Tim Hildebrandt

Tim describes himself first and foremost a song writer.  However, Tim has been writing, performing, producing and recording music since the early 60’s.  Originally from Woodstock New York, Tim has been living in North Carolina for over 40 years.  He penned his first song “It’s Not Me” when he was a senior in high school and still remembers how to play it.  His first musical influence was Elvis Presley.  Another influence and how he learned to sing harmony was the Everly Brothers.  In Tim’s words – “ I knew that Don and Phil were singing different parts so I would listen to  one voice and learn that part then listen to the other voice and learn that part.  It was like two songs being sung at the same time. Awesome!”  Probably the most profound influence was the Beatles. Not only did they play and sing but wrote their own songs as well.  At his high school talent show he and some friends won first place playing “I Saw Her Standing There” complete with Beatle wigs, pegged pants, and Beatle boots.  “I was John” Tim says.
After graduating from high school, Tim attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.  He paid his way through school playing in a band called The Wreck Of The Old 97.  During the summer of 1966 the ‘Wreck’ was the house band in a club in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  The club was on what was then called the Chitlin Circuit.   If you’ve never heard of chitlins, (sometimes referred to as chitterlings) they are a type of food made from pig intestines. In the US, they are a common soul food offering. The Chitlin Circuit was a group of Southern clubs where black entertainers performed.  Normally just the singer or singers would show up with maybe a guitar player and the house band would learn their hit(s) in the afternoon and then back them up that evening.  He backed up acts like The Drifters, Dixie Cups, and Mayor Lance just to name a few.
After a stint in the Army and a tour of Vietnam, Tim landed back in Greenville in 1971 where he formed a group called The Band From Clayroot.  Clayroot was the name of a small crossroads about 10 miles out of town where the band lived.  Sometime in 1972 the band was renamed Heartwood.  The band’s style was Country Rock.  Heartwood became a regional favorite and recorded their first album ‘Wants And Needs”.  At that time the band consisted of only three members.  Tim on guitar, Gary Johnson on bass, and Bill Butler on lap steel.  “We were kinda “America” on steroids” says Tim.  The band kept growing until it was composed of seven members.  Besides Tim, Gary, and Bill they added Robert Hudson on drums, Byron Paul on lead guitar, Joe McGlohon on pedal steel and sax, and Carter Minor on harmonica.   Their record contract was bought by General Recording Corporation out of Atlanta, Georgia and the band moved to Athens Georgia.  Their first album was a re-recording of the original album “Wants And Needs”.  They toured the South and in 1974 recorded their relatively successful follow up album “Nothin’ Fancy”.  The album was produced by Paul Hornsby who had also produced the Charlie Daniels Band and the Marshall Tucker band.
After three years of touring the band broke up and Tim moved to Chapel Hill North Carolina.  It was during this time that he became interested in producing and engineering records.  He met Steve Gronback who owned a studio called TGS.  Tim offered to work for free if Steve would teach him engineering skills.  In about three months Tim was engineering records on his own.  He garnered respect from artists that came through the studio because, not only was he an engineer, but he could relate to clients on a musical level as well.  Besides working in the studio Tim played in several bands such as “Night Shift”, “Southern Standard Time”, and “The Cadillac Kids”.
In 1991 Tim signed a publishing contract with Old Dam Publishing and started to concentrate on writing and recording his own music. He won an Emerging Artist grant for song writing and his manager Barry Adams suggested that he may want to relocate to Nashville which was the songwriting hot bed of America.  One trip to Nashville and Tim was hooked.   Songwriters were everywhere.  In fact there was an ongoing joke around town.  It went - How do you find a songwriter in Nashville?  Just go into any eatery and yell ..waiter!   In 1993 Tim and his soon to be wife Deb moved to the West End of Nashville.  After a year or so of knocking on doors with no luck and no job, Tim decided to put his engineering and production skills to work and opened West End Recorders.  West End was what was termed as a demo studio.  It was used basically by songwriters to record songs that were to be pitched to established Country stars.  Tim formed a stable of great studio players that he could count on to play anything that came through the door.  During this time Tim met Jerry Capehart.  Jerry had penned major hit records such as ‘Summertime Blues ‘(which has been recorded by everyone from Eddie Cochran to the Who) and ‘Turn Around Look At Me’ which was Glen Campbell’s first hit.  Incidentally Jerry discovered Glen.  Jerry signed to Tim to a publishing contract with his company Steep Holler Publishing and the two had a wonderful working and personal relationship until Jerry’s death in 1998.
In 1998 Tim and Deb moved back to North Carolina to a small country town called Polkton to care for Deb’s ailing father.  Tim renovated an old school and opened Schoolhouse Recorders.  It was during this time that the Disney Channel picked up on a song that he had written in Nashville called ‘My Old Summertime” with his good friend Tony Bowman.  They used it as “incidental” music on a program called Even Stevens.  The show went to syndication and after ten years, the song is still making money.
Tim decided to down scale and closed Schoolhouse Recorders in 2004. He has put a studio addition on his home in Polkton and calls it Frog Holla Studio.  This is where he spends the balance of his time writing and recording.  In March 2009, Tim released a song called ‘South of The Border’ on a promotional CD called DJ Throw Down.  This song is now getting air play on various beach music shows in the Southeast.