Life & Work with Timothy Merkel of Longmont

Today we’d like to introduce you to Timothy Merkel.

Hi Timothy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964 and got my first guitar. I’ve been a Singer Songwriter ever since and have performed acoustic guitar in the Americana Folk/Pop genre seriously since 1976. But working a stressful, travel-laden Executive Sales career since 1980 meant I had to limit my music to a hobby, though I always traveled with my guitar and hit open mics coast to coast. “Suits by day, blue-jeans by night” as one of my songs says.

Since retirement in 2022 I have been full time playing at Weddings, Assisted Living Facilities, Bars, Restaurants, Wineries, Art-shops, Bookstores, Breweries, Solo-Songwriter Showcases, Theaters, and Yard/House concerts. I love it all and along the way I recorded two full CD’s of 22 of my originals at Longmont’s Cinder Sound Studio’s with John McVey Producing and featuring Boulder Studio musicians Eric Moon -Piano, Christian Teale-Drums, James Hoskins- Cello, Natalie Rae Padilla- Fiddle with McVey, Megan Burtt and Helen Peterson on backup vocals. My set lists at gigs are a mix of 350+ cover tunes from James Taylor, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine and MANY others as well as 50+ originals.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One man’s smooth is another mans bumpy road. I have always been and felt most alive when performing with my guitar. It’s my comfort zone no matter how small or large the audience. I feast on the audience eyes and sing to their hearts. Yes, during the many years when business kept me from joining bands and collaborating with others I was frustrated as hell, but the songs kept on coming and when I finally realized their full potential with arrangements in the recording studio, I knew I had to keep going. I am not a struggling musician, but a spirit who happens to be a musician that must sing and bring my musical ideas to others.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have always been an avid J.R.R Tolkien fan so Middle Earth characters and forests inspired me from childhood and when I started my formal music company I named it TreebeardSound Productions. Through the years I have obtained a good amount of sound equipment and love to support and promote other musicians by setting up events like Songwriter showcases, and yard/house concerts and then double bill with them to give our music exposure in intimate settings. Audiences love multiple musicians in these kinds of settings for variety. I also volunteer a LOT with organizations like Eco-Cycle and Longmont Public Media to use my music to support zero-waste environmental practices and utilize media tools to build musical content. It gives me great video content for my You-Tube channel and website timothymerkel.com.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
If shoving 20 pounds into a 5 pound bag every day isn’t risk I don’t what is. That’s just been my motus-operandi since handing large Retail accounts with technology sales coast to coast for decades. I learned to juggle lots of balls at once while balancing plates on sticks with my feet. You get the picture. The downside of this “finding it difficult to say no” not only puts stress on my marriage, but my wife is my musical muse and a tremendous support AND I am getting smarter and learning to ask for help more. A good example, I just ran a 2nd Annual Hygiene Music and Arts Festival where as Musical Director I had 20 musical acts on 2 stages during a 12 hour single-day festival. To help it go off like clockwork, I contracted a Music school to run one stage and subcontracted a profession production company to run the technical side of the main stage while I emceed. We doubled our income from the first year with all proceeds after costs, benefited a small town Volunteer Fire Department and the music was great with all local Boulder County musicians!! I risked sleepless nights and a possible disaster if the outside concert stages had been hit by storms! When I run my house concerts I buy beverages and food and set the place up like a nightclub all on my dime and hope that people respond to my promotion, attend and donate to cover all or most of my costs. That’s risk with SO MANY Boulder County options for music.

Pricing:

• My CD’s are $5 for 1, $8.50 for 2
• House concerts are $10 to $15/ticket
• My gig rates are typically $100/hour with food and drinks thrown in if I have to travel and set up my sound system.
• I will learn a special song for a wedding couple and charge $200 to play.
• Call me to discuss any ideas and other prices.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.timothymerkel.com
• Instagram: merkel 5329
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timmerkel
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmerkel-entertainer-cannabisadvocacy/
• Youtube: @TMerkel58

Image Credits
Photo’s by Lisa Cowick