Dan Tyminski Wrestles With Multiple Personalities

Dan Tyminski photo by Matt Harrington, courtesy of Rounder Records.

Sept. 24, 2009 — The Dan Tyminski Band is the leading nominee in next week’s International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, and it’s indicative of a nice problem for its lead singer, who’s got a couple of major gigs to juggle.

Dan is, of course, a guitarist and vocalist with Alison Krauss + Union Station. The Tyminski Band gave him an opportunity to keep working when Union Station took some time off, but now Alison and crew have reassembled to work on another album. Dan’s hoping to keep both acts active, and that poses a potential nightmare for everyone’s schedule.

"That’s the thing we’re wrestling with right now — how to really make it work so that we don’t have to let this band go," he told The Columbia Daily Tribune of Missouri. "Everyone has a family, and everyone has a fairly busy life. It’s always worked in theory as we’ve sat down and worked it out on paper and said it can happen. We’ve never actually had both bands tour at the same time — this next year will be an interesting year. We plan on continuing on, and we’re just trying to figure out how to straddle that line."

Bass player Barry Bales is, like Dan, a member of both bands, so there are two guys invested in keeping both strands in business. It’s an appropriate issue for Dan, who was part of one of the decade’s best double-identity events. He provided the voice for George Clooney’s character in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and the single "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" went on to win a Grammy and awards from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

The Tyminski Band is up for nine awards total in next Thursday’s IBMA Awards at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Dailey & Vincent have seven nominations, Steve Martin and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper picked up six each, and the Grascals head into the awards with five nominations.