Tim Torgerson ~ Shaping the next generation of musical artists

Whitefish, Montana artist Tim Torgerson—songwriter, performer, multi-instrumentalist, and dedicated music teacher—for a laid-back conversation that perfectly captured the spirit of the Flathead Valley music scene. From his passion for teaching the next generation of musicians to his work as a part-time fixture at Slow Burn Records, Tim shared how music weaves through every part of his life. Whether he’s on stage, in the classroom, or behind the counter talking vinyl, his love for the craft and the community around it shines through in everything he does.

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Musical Miles Podcast welcomes all interested in being a guest on our show. Artists, Songwriters, Festivals, Concerts, Venues, Fans - Contact us to request an interview to promote your Band, new single, album, song, historical or new venue or to share your story with us and our fans. We only conduct in person interviews, so check with us to see where we are headed to next.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right. Hey music lovers. Welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. I'm your host, Byron Duffin. We are coming to you from Slow Burn Records in Whitefish, Montana. And we are here with our new friend Tim Torgeson. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for taking time to sit down with us. So, Tim, as a local guy, you live right here in Whitefish?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Yeah, I was uh born here, so I'm a Whitefish native, which is a strange creature.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Yeah, there's probably not a ton of them left, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's uh Michander grew up in Arizona and that's what happened down there. You know, everybody uh there's not a lot of uh native Arizona. Everybody's moved in from somewhere. Whitefish has been discovered for sure. Yeah, what a beautiful place. Um, this is our second year here to the uh um uh Whitefish Songwriter Festival, and it's been such a cool deal. And we came last year, uh did a couple interviews here in the store, but this year they asked us to host the uh coffee and conversation, and it's been a ball.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah. Well, I I didn't get to uh I was I was booked and busy uh for the rest of the week, but I got to be here today and I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

So well, thank you. Yeah, it's been fun. We we had some great interviews, we uh and we've had a few extras. So we with the with the coffee and conversation, they set us up with three artists that are here on the songwriter festival, and then we interviewed some extras each afternoon after after the coffee conversation from 11 to 1230, and then we've added some extras. So I think you're number six today, and so I think you're number uh 189 interviews we've done in the last 14 months. So we've we've stacked them up, and uh but but uh Tim also works here at this at Slowburn Records, yeah, in addition to being a teacher and run the music program here or a music program here.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

So there's a music school here called uh North Valley Music School.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

And we recently moved from the old building that we were, it was a house, okay, uh just a couple blocks away to uh down by the soccer fields and the hospital. Okay. We have a big new building now and it's really it's beautiful. A brand new building. Yeah. They built it. That's cool. Yeah, it was a it was just a small seven to eight million dollar project. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Well, this this uh uh Whitefish is a very music-oriented community, it really is. Uh um Carrie Clepper uh and the community stepped up. Slowburn records is uh big sponsor of the event. Um, and what a what a crowd. What a what a what a great group of songwriters that were here this week. Yeah. Uh and and uh we had an opportunity to interview a bunch of them. Uh some we didn't, obviously we just you just run out of time. Yeah, you know, I would I would interview the whole world if I could, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

You're you're a good interviewer.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Oh, well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I think that passion is uh part of the gig of whatever you got going on. If you're if you have a passion for it, you're probably gonna be good at it, and you are well thank you.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

I appreciate that. That's uh uh something that uh uh it's easy for me to talk to people, right? And so uh but but sometimes uh um uh I hear some stories that kind of pluck at my heartstrings, and so but uh uh this is uh this is a cool place.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

I think we're somewhere in the three-year territory. Um and the first time that I came in uh was to do a uh Christmas set. Oh really? I had I'd actually been looking to unload some records, came and talked to the manager and started looking around and was uh realized that this was a venue as well as as being uh a record store, and I just thought this this whole thing almost felt like a I I I mean might sound strange, but felt kind of like a temple.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Uh-huh. Almost yeah. It's really cool. Well, there's some very there's some stuff in here that's that's borders on worship. Some of these albums, some some of these albums, some of these artists. Um yeah uh you've got some beautiful guitars hanging in here. For sure. Um and uh um uh and I'm a big fan of all that.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, and it has a good, you know, like uh as a musician, we're always looking for good acoustics in the rooms that we play in, and yeah, I really like the acoustics in here too.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Well it yeah, it's it's uh it's not too big. Sometimes the acoustics in some of these and the older buildings are a little echoey, kind of being inside of a beer can sound, you know. But yeah, this this building has a very warm tone to it. Yeah, it does. Yeah, yeah. Well, let's talk about your music because you are uh not only a musician, but you're a teacher. So you you're involved with the with the the the music school. So what are you teaching?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Well, they've you know when you go to work for a music school, they're a lot of times throwing anything at you to fill the the calendar. So so I've I've worked with people who are taking playing their first note, and I've worked with people who are advanced, you know, that that are just wanting to get through a wall that they're bumping up against, and and so uh and I've had quite a few retirees that have come on, you know, so kids and the whole spectrum of of demographics.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So so you're talking retirees that come in and want to have lessons of music lessons, like they wanted to do it all their life, but now they have the time. Right. Well, this this for me personally, I started it uh 50 years ago and started to play, but a couple things happened to me. One, I think I'm about half tone deaf, so keeping a guitar in tune was tough for me. Yeah, you know, and so and I had my I still have my original guitar my mom bought for me. It's uh a Yamaha FG 75, and uh and I had the neck reset on it because I thought maybe that'd help. But it's just it's just not a great guitar, it's just a cool guitar. It's just but it's my first, so I've I've kept it and I'm glad I still have it. Some of those old Yamaha's are are really nice. They are some of them. I don't have one of the nice ones. Unfortunately, I wish I did. Um, but uh but two years ago I knew at some point I was gonna I was gonna retire, like you say, and and need something to do, right? So um uh I I don't own a horse anymore. I don't rodeo, I don't rope. I but I picked up a rope and a guitar at the same time, and I laid the guitar down and went with the rope and the horses, and and and I had a lot of fun over the years. Uh our kids rodeoed, some of our kids rodeoed, and some of them are musical, but but we have no musical talent between the two of us. We have very limited musical talent um when it comes to being able to play an instrument. Yeah, Miss Shanna's mom was a was a songwriter. And and so but but we love music. And so um but I started to play again and I play every day. Yeah I play every day for I try and play an hour to two hours a day, but you know, as I'm as I'm working on podcast episodes, I'll sit in front of the computer and I'll have a guitar in my lap. And I I have a a small uh uh a parlor guitar that I it's easy to handle.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah, and I sit in front of the computer and I'll be editing a podcast and then I'll I'll I'll pluck and play and so yeah, it's kind of it's funny because you're talking about the the level of talent you have, and and yeah, as a teacher, uh I've had these kinds of conversations with a lot of different people. Sure. And um and really, I mean, you never know what you've got until you start mining it, you know? Sure. And uh and so uh a lot of people are pleasantly surprised to find they have way more natural ability to and aptitude to learn than than they thought.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

I think what what I've I've taken two lessons. Now I took some lessons 50 years ago. My uh the band teacher taught guitar and he had a I don't remember, I think it was a 12-string Martin, and it was it was so cool. He'd let me play it, you know. Everyone's in it's had such a rich sound, and so I fell in love with the 12-string. I wouldn't I don't think I'd own a 12-string today. I don't think I'm uh but but I do love different guitars and I and I own a few different brands, but this company's been so good to us. Yeah, uh uh excuse me, Teton guitars, and and they they just take good care of us and give us guitars. And and I've played a lot of different uh guitars models that they have and I and I really enjoy them. But I have a couple fenders as well, and and uh but but at any rate I finally took a lesson this spring, uh a couple lessons. And and I thought, you know what, I need to I need to play more so I can go get but I can be better when I go for my next lesson, and so haven't been back for a while, but he the the big things that he helped me with were simply was my my hand placement, you know, because I have a tendency to m mute out those bottom strings with the palm of my hand because I was just the way I was holding it. Yeah, there's a lot of cantankerous detail to it. And and there is, and so I just I I those things I I pay attention to them a little bit more, but I'm never gonna be I sh I sh I'm never planning on ever being a professional musician.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

So yeah, so I have this this friend that I went to um a bit of college with um by the name of Matt Lyon, lives in Cascade or St. Ignatius, I'm not sure where he's at right now, but um this guy was just like smoking hot, amazing musician. He was in the the jazz workshop and he was able to play all this acoustic stuff that was amazing, and and um uh a lot of years went by and I got in touch with him because I had been uh teaching down at the Salish Kooteny College, um the beginning guitar program down there, and I wasn't gonna be able to do it anymore, so I was gonna see if I could get a replacement, and he was close by. So uh so I got in touch with him and had a great conversation with him. One of the things that stuck with me out of that conversation, Matt said music is part of our birthright as human beings. I like that. You know, just like breathing, you don't have to be good at it to do it, right? To have a right to do it, to have a reason to do it. It's part of being human. Yeah. And you don't have to be amazing, you don't have to learn another chord to be valid, enjoying what you got.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah. Well, I I listen, I've taken a lot of pleasure out of picking that guitar up and learning. And I probably know, you know, that that old three chords in the truth story, right? You know that and and and if you know the cowboy chords, you know, C G D E A minor, you you can play a lot of songs. Yeah, yeah, a lot of songs. So I pick those songs with those chords in mind. I can I can play an F chord, but I struggle to play the bar chords, but I so I play the cheater F chord, but but it still works for me, right? And I can play songs for my kids or my grandkids. Uh I can play songs that I love. Uh, you know, I I I uh I have a handful of songs that I like to play. I'm not good at it, but I'm getting better. Yeah. And I'm just, you know, just be steady, right? And so, you know, but I I like some of those, and I don't I don't sing a lot because my voice, everybody tells me I have a great voice for the podcast. Well, do you do? And and and that, but I I don't I it doesn't translate to singing very well. So I I've announced a lot of rodeos and ropens and well we'd like to hear Jeremiah was a bone crowd, right? Uh yeah. Well, it was uh it was pretty impressive. Even I even I can say that that was one of my my most impressive musical moments. So nice. But uh anyway, well, so tell me a little bit more about your musical journey because you how long you've been playing the guitar?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I started when I was I think I was 12. Um and you know, before that we had a family guitar. It was a copy of a hummingbird, a Gibson hummingbird. It was a Lyle copy, and uh, and so my parents bought that for my brother and sister because they were gonna take lessons and they ended up in lessons with this guy that was a chain smoker, and they didn't want to do it very long, needless to say, you know. So uh the guitar was just sitting, and every now and then I'd pick it up, and I didn't know you had to push down on frets, I'd just strum it, you know, and listen to it. But when I was about uh 11 or 12, I started picking it up a little more and um took lessons and began to really enjoy it. And uh then somewhere along the line I saw Phil Keggy, um who is a uh virtuoso amazing musician, and uh in he's he's kind of hidden away in the Christian genre, you know. Um but uh he was uh considered by a lot of people to be one of the best in the world, and I definitely uh identified with with him a lot and and enjoyed his music so much. And so that had a that put some wind in my sails and made me really want to play. And uh through the years, um, you know, a lot of other people have have uh added fuel to that fire. I my cousin says I'm easily influenced. So so there's a long long list of people that have kind of been the influence in in all of that. But I think from a writer's standpoint, um Bob Bennett, Rich Mullins, uh Sting, um uh and and then uh people in the country market like John Randall, um uh Alison Krauss, uh and and uh and some of those uh people that kind of are are involved in in writing in the country market have have been really kind of an inspiration for me too, especially within the last maybe 15 years. Sure, sure. Well, cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Well, so um have you you you say you do a little songwriting yourself?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

It's kind of it's a huge part of my life, actually. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I I know that journaling is a really good idea. Yeah. And I've just never journaled very well. I write songs instead.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

I can relate to that. I I don't I write songs in my head, if you will. Some, you know, I I'll go, oh, that's a great idea for a song. Or that's a that's a great title. Or, you know, um I I I I've there's been there's been times, and now that we're more involved in the music scene and the with the podcast, and we've and we have access to some incredible songwriters. I mean, my gosh, this this the the the wealth of knowledge written on the front of this guitar would scare most people to death. I mean, you know, I don't know how many hundreds of number ones literally are on there. And and uh um but but uh you know I I I I toy with that idea. Some sometime I you know one of these younger songwriters, I'm gonna go, okay, sit down with this old dog and try and teach him a new trick, right? Let's let's let's use these six chords I know how to play and and and can make the changes and let's let's sit down and let's write something. I have an idea and in and so anyway, it's something that I that I toy with mentally. But I I'm not a journaler either. I do occasionally uh write some things down, and I I I have a tendency to literally write things instead of use my phone as a notepad.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah, and I I think that I like that a little bit more because it's yeah, I've written whatever's handy, like a napkin or uh, you know, a scrap of paper.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

And and and our phones are incredibly handy, you know, to for making notes. And I use it, and I use it a lot, but but uh as far as something like that, you know, I like to have some ideas that someday I may you know venture out a little bit because it's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

It's good that you write it down. That's uh one of the things I teach um besides the instruments that I teach, so guitar, bass, ukulele, uh banjo, it's it's some other things, you know, um odds and ends. Um but but arranging and songwriting are part of what I teach too. I feel honestly that I'm still beginning, learning uh about these things. It's like the more you see, the more you know how to do it. I've learned a lot.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Uh what I think we have to keep active as we get older, yeah, right. You know, I mean I'm uh um we we we learn. I spend a lot of time researching artists and and their music and try to be prepared when I have interviews with them. Don't always get to know the, you know, uh uh I I can shoot from the hip, you know, probably as good as most guys, but but I I don't like to do that if I can uh uh avoid it at all costs. I want to listen to their music and have uh an intelligent conversation with somebody. I interviewed a another podcaster by the name of Jared Morris, who's also a songwriter. He he recently had a a cut with um uh Parker McCollum uh um called Big Sky that he co-wrote with Parker. And uh but I got to interview him because he does a podcast and he's an artist. And uh I said to him, I said, you know, you're a bit of an enigma. You don't you're you're it's hard to find much information about you on the internet. And he said, What's the point in having a conversation if I already know everything, right? About someone, which which is true, yeah, you know, but I I love that you're a multiple instrument guy. I have uh eight, I think eight guitars hanging in my office and two ukulele's. I can't play a single thing on a ukulele. We got those for Miss Shanda so she could learn how to play them and and play to her grandkids, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:56

That has well everything you know on the guitar applies to the ukulele. It's the first four strings of the guitar. The only thing that's different is that it's like having a capo on on the fifth fret. Okay. So uh all the chords that you know can be played, the first four strings of them can be played on a ukulele, and you can go to town and have fun.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Okay, see, I learned something new today, and thank you, Tim. Absolutely. That was uh that was worth the that was worth the price of admission right there. Uh uh, because I had no idea. Yeah, and and I really fully don't fully understand the the capo either, you know, because I one of my favorite songs is is uh uh an artist is Lyle Lovett, uh but Lyle's Lyle's uh uh front porch song. But you know, Lyle plays everything like on the seventh fret, you know, it plays kind of and I struggle with that getting that down there, but so I just move it back up where I'm comfortable and play. And I don't really totally understand.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Gotta be right for your voice, too. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

But we which once again I don't sing a lot. Um, you know, years of uh of uh uh chewing Copenhagen didn't help my voice much, right? Maybe it did because you sound great, man. Well, I appreciate that. As a talker, singing's a whole nother story, so but uh Miss Shanda thinks that I sing okay, and and you know, she stuck around for 44 years. That counts the most. So that's the important part. Well, Tim, this has been fun. This is the once again, this is such a cool venue. Um, hats off to uh um the owners of this business that made the decision to throw up a vinyl record store, you know. As a kid, the record stores, we used to love to go to the record stores. It's called the Brass Ear in Idaho Falls, Idaho, but the back of it was the head shop, you know, so you you could go in the back, and they you were like, wow, they had the neon. Or I mean not the neon, not the neon, but the black lights and the black, the black light posters, and then uh, and then of course all the all the pipes and all the all the stuff you it was forbidden, right? You weren't supposed to look at that stuff. But anyway.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah, this is uh uh yeah, it's a pleasure to work here, and uh I felt that same way, you know. First time I walked in, it was like this is like no other record store that I've been to.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

And um and uh the Colby's that own it have very good taste, and yeah that they've done it is is really cool. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Well, it's it once again it is very cool and and uh and and I'm I'm glad we got the opportunity to come here and check it out. And and it brings back lots of memories as we as we look through the bins and see a lot of the the old music. And we still excuse me, we still own a lot of our old vinyl. Yeah. Not all of it. I don't know what happened to some of it, but as we go home and but as we look through here, uh yeah, I saw the dark side of the moon and and you know, and of course we grew up my rebellious, you know, I I used to listen to Alice Cooper, which used to drive my dad crazy. My my parents had a great vinyl collection, yeah, and we're not sure where it ended up. We don't know if it ended up because they're both gone. Um, but if it ended up at the garage sale when they when we cleaned out their house, or or if my brother has it, I don't know. Yeah, but they don't listen to a music. We I need to go find it and get it back.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

And I need a good turntable one of these days. So yeah, how to find it is is the question. Yeah, yeah, that's the question. And and there was some great stuff in there, you know, Eddie Arnold and and uh, you know, Sonny James and you know, just just uh old classic music.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

So yeah, I found a bunch of my dad's records recently. It was like, oh, I thought these went out with the family purge, and and one piece at a time was my dad's favorite record, and he he must have played that song thousands.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Did Johnny Catch the Cadillac. Yeah. My dad loved that song too. Yeah, he would just play it.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

He'd just get up and the song would get done, he'd get up and he'd move the beetle and start it again.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Oh, yeah. Well, but you know, you think back when we were kids, that's that you had to buy the whole damn album. You couldn't that's the one good thing about streaming is that I can go play. Pick the song and listen to it and put it on repeat and not have to adjust the needle and listen to it scratch and but uh anyway. Lots of good memories uh all associated with music. You know, these are the you know, with the the soundtracks to our lives that are you know, as you go through, Shanda just was digging through there and she she pulled out the bread album. Yeah. I loved that album growing up, you know. And I think I still have a bread album. Oh, that's that's right, the vinyl's missing. Yeah, which I don't know how that happens, but it does. Make you a screaming deal. Yeah, would ya? Well, listen, Tim, this has been fun. Thank you so much. Will you play us a song? I'd be happy to.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

What are you gonna play? Something you wrote? So, uh, I I wrote this song as a a gift for my aunt when she was turning 90. Oh, cool. And uh, and she had a ceramic shop here in in for anybody that's from this region, they they've driven past uh Dalen Ceramics. It was uh one of the cool, the coolest ceramic shops in the region, and and she was a really cool lady. She was here, she had a lot of depth, uh, but a lot of color too, you know. So uh uh she and my dad grew up on the east side of Montana in a little town called Seiko. It got, you know, uh they call it the High Line, the highway that goes across the top of the state. Sure. And it goes uh when you get far enough over, it's Haver Malta Seiko.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Okay, I've not been to Seiko, but I've been to Haver. Yeah, I've been to Haver and I've been to Malta, but not to Seiko.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Yeah, so they grew up there and then they they all gravitated toward whitefish. So um so I I uh I usually play this song down a little bit. There's a caphole right there if you need one. No, I mean down lower. I think my guitars down lower. Okay. I think I can handle it.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Okay, you do yeah, you're you're you do what fits.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Okay. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Her name is Ethelyn Dalen, and uh this is called Beautiful Dreams from off in the distance, light on the horizon, and that little prairie girl She walks the fence line through the seasons where you lived in a different world. So funny how time goes with light speed motion. Sometimes it seems like yesterday's day, and all along the way, things a matter most of state, the lesser things just fade away. You loved husband and two small boys and grew into family tree. Time passing by in a string of years, these pearls are there for you to see in memories and beautiful dreams. The splash of color that came here with you is a beauty, wisdom fires in the kiln. The hands that pour the molds and remove the scenes, turn the Bible pages to mine the truth therein. So funny how each season has its own wonder, like eternity snuck scene, the sunset of a chapter, the dawning of another, and everything in between flowers painted on balls and vases, golden, silver, and deep purple dreams time passing by in a string of years. These pearls are there for you to see. I want to take some time, a cup of coffee, and hear the secrets only you can tell. I've been drawn deeper in to a kingdom I can feel because of secrets you told me, time passing by in a string of years. These pearls are there for you to see, flowers painted on plates and saucers spread throughout the family Memories and beautiful dreams, all memories and beautiful dreams, memories and beautiful dreams.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Wow, thank you. That's so pretty. That was a beautiful and a cool story. Put your autograph on that for me, will you? If you can find a spot left, we're gonna we're gonna have to go get us a new guitar. I have had one other guy sign that guard sign the guitar there, which is cool. Thank you so much. What a fun deal. Well, Tim, thank you. Man, this is this has been a blast. We look forward to being back and and seeing you again. And uh we got your contact info now. And so nice to meet you. Appreciate you guys, and uh uh yeah. Seriously. So thanks so much for having me on. You're sure welcome. Hey, from Musical Miles Podcast, I'm your host, Byron Duffin. Here with my friend Tim Torgeson at Slowburn Records in Whitefish, Montana. We'll see you somewhere down the road. Adios for now. Thanks. This episode is brought to you by Tin Hall, Western style with an edge, bold design, fearless attitude, and boots that make a statement. The discount is available when you click our sponsor link.