproduction of the second album. Hopefully to be released in February 2013.
I’m also planning a new European tour. But when the opportunity comes I might hit the road sooner.
Lastly, if there’s anything I failed to cover, or if there’s anything you would like to discuss or express, feel free to do so now. The floor is all yours, Tim.
I think we got the most.