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 I do not know how or when, but somehow I heard about Tim Gearan and showed up at Toad on a Monday night a few years ago. I left my house shortly after 10pm, walked to Porter Square, found the last stool at the corner of the bar, and halleluiah, there he was. Beside me appeared a horn section and a tall balding guy asking me if I was the girlfriend of one of the guys in the band.
That night I was transported to the scene in the movie where the famous musician is making a cameo appearance as a singer at a dive off the highway, while the lead actor approaches the lonely girl at the bar. Except the guy was less suave, and immediately bragged about knowing the sax player.
At his April 11th show at Club Passim, Tim Gearan was introduced by club manager, Matt Smith, as a local legend. For me, and for many of Gearan’s admirers, that title only begins to describe the magnitude of his contribution to the Boston music scene, and the indescribable power he and his band have to lift a room out of the ground and send it into the infinite night sky. Gearan has been on the Passim stage many a time, but this show was just his second headlining performance at the Harvard Square venue. For the Passim show Gearan played with friends Lou Ulrich on bass and Sean Staples on mandolin and vocals. The room was packed with his traditionally enthusiastic audience on both occasions, just as it was at Atwood’s Tavern the night before, at The Burren the evening after, and at Toad the night after that. I was among the Tim Gearan devotees at all four shows. My friend Ellen Roth who is frequently in the audience at Gearan’s shows, says this about the Club Passim show, “You could sense his (Gearan’s) respect and appreciation of his fellow musicians, graciously inviting Sean Staples to play a couple of songs, one of which Staples, with equal respect, was Gearan's Talk About Heaven. Tim ended the show with a wonderfully energetic take on Staples’ Joy Comes Back. There was so much magic being made on stage, it was impossible to stop smiling.” Songwriter Peter Mulvey will often mention Gearan at his shows; the two men are friends and collaborators. When I emailed Mulvey asking for his thoughts about Gearan, he wrote me an email that I was truly moved by, he says, “The fact that he (Gearan) can play a regular gig at Toad, and then add a regular gig at Atwood’s, and not really be redundant, different band, different vibe. Who can do that? …he could probably add a third weekly gig and there'd be a good reason to do that, too…he's like a big tree, he just makes a bunch of songs the way a tree makes a bunch of leaves, and then he just shakes them off. And any one of them is beautiful, if you stop to pick it up and look at it.” Friday nights at Atwood's in Cambridge, you will usually find Mike Piehl on drums, Eric Royer on banjo and harmonies, Steve Sadler on lap steel and Lou Ulrich on bass. Gearan has been playing at Atwood’s since the bar opened a couple of years ago. I heard a rumor that one of the reasons they opened the bar, was so that Tim could play a residency there. Regardless, Gearan and the owners have a mutual love for each other. Friday night at Atwood’s is a must-see for area live music fans like fiddle player Jess Fox, who told me, “…I like the drive and funk on Mondays at Toad with the horns and the mando, the down and dirty on Fridays at Atwood’s with the banjo and the lap steel, and I always like to hear Tim's incredible voice fill a quiet room like Passim.” At Toad the regular players are Lou Ulrich on bass, Andy Plaisted on drums, Sean Staples on mandolin and vocals, Chris Anzalone on percussion, Paul Ahlstrand on saxophone, and Scott Aruda on trumpet. About Gearan’s killer band, Mulvey says, “His songs are near enough to the source of things that any player wants to get near them, it's like a watering hole, just a natural phenomenon; it's where the critters gather.” Sean Staples met Gearan through his friend, musician David "Goody" Goodrich, and when Goody moved to Northern Mass, Sean took his place in the Toad band. Staples says, “Despite playing every Monday…for the last 8 years or so, it rarely feels like work. There are always great new songs, glorious sloppy moments of spontaneity, amazing players, and a loyal audience that recognizes that it’s worth being a little bleary eyed Tuesday morning to be a part of it.” Not only is It a regular occurrence to hear Tim Gearan play a Sean Staples song, and for Staples to cover Gearan when performing with his other bands, But you can also hear mention of Gearan in the music of fellow songwriters like Peter Mulvey, and Rose Polenzani. In Mulvey’s song Toad, he sings, “You can’t leave and can’t stand up, it’s Monday night and Timmy tears it up.” And on Polenzani’s song You Were Drunk, “Well I thought I’d be okay, walking on my lonesome way, ‘til ya came to the neighborhood bar, and while Timmy played guitar, won me with a smile so bright, that I thought I’d be alright.” Whether you catch Tim Gearan at Toad, Atwood’s, Passim, or, when he trades songs with Sean Staples and Eric Royer around a table in the front room at The Burren, there will be a moment of music that will cause your eyes to water, all the lights will turn kaleidoscope, and surprise will happen. You just could not see or hear IT coming. “Tim's music is bigger than he is, bigger than any given night at any given bar, bigger than the records. It's really there at one of those places where the wall between this world and the next is all thin and crumbly. The guy is one for the ages.” (Peter Mulvey)
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