Joel Timmons Dissolves Genre Lines with Psychedelic Surf Country

Nashville isn’t one size that fits all, with maverick singer and musician Joel Timmons, whose solo debut, Psychedelic Surf Country, mixes barroom honky-tonk with a Psychedelic surf vibe.

“I watched the ‘cowboy-fication’ of myself,” says Timmons, describing his five-year stay in Nashville. “I felt like I walked back into 1958. It’s just a level of commitment to that period of music and that style of dress they really hold on to.”

The Charleston, South Carolina, native says “East Nashville Cowboy” is “autobiographical.”

“I enjoy using humor in my writing even when talking about serious stuff and real feelings. I definitely admire people like Roger Miller and Frank Zappa.

“The song isn’t meant to be a teardown,” explains Timmons about Nashville’s modernized culture. “That’s the juxtaposition of the whole thing: it's 1958, but we’ve got Ubers and we’ve got fancy coffee.”

Despite recording in Nashville, Timmons says there was no demand to make Psychedelic Surf Country a country album.

“There’s all the best fiddlers, all the best steel players and all the history and recording studios there, but I didn’t take it as pressure to make a country record. I took it as an opportunity to explore that sound with some of the best in the game.”

Timmons says dating his future wife, then a Nashville resident and Grammy Award-winning bluegrass singer Shelby Means, drove him to leave Charleston.  

“[Shelby] said, ‘You know this isn’t working. Either I move to Charleston, or you move to Nashville. And I’m not moving to Charleston!’ It was definitely a move for love.” [Laughs.]

Timmons, who performs with singer-songwriter Maya De Vitry and his hometown band Sole Driven Train, says he and Shelby were a perfect match.

“We started singing together, which became our duo, Sally & George. It was a natural vocal blend. Both of us were choir kids, so we knew about cutting off words together and opening up our vowels in the same way.”

The couple collaborated on his song “End of the Empire.” “[Shelby] wrote the first lyric with the melody. We were down in the Virgin Islands. She was floating in a little dinghy in the channel, and I was out over the reef surfing. When I got back to the boat, she sang the melody to me.

That song was one that I didn’t really know what I was writing about. I didn’t have a plan; the words just fell out and felt right.”

Timmons, an ardent surfer, felt homesick in Nashville.

“I did feel landlocked,” explains Timmons, who moved back to South Carolina with his wife, Shelby. “I loved the community; I loved the way [Nashville] made me a better musician and a better writer. I just missed the ocean so much.”

He describes the benefits of surfing. “Surfing helps me stay connected. It’s been a lifelong pursuit. I have been playing in the ocean longer than I have been playing on the guitar. It helps me find clarity, peace and my mental space.”

The surfing singer-songwriter explains why he chose Maya De Vitry to produce Psychedelic Surf Country.

“We moved to Nashville at about the same time, and I was a fan of [her band] The Stray Birds,” says Timmons, who was impressed by her work. “I just knew that she would help bring other people into the project that could help bring things out of me.”

Psychedelic Surf Country isn’t like The Grateful Dead.

“Live, we let things stretch out a little bit for more of that jam band kind of feeling.  Some of the guitar tones are kind of spacy, but most of the song lengths are under four minutes—it’s not exactly a whole psychedelic trip in there.”

Going on, “For me, psychedelics in music is about dissolving the genre lines. You know, is it country, is it rock, is it folk?”

Timmons feels that anything is possible.

“It’s really an exciting time, because there is a lot of potential and uncertainty between my record, Shelby’s record, Sole Driven Train and Maya De Vitry—and whatever else we cook up!”

Timmons teases the idea of recording a more traditional style album.

“I am kind of interested in going real acoustic with some of my [songs]. Being around Shelby and all her bluegrass buddies inspires me to make some string band music. But it took me forty-five years to make Psychedelic Surf Country,” Timmons jokes. “By the time I’m ninety, I’ll have my second [album].”