Joel Timmons
Bio
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Joel Timmons has been a lifelong collaborator, a veteran as one musical part of a greater whole. Now, with his debut solo album, Psychedelic Surf Country (releasing Feb. 7, 2025), the career musician, band leader, and sideman finds himself as the focal point, center stage. The songs and stories in this collection – and the vibrant community that helped make them – are the starlight guiding Timmons to his very own moment. This may be a solo album, but it’s certainly not a solitary one.
Psychedelic Surf Country effortlessly combines so many varied parts of Timmons’ life, loves, and experiences dressed in just as many genres and styles. Produced by Maya de Vitry – an artist he often tours with as a band member – Timmons’ first album under his own name is wild and free, but equally intentional and deep. Country sounds blend with bluegrass pickers and the down-to-earth grunge of folk rock; poetic lyrics walk hand-in-hand with hilarious honky-tonking numbers and meditative, cyclical ponderings. There are moments of psychedelia, of jamgrass, tinges of Jimmy Buffett and recollections of Marty Stuart.
Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, the lowcountry and coastal life have always been a huge part of Timmons. He was just a teenager when he met his future Sol Driven Train bandmates, later forming the group together in college. Still active more than two decades later, touring around the country, the Caribbean, and the world, Sol Driven Train have carved a pathway to success that’s always been self-defined, while giving Timmons a canvas for honing and re-honing his songs and playing. It’s a huge part of why Psychedelic Surf Country also feels equally at home on the beach or in a honky tonk – or even beneath the black lights and lasers at a late night festival set.
The textures, inputs, and influences of this album don’t come from a post-modern hipster vision board of fads and trends, but each represent keystones of Timmons’ personality, of his life, his community, and his story. All of which are woven deftly through these fun, earnest, engaging, and danceable songs.
Psychedelic Surf Country begins with “Just A Man,” a tribute to Timmons’ dad that’s full of the nostalgia and imagery of mainstream country, but with a grit and honesty often lacking on similar story songs. “Just A Man,” like a handful of tracks on the album, was co-written with Timmons’ wife and musical partner, GRAMMY-winning bluegrass bassist, Shelby Means. They’ve collaborated often and expertly, with projects like Sally & George, Lover’s Leap, and more. There’s also “Guitars, Guns, and Pickup Trucks,” a comedic alt-country banger that spotlights Timmons’ father-in-law, Means’ dad. Bluegrass fiddler Jason Carter lends his bow to that number, and harmony vocals as well; the result feels ready for a country radio promo tour.
Elsewhere on the album, longtime Charleston friend and musical comrade Cary Ann Hearst appears as a featured guest on the project’s lead single, a passionate and striking cover of Luke Bell’s “The Bullfighter.” One of Timmons’ heroes and now friends, Oliver Wood, lends guest vocals to “Here We Are,” a song written by Timmons way back in high school with a wisdom that he’s carried throughout his career.
“Turbo” is rollicking and hilarious, a forward-leaning ‘60s style rocker featuring a drug-sniffing K9 – and made complete with barks rendered by Timmons and Means’ puppy, Casper. “Cottage By the Sea” nods to the lowcountry and the siren song of home via the spirits of Hank Williams and Lester Flatt. “East Nashville Cowboy” finds Timmons mocking thrift store hipsters… or himself? “Tryin’” is combustibly sexy, Loudon Wainwright III’s “The Swimming Song” aquatic and more than apropos, “End of the Empire” is ethereal and dreamy, dripping with solidarity. The sequence of tracks is a delightful patchwork, not undercut by their variety, but built with that kaleidoscope quality as a foundation.
As a result, Psychedelic Surf Country feels totally self aware with Timmons entirely self-possessed. But even with that awareness, it’s unencumbered, accessible, and light. With a wink and a dance, Timmons’ ensemble, many of whom he met and connected with during his tenure in Nashville, follow each of these songs wherever they and Timmons lead, giving each their due. With pickers like Carter, de Vitry, Dominick Leslie, Brett Resnick, Mark Raudabaugh, Ethan Jodziewicz, and De Marco Johnson, the continuum of genres is expertly executed, everyone in the same boat and no one out of their depth.
It’s hard to describe such a multi-faceted album in a succinct and tidy way, but perhaps the easiest way to sum up this record is that it’s wholly Joel Timmons. It’s country, it’s surf rock, it’s psychedelia, it’s alt, it’s indie, it’s jamgrass – it’s so much more. From the cabana to the cabin, Psychedelic Surf Country is ready to be the soundtrack to any kind of good time, as long as there are kind folks, good dogs, joyous dancing, and fun waves.
