Boyd Tinsley

Early life

Tinsley was raised in a musical family. His father was a choir director and his uncle a bassist who also played the trumpet for local bands. He grew up in the same neighborhood as future Dave Matthews Band drummer Carter Beauford and their late saxophonist, LeRoi Moore. He was not an avid music lover or player. He learned violin by accidentally signing up for a middle school orchestra class, under the impression that guitar would be taught. The idea of learning the violin, however, was interesting enough for him that he stuck with it.

As a teenager, he took part in forming the Charlottesville-Albemarle Youth Orchestra, in which future Dave Matthews Band member and bassist Stefan Lessard also took part several years later. He studied under Isidor Saslav, concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Saslav offered him the chance to move to Baltimore to work with him more closely. Tinsley was 16 at the time, and declined the offer. Tinsley's interest began to transfer from orchestral music to popular music, listening to other musicians who performed rock, blues, and jazz.

Career

He attended the University of Virginia, where he became a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. While there, he started participating in regular musical jam sessions. In the early 1990s, he formed the Boyd Tinsley Trio, which lasted only a couple of years.

In 1991 Dave Matthews asked him to play violin on the song "Tripping Billies" with his band for their demo tape. Tinsley eventually joined the band, abandoning the Boyd Tinsley Trio, and has remained with them to date.

Tinsley has a small side career of endorsing products including Twix, JanSport, and Tommy Hilfiger.

In 2000, Tinsley made a guest appearance on The Getaway People's second album, Turnpike Diaries.

In 2003, Tinsley released a solo album, True Reflections, featuring the title track he had written over a decade earlier. Tinsley was the principal songwriter of the album. True Reflections focuses on Tinsley as a singer-songwriter and does not feature much violin playing.

On March 20, 2009, Tinsley appeared with former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville when she launched her poetry book Sonata Mulattica, about 19th-century violin virtuoso George Bridgetower; Tinsley is mentioned in the first poem in the book, "The Bridgetower". He composed and performed a musical piece for the event, read a poem from the book and discussed his musical life in particular and the role of classically trained African-American musicians in general with Dove.

Boyd Tinsley also was a writer for the short film Faces in the Mirror which was first shown at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 13, 2012. Faces in the Mirror is only available for purchase electronically. Boyd Tinsely continues to support and put on pop-up events nationwide for those interested in seeing the film.

In August 2015, Tinsley formed Crystal Garden with Mycle Wastman, Charlie Csontos and Matt Frewen. For two years he looked all over North America for a specific group of musicians who would form a modern day rock band. On the forming of the band, Tinsley commented "The band was an idea I had maybe three years ago. I really wanted to create a young rock band – not a pop band – but a real rock band that had the same sensibility that rock from the 1960s and 1970s had to it. You know, something rocking from the heart and expressing something real. The question became: where am I going to find these guys? So I thought maybe I could try out some music agencies or talent agencies and see what I could come with. I started to pursue that a little bit, but then I realized the only way that this is going to come about is if it comes about organically. It has to be real. I have to be able to vibe off those people and know those people when I see them." In their first week of recording sessions at Boyd's Studio in Virginia they tracked the bulk of their first studio album Let The Rocks Cry Out, which Tinsley Produced. The album was released digitally on all platforms March 14, 2017 and physically on April 22, 2017. The band is currently touring North America with Tinsley who is also managing them. They have appeared on numerous morning show's across the US including Good Day LA, Good Day DC, Good Day Philadelphia, The Rhode Show, and WGN-TV.

Personal life

Tinsley has two children with his wife, Emily: a daughter, Abagail (born 1996) and a son, Noah (born 1999).

Tinsley is an avid tennis fan. He has his own tournament, held annually in Charlottesville, Virginia. He often attends the Championships at Wimbledon, and in 2007 played doubles with John McEnroe and Pete Sampras. He has recorded a song called "The Ghosts of Wimbledon" for the 2006 ESPN coverage of the tournament. He is a friend of tennis players Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and tennis doubles players Bob and Mike Bryan. Tinsley sponsors the Boyd Tinsley Tennis Program in Charlottesville.

While performing on Rove Live, host Rove McManus called Boyd "Booker T" because of his similar looks to Booker Huffman, a professional wrestler for WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Equipment

Discography

Solo discography

True Reflections (2003) – #3 Billboard Internet Sales chart