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."

Dave Matthews is one of the most accomplished singer/songwriters in the world, and Tim Reynolds is one of our most admired guitar virtuosos. On March 22nd, the diverse paths of these two long-time friends will once again cross, when they share a magical evening of acoustic guitar with their fans, at Radio City Music Hall.
Recently, we had a chance to talk with Reynolds about his music, his life, and the durable musical relationship between these two great performers.

HL: How did you and Dave Matthews meet?

TR: I was playing at this place in Charlottesville, Virginia, called Miller’s. It was kind of an eclectic folk club, you know. They had jazz and bluegrass nights, rock ’n’ roll and whatever. My band [TR3] kind of started there, and I settled into playing there on Monday nights for about 10 years. When Dave first started working at Miller’s as a bartender, he was such a charismatic person that you couldn’t help but, you know, kind of hang out. He was a musical person and we shared a lot of reference points, like rock ’n’ roll and working in bars. We immediately hit it off as if we were old high school friends.

HL: What was he like at the time?

TR: He was already established on the local scene as a serious actor, and though I didn’t really get out to see Dave’s acting that much, I remember seeing a film of one of his plays and it was amazing. He was acting, but not acting, you know. He was very natural. If he’d get back into acting, he’d be pretty far out. But you know the music business: When you’re doing that big scene thing it takes a lot of time. It’s like a 24/7, 365-days-a-year job. That’s kind of why I opt to stay down under the big screen radar. I’m too neurotic to deal with all that.

HL: How did the two of you start playing music together?

TR: We used to go to Dave’s house, and mess around on four-track recording stuff in his basement, and just kind of go crazy. It was never meant to be anybody’s CD; it was just for fun. We even did a rap-metal version of “Amazing Grace,” not exactly the same lyrics [laughs]. And then, we did a few things that were pretty cool, like basic rock ’n’ roll that you wouldn’t remotely associate with Dave Matthews as you know him today. But we never really put it together as a band, because I kind of had a band going for several years, and we weren’t really looking to add a vocalist. But obviously Dave had the talent that called for a band of his own. So, initially, Dave would just sort of come and hang out, and do some gigs, and sing along on a few songs.

Then a friend of ours, John D’Earth, a local jazz luminary, and a very great spirit in the musical scene in Charlottesville, put together a big Broadway-style show that featured a woman singer. At the end of the show, he thought it would be great to have Dave sing a song. When Dave came out and sang his simple song, it just overshadowed anything else that was supposed to be happening. Everybody got up and started clapping, and Dave was just smiling really big. That was a really charismatic moment. The next thing I knew, the guys (who eventually became Dave’s managers) were calling people around town saying “Let’s get together and put a band behind this guy.” And as you can see, they did it pretty brilliantly. You couldn’t even get into the club where they were playing on Tuesdays. It was just all girls, packed! At the time, I was raising a family and so I said to myself, “I’m not going to get involved in a scene like that. I’m going to stay home, and do my Monday night gig.”

HL: But you continued to play and record with the Dave Matthews Band, even though you stayed home and didn’t really tour heavily with them or TR3?

TR: Well, mostly I just played on the records. I didn’t really do gigs consistently with the band. I just jammed with them a few times up until maybe 1995, and the Red Rocks title. I’m on that record because I was touring with my band, and we had a couple of days off. I went to jam with Dave on a couple of songs and wound up playing on the whole CD. That’s when I started doing these acoustic gigs with Dave—once every couple of months. We did a few in Charlottesville, then one up in D.C. Then we got one to do a concert in New York. This was all while Dave’s band was touring all over the world and kind of building up DMB. Most of the time, I was just sitting at home doing my music, raising my family, and occasionally I would go and do one of these high-profile gigs with Dave. Those acoustic gigs got more popular, so we did our first acoustic tour. That’s when Live at Luther’s was recorded.

HL: Your recent solo work on Chaos View seems to have expanded from a kind of acoustic, ethnic/world jazz to include some more intense, electronic sounds. Was this transition a result of playing with Matthews and his band?

TR: In a way it’s kind of a funny opposite. When I started doing more professional acoustic work with Dave, I really got more into heavy music. I had time to sit around and listen to music that I hadn’t had time to check out before. I also ended up doing a lot of late-night drives, and I found that the more intense music would keep me more awake, and I kind of got a taste for it. It was something I liked in the early ’70s—Jimmy Paige, Jimi Hendricks, and Duane Allman—and then I kind of got away from it. I skipped over Judas Priest, and all that, and went right to Nine Inch Nails [laughs].