Tim’s Bio
Tim
Landers
“Songstylist”
Tim Landers was born in Baltimore, Md. and raised in an environment where music was a staple of every family gathering. Tim's grandfather performed in minstrel shows and provided him with a great deal of the performance savvy that he demonstrates onstage today. At the age of twelve he got his first guitar and has rarely been seen without one in his hands ever since. After playing in local teenage “basement groups” (“The Dominators”, “The Morlocks”, “The Sands of Time”) he embarked on solo career while studying music at The Community College of Baltimore. In July of 1972 however, tragedy struck when Tim was run off the road and robbed. After narrowly escaping death Tim was told by the doctors that he would never be able to sing again and probably would have a very difficult time regaining any of his skills on the guitar. Through a great deal of therapy and prompting from his parents and lifelong friend, Hank Horst, Tim was able to make an almost complete recovery and threw himself back into the music scene.
Tim honed his stage act and began to incorporate comedy and good-natured bantering with his audience into it. His fans all agree that when you see Tim perform he puts on a show and his audience is the most important part of it. Armed with a catalog of what some writers have claimed to be over 5000 songs Tim can play anything from Classical to Dixieland, Folk, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Reggae and of course novelty tunes.
After graduating from Towson State College, Tim began teaching music for the Anne Arundel County Board of Education and continued his career as a solo artist. In 1976 he released his first EP of original songs with the help of some old music buddies who performed with him for over eight years as “The Tim Landers Group”. One of those songs entitled “The King” received quite a bit of local airplay. Encouraged by this reception, Tim continued to write and record and in 1981 his song “Every Single Day of My Life” won first place in the Big Music America Song Contest for the state of Maryland. It was also at this time that he received seven awards in the American Song Festival.
In the summer of 1980 Tim traveled to Nashville and in three days had one of his songs published. He also managed to land a job as the headline entertainer at Natchez Trace Restaurant, which was a very popular nightspot in Nashville at that time. It was also at this time that he met Elmer Alley who gave him a spot on the Ralph Emory morning Television show that has now become part of the TNN network. Tim's time in Nashville was well spent and soon he was rubbing elbows with the likes of Ronnie Milsap, Chet Atkins and many more of The Music City’s finest musicians and songwriters. In order to complete his work on his Masters degree, Tim turned down an offer to perform as a regular at Opryland and headed back to Baltimore. He continued to travel back and forth to Nashville and those contacts led to him accepting an offer to play in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in 1982. After soaking up the sun, the laid back atmosphere and a great deal of the music, he returned back to his new home in Bel Air, Md. Tim received his Masters degree and continued teaching, performing, writing and recording.
In 1989 he released his first album, “Sangria High” which received a great deal of airplay. The Governor sent a personal letter thanking Tim for the way he was promoting the state with his song “Chesapeake Heaven” and the Maryland General Assembly passed a resolution in his honor recognizing Tim for his “amazing recovery and his ability to write songs which all Marylanders can relate to”. By this time Tim had already established himself as one of Ocean City Maryland’s top nightclub acts where he has gained the nickname of Ocean City’s Jimmy Buffet and has been voted The Delmarva area’s #1 solo artist.
In addition to performing in Ocean City Tim has traveled extensively throughout the USA. For over twenty years he has acted as the co-host for the “Helping Hands” Telethon in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, an organization that assists handicapped children. He has also enjoyed the opportunity of becoming a colleague to and sharing the stage with many people who were his musical heroes such as Jay and The Americans, The Lettermen, The Box Tops, Ray Peterson, Danny and the Juniors, Billy Fellows, Charlie Prose and his good friends, Bobby Berger and Ronnie Dove. Tim’s celebrity has also afforded him the privilege of sharing the company of many other top performers in the entertainment industry such as Stevie Wonder, Teddy Neeley, Carl Anderson, Scott MacKenzie, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Cassidy, Mackenzie Phillips, Paul Revere and the Raiders, B. J. Thomas, American Idol Amy Adams and Charlie Daniels, just to name a few. His music can also be heard on many radio stations around the east coast and he has performed live several times on the Wayne Cannon show in Ocean City, The Joey Capo’s Tiki Hut Show on Seacrets radio (98.1) in Ocean City. The Rock Applebaum show and the Joyce Conroy Show on various stations and The Rouse and Company morning show on WQSR (102.7) in Baltimore where his song “I Remember Mom” was selected as their official “Mother's Day” song.
For his efforts as both a teacher, musician, and volunteer, Tim has been named one of “Madison’s Who’s Who”, an “Outstanding Young Man of America” twice and “Who's Who among America’s Teachers” nine times! Tim lives in Bel Air for much of the year and Ocean City during the summer along with spending a good deal of time touring and performing.
Currently Tim still writes, records, teaches and performs. He is the guitarist for the St. Matthew Lutheran Church “Praise and Worship” band and also wrote his first full length musical called “Walk With God”, which was performed there in the spring of 2003. In an effort to explore new musical dimensions, Tim began working with the extremely talented fiddle player, "John Heinz" in 2008 on an occasional basis which is certain to develop into something much bigger. There is no denying the chemistry that these two share on stage together. A new album of Tim Lander’s originals and cover tunes is scheduled to be recorded during 2009. The Tim Landers story is still being written and if history is any indication of what the future might bring, there is a great deal of music still waiting to be heard from this man.