Tim Reynolds has two kinds of fans — those who know him as a wildly eclectic guitar virtuoso and those who just see him as that guy who jams with Dave Matthews.

The dual roles don't seem to bother the affable Reynolds, even if some of his more casual listeners find themselves shocked by the acoustic guitarist's occasional multimedia, quasi-industrial stage shows.

"I just go out there and do what I want to do," Reynolds says from his home just outside Santa Fe, N.M. "People just have to figure that out. You can't satisfy everybody — and you shouldn't try to."

Reynolds, whose show at the Fox Theatre on Saturday has been canceled, seems to delight in mixing it up musically.

Last year, he took his one-man electric band on tour, a trek that yielded the live album Chaos View, recorded at the Fox last April. Lately, Reynolds says, he's been playing gigs around New Mexico with a local reggae act.

And now he's off on a five-date solo acoustic tour of Colorado, a short jaunt to prep him for the big show — a 21/2-week run of dates performing as a duo with Matthews throughout the eastern United States.

"Everything you do always enriches everything else you do," explains Reynolds, who professes an affinity for everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Bob Marley. "That's why I like to dabble in different styles."

Reynolds' most recent studio album, 2001's Nomadic Wavelength, is a collection of nimble, almost classical acoustic guitar instrumentals. It's a stark contrast from the electric guitars and programmed beats that fill out Chaos View's tales of doom and Armageddon.

Both of those sides of Reynolds' musical personality will be on display later this spring, when he goes back on the road with a split acoustic/electric show following the tour with Matthews.

Born in Germany to a military family, Reynolds spent his youth moving across the country, settling in Missouri, Alaska and Kansas along the way. As a child he began playing piano, then bass, before moving over to guitar, often playing to church crowds and at schools.

Reynolds' curiosity led him to jazz, funk and Middle Eastern sounds and even Latin music, all of which would later inform his dexterous acoustic and electric guitar playing.

In the mid-1980s, Reynolds formed an electric power trio, TR3, while living in Charlottesville, Va., and landed a regular slot at a local watering hole. The tavern's bartender, it turned out, was a friendly South African fellow named Dave Matthews. The two quickly struck up a friendship and began playing together.

As Matthews' career took off in the mid-'90s, he brought Reynolds along for the ride; the guitarist has guested on most of the Dave Matthews Band's records, toured with the hugely successful act and released an album — Live at Luther College — documenting one of his acoustic tours with Matthews.

"I just love playing with Dave," Reynolds says. "He's a really nice person and he's got such great songs. Even though we've played them so many times, there's still a lot of improvising. It's a lot of fun."

The duo's collaboration won't end with the upcoming tour, which has been in the works since before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. There are plans to possibly release another joint live album, and Reynolds recently spent a week in Seattle recording tracks for a studio record with Matthews that won't be released under the Dave Matthews Band moniker.

"It's going to be really, really good," Reynolds says of the secretive project. "I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but I can tell you, it's gonna kick (butt). People will be surprised to hear Dave in a fresh new way."

Contact Matt Sebastian at (303) 473-1498 or sebastianm@dailycamera.com.