Meet Tim Young aka Mighty Tim Young of Not Fade Away in Clarkdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Young.

Tim, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a performer by nature. I was bitten by the bug in high school once I saw the senior play. I attended high school in Easton, PA. My hometown. The next year, my senior year, I was cast in a small role. After high school, I attended Mansfield State College in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. There I learned how much I loved the theatre, acting and singing. I learned how to play the guitar. I graduated from Mansfield with my B.A. in 1971. In the winter of 1976, I moved to New York City to chase my dream of being a performer. I lived in Greenwich Village for a year before moving to mid-town. I did well and prospered in the city. Never a household name but I helped found a theatre company, The Fourth E, which produced many plays I had roles in. We worked out of a little theatre on East 4th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues. The playwright Robert Patrick was our Artistic Director. He was well known because of his play on Broadway, Kennedy’s Children. I wrote songs for our productions and those experiences eventually led me away from the theatre and into becoming a musician.

I formed more than half a dozen rock bands in New York. We always performed my original music. My first band was Signals, then Food, Babyface 86, The Cocktails, Tim Young Ensemble, Unleashed Dogs, and Coolava. Food played at the legendary CBGB. Before David Letterman moved into the Ed Sullivan theatre, the Tim Young Ensemble (TYE) was the house band at McGee’s Pub located in the very front of the theatre. Babyface 86 released a vinyl EP in the summer of 1984, on my label Vital Vinyl Records. Coolava was the first band to be paid at Arlene Grocery, a well known venue on Stanton Street on the Lower East Side. Once the bands drifted away, as they do, I began to work my solo act. In 2002 I created a new label, which is Not Fade Away. It is the label with which I release my music. As of this writing, my fifth release, The Lucky Ones, is nearing its release date.

I lived, created, and worked in NYC for thirty-seven years. An absolutely wild life-changing experience. I raised a son and ended a marriage. Then in 2013, a shift in my personal tectonic plates moved me from my long-held home to the wide-open spaces of Arizona. I am happy and content in my new home. I have been able to meet and work with many talented musicians. The muse also has been good to me as I have written many new songs and music under the blazing Arizona sun. I regularly perform solo across the Cottonwood, Prescott, Sedona region. And now I also perform with my percussionist, Steve Schutz, as Sir Mighty.

Performing, however, is not my only passion. I am a poet and a novelist. I wrote three books in New York and one here. The titles I am most proud of are: Red Beret, Writing With Wine, and Tony’s Juke Box Blues. My books have not been published but my poems have seen the light in numerous publications. The thrill of creation has, fortunately, never left me high and dry.

Has it been a smooth road?
Being an artist, in my opinion, is never a smooth road. Obstacles abound. Always with me, and I know so many others, have had to struggle with doing our work and making a living. I have written songs about this conundrum. It all boils down to time. Back in New York, actors always referred to the day job as the survival job. Survive indeed. More like the “bill paying” job since usually the income from artistic endeavors is, shall we say, small.

Just for the hell of it, along the way, I have enjoyed and endured many survival jobs. Here’s a list: Temp worker (many different businesses including the Bank of Tokyo). I was a waiter, bus boy, cafe manager at the Cafe Figaro in Greenwich Village, at the corner of Bleecker and Macdougal Streets. In mid-town I waited tables at a great theatre restaurant known as Curtain Up! I was a bartender for a long time on Broadway in all the Shubert Houses. I was a messenger, (delivered items to the World Trade Center), retail sales, (my first job in NYC) and deli clerk. The upside of all this work are the people I’ve met. Many of them did help smooth some bumps and give a great deal to my artistic life. For that, I’m constantly grateful.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
My business is almost 100% personal. I write the songs, record them, copyright them, perform them, and sell them. I specialize in crafting memorable words and music. I know how to write a great hook, the part of a song that sticks in the head. I think this is because I grew up in the heyday of top 40 AM radio. One could set different stations on the car radio so that once a commercial came on you could push a button and go to the next station where, more than likely, another song would be playing. So my influences began then before I knew I was a musician. I did know I was a huge fan and all the big American artists and British invasion artists poured into my head. Then, of course, The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show helped to change my world. Other music I craved were the Beach Boys, Tommy James, Mitch Ryder, Martha Reeves, The Supremes, Herman’s Hermits, The Temptations, and the Rolling Stones, to name a few!

My performances are high energy affairs. As my dear friend Neal likes to say, “a real toe-tapper.” People enjoy and remember the energy. I always stand up when I play, sitting down only when I’m rehearsing at home. I love that with each show I do I learn more about singing and playing my guitar. Pride comes from knowing I am still releasing new original material and will until that is impossible. It comes from continually attempting to improve and excel at my craft. I like to think Not Fade Away is exactly that.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The music industry rarely stands still. Who knows what the next 5 to 10 years may bring. It is great that so much recording now can be done in the home. I hope it becomes even more affordable. As far as I’m concerned, in my industry, I want to avoid the traps of formula and keep expanding my musical horizons. If, in the future, there arise more possibilities of income streams, then I would certainly avail myself to them. I am a writer with BMI and an artist with CD Baby. As my song, Rock & Roll declares, “rock & roll is anything it wants to be,” I plan to nurture my evolution.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.timyoungmusic.com
• Email: timyoungmusic89@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mightytimyoung/
• Twitter: @timsored

Image Credit:
Paula Parente

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