Dan Tyminski Talks O Brother, Hey Brother & Avicii, Dan Tyminski Band, & More

Daniel Mullins: Welcome back to Real Roots Radio, and whether we say, O Brother or “Hey Brother,” so excited to welcome Mr. Dan Tyminski to the airwaves today. How you doing, Dan?

Dan Tyminski: I'm doing well. As long as you include “brother,” we're good.

Daniel Mullins: The Dan Tyminski Band is gonna be at the Bonded Spirit Bluegrass Festival. Their main event is Saturday, March 7th, The Dan Tyminski Band, The SteelDrivers, and Bourbon Revival. Dan, before you head to Covington, you're heading to Nashville this weekend to the stage of the historic Grand Ole Opry for something very special, correct?

Dan Tyminski: Oh, man, we're gonna go play a show we've been planning for 25 years. It's been 25 years since Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, and they're having an event at the Ryman Auditorium where we're doing a tribute with a bunch of artists, and it's just such an exciting thing to have happen at such a great place.

Daniel Mullins: It's exciting that it welcomes so many artists like yourself who were on the soundtrack of that hit Coen Brothers film. You're gonna be there, Alison Krauss & Union Station, I believe Gillian Welch is gonna be there. It's gonna be really special. It's gotta be cool to see it also include artists that grew up listening to the soundtrack, like Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings. That's gotta be kinda surreal, right?

Dan Tyminski: I mean, it's amazing to me to have an opportunity to get to see something like this live a lifespan. It was such a big deal when it came out. How could you be involved with anything bigger or better? It was so amazing. But 25 years later, I couldn't have had a clue it would still have such an impact on young musicians and the music in general. It still carries a lot of weight to have the artists that grew up with that stuff be showcased at this show. I think its a huge testimony to the effect that it had on the world.

Daniel Mullins: Some of the artists who grew up listening to the O Brother soundtrack are in your band. The Dan Tyminski Band has been one of the hottest bands in bluegrass for the last several years. Why don't you tell us who is in the Dan T. band that's gonna be at Bonded Spirit next weekend?

Dan Tyminski: Well, we're gonna have everybody that people are used to seeing, but there might be a little switch-up, because we have had a little excitement in our band. Our bass player is a brand new mom, we have a new addition to the Dan Tyminski Band! We're so happy for little Cora Davis to be in the world now. Grace Davis has been my bass player for the past few years. She's just awesome, but we're gonna do a little workaround and give her some time with the new little one. You're gonna see Aaron Ramsey, Jason Davis, me, Gavin Largent, and Nathan Aldridge, and we're just looking forward to a huge time.

Daniel Mullins: We mentioned O Brother, let's ask about “Hey Brother.” You've been a part of two amazing cultural flashpoints for Bluegrass, as far as introducing the music and the sounds that we love to new audiences. How did the opportunity to be on an EDM track come about, and why was it such a good fit for you?

Dan Tyminski: I answered the phone one day, and it was my assistant, Shelly, calling and saying that we just had a reach-out from this EDM artist who was curious if I would sing a song on one of his records. Honest to goodness, I have to be straight up with you, I had to ask what it even was. I didn't know the term EDM. I'm in that much of a bluegrass bubble, right? I mean, I love all music, but I wasn't aware. All she said over the phone was [EDM SOUNDS], she made the club dance sound. And I laughed. “No, thank you” was my statement.

She said, “Well, at least hear the song before we give an official no thank you.” I thought that was wise. I said, sure, send me the song.

In my mind, I try to think, who do I know that can fill me in on who this is? I needed some guidance, and I had a teenage daughter who listened to all types of music. I knew she would know who this guy was. I needed a quick response, right? So I didn't call her, I texted her. I text my teenage daughter, “Have you ever heard of this guy named Avicii?” Of course, the bubbles pop up, she texts right back, she said, “The Swedish DJ? He's a genius; he's my favorite artist. Why?”

And now I'm so excited because I get to text back, “He wants me to do a song on his record.” She responded with just one word, and I don't think I can say it in the interview, but basically, one word popped up, and it was, like, BS. She was calling me out. She didn't believe me, and I said, no, it's a real thing. She said, listen, if this is real and you don't do this… basically, she was letting me know we didn't even have a relationship anymore. She was out. That was it.

Daniel Mullins: She’s disowning you.

Dan Tyminski: She was disowning me, and I remember at that time, I get my email from Shelly, and I listened to the song, and in my mind, I heard a bluegrass song. I just heard straight-up bluegrass music. It was just a guitar and vocal on the track that I heard, so I didn't hear the big fantastic stuff he ended up doing with this song. In my mind, I liked the lyrics, I liked the tempo, everything about it worked for me.

This is a testimony to my ignorance right here, how soft I am. I called back Shelly, and said, “Here's the deal, I really don't know who this is, but I really like the song and my daughter is a really huge fan of this guy, so it's worth it to me to make one teenage girl happy, you know, my little daughter.”

I did that song just because I knew it would thrill her, and then, of course, it came out a couple of months later, and it ultimately went number 1 in 16 different countries simultaneously. My phone was blowing up, I mean, it was the weirdest. That one was another life changer for me. It pointed me down directions that I could have never chased. So, man, O Brother, “Hey Brother,” I'm looking for one more “brother” song. If you can find me one more “brother” song, I think I can really have the trifecta going here. But “Hey Brother” was an amazing experience, and I'm so grateful that I got to hook up with Tim Bergling, who we knew as Avicii, and it was just an amazing thing to see.

Daniel Mullins: Now, if I recall, I think I saw a video where Avicii got you on stage at some big European festival?

Dan Tyminski: I've performed it a couple of times. I did it once with Avicii in Miami at UltraFest, and recently I went to Stockholm to do one of his benefit concerts. I had 60,000 people singing the words to my song. If you're a bluegrass cat, that doesn't happen. It was just something, you know? Such a huge experience to have, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was the most fun. I mean, I never envisioned in my life growing up seeing such a sea of people knowing the words to anything I had ever sang, it was amazing.

Daniel Mullins: You mentioned some of the doors and opportunities that opened up for you. Among the many winding paths you've had in your career, that served as a catalyst for you to explore writing songs, which is something that you hadn't focused on seriously before. Is that correct?

Dan Tyminski: That’s 100% correct. I mean, in one way, it gave me courage to step outside of the box and try to write songs that were unlike other songs, right? I tried to step away from the mold. The other thing it did was bring so many new songwriters into my world. We were riding the coattails of it, so everyone wanted to try to write that next thing. I met a host of people, mostly here in Nashville, but really all over the country, that allowed me to go places I would have never gone without that experience and that song, so I owe so much to “Hey Brother” for what it led to. I mean, ultimately, a record called Southern Gothic that I did, and even any of the bluegrass songs on my recent recordings that have come along since then. I've had a new songwriting window to write from, or a new sense of what works.

Daniel Mullins: The lens is widened a little bit, it seems?

Dan Tyminski: My lens has absolutely widened, due to “Hey Brother.”

Daniel Mullins: You talk about some of these exciting original sounds that you've been making. It's definitely kind of made this iteration of The Dan Tyminski Band so exciting with so much of this fresh, unique, new music you've been making, and it seems like it's inspired you enough that it caused you close the door on one chapter as you look forward to some new chapters in your music career.

Dan Tyminski: Yeah, that's a good way to say it. Ultimately, I discovered something that I really wasn't prepared for in my solo career, which was my ability to connect with an audience and to actually steer the ship a little bit. I had the most amazing job in probably the history of bluegrass music with Alison Krauss and Union Station. That was like a lottery win job for anyone who could be in that position; that's the height of where you can go.

Playing with the Dan Tyminski band and being kind of in the center of the stage, it allows me opportunities to connect with audiences in ways I just have never had a way to do before. I get to do a little bit of stand-up in the show. I get to have a completely fresh show every time. I don't make a set list when I go on stage. I try to look at the audience and talk to them, connect with them, find out what they want to hear, and serve them. I have a 30-year career of playing music, so there's so much stuff to choose from. There's never going to be an audience member who gets every song they want, because I've recorded too many. But some audiences are looking for the happy party music, some of them want to be challenged intellectually, some of them want the fast instrument. I mean, there's just different stuff that they seem to be looking for, so the chance to have a solo career where I'm standing in the middle… You know, 15 years ago, I think I would have said, no way. I think I would have just been too chicken. The process of kind of being forced into doing it allowed me to grow in a way as a center stage performer that I just never saw happening. And it turns out I love it! Now that I've gotten into the stride of what we're doing with this band, and being able to kind of steer the ship as we go, it's been the most phenomenal experience late in my career that I could have ever wished for.

Daniel Mullins: Chance to steer the ship, or drive the bus!

Dan Tyminski: I do have a new bus, I don't know if I'm ready to drive that sucker yet. I drove a Coca-Cola truck for a year or so when I was a young man, and I think I could drive the bus, but you know, I'm gonna leave that to the professionals.

Daniel Mullins: Dan Tyminski Band helps headline the Bonded Spirit Bluegrass main event on Saturday, March 7th, alongside The SteelDrivers and Bourbon Revival. Dan, in addition to picking and singing and smoking cigars and playing golf, you are a world-renowned foosball player. How did you first get into foosball?

Dan Tyminski: Well, I don't know how world-renowned I am. I'm starting to get my name out there a little bit in the foosball world. This is something I have done since I have been able to see over the edge of a table. I've been playing foosball as long as I've been playing music, basically. It's always been part of my life, and as a young man, this sounds silly, but I wanted to go pro! That's what I wanted to do. I spent 50 hours a week playing foosball, if you can imagine this, right? I was either playing foosball or music the whole time growing up. It was one of those two things. And I took 30 years off when I left Vermont way back in the day. I stopped playing foosball altogether. I took like a 32-year break, and then kind of rediscovered it on the internet that there was a tournament somewhere. Before you know it, I was at that tournament, and I came home from that tournament with a foosball table in my trunk that I bought from the tournament, and I stand here in my house, every day, and go through a few little routines and do my practice stuff, because I've started to go to some tournaments again. This is what foosball is to me. It is the most adrenaline I can have in anything I do at this age in my life. I mean, it is the height of adrenaline I can experience in life. Maybe second to stepping on stage for that first 30 seconds, I get that adrenaline, which I just love.

Daniel Mullins: Hey, the Dan Tyminski Band has released two great albums here in the last few years, God Fearing Heathen and Live at the Ryman. What's on tap? What's up next for the Dan Tominski Band in 2026?

Dan Tyminski: Well, we're always working on the new stuff to come out. I have a new single that I'll be releasing really shortly. A song that I wrote for my youngest son, which is a tender, heartfelt type of thing that I just wanted to have out there in the world, so the next thing you can look for is a video that we did. It's a live video, I did it in one take, one shot, and it's everything I feel about all of my kids. I think it'll relate to anyone who has someone in their life that they really love and care about. This song is gonna speak to you. And then following that, we party.

Daniel Mullins: Let's go.

Dan Tyminski: We're throwing down some hardcore bluegrass music that we hope people are gonna latch onto. It's kind of what I've been known for, and I don't plan on leaving it. I love the hardcore stuff. The driving bluegrass fuels.

Daniel Mullins: You're gonna be in Industrial Strength Bluegrass Country in Covington, Kentucky. King Records was there; that's where Jimmy Martin and Bobby Osborne recorded some great, legendary bluegrass, in addition to the Stanley Brothers and Reno and Smiley. You have an ode to Jimmy Martin on your album, God Fearing Heather, don't you?

Dan Tyminski: I do. He was one of the guys that I grew up listening to, and I remember seeing his live show when I was just a young boy, and man, he made such an impression on me. I've never seen anyone own a stage like him, and he was such a colorful character. When I started to write that song, “Ode to Jimmy,” it started as a joke. Through the process of writing that song, I wanted people to understand he wasn't just a character, man, he was the bomb. I mean, when he did what he did, people took notice. So, yeah, I tried to make ode to Jimmy. The truth of how I felt about Jimmy Martin.

Daniel Mullins: Dan, thanks so much for joining me on Real Roots Radio.

Dan Tyminski: Daniel, it's always my pleasure.