Tim Hardin, my charismatic and engaging first cousin, ten years my senior, left a deep impression on me as a young musician. Outings with my mother to see Tim at the Troubadour, hearing Bobby Darin singing If I were a Carpenter on the radio, and hearing stories of the early folk days in Greenwich Village, all left a permanent impact on my life. 

Tim is a forgotten genius. He embodied the essence of the folk trend in New York in the sixties. Tim’s father, Hal was a jazz bass player and his mother, Molly, played classical viola, so music was in his blood.  However, Tim truly saw himself as a poet; his words always concise and poignant. 

Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, Tim’s natural acting abilities earned him a scholarship at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts In New York City. The free spirit that he was, Tim ended up spending more time hanging with musicians in Greenwich Village than going to classes. Although Tim did not grow up playing guitar, the story goes that he bought one at a pawn shop and shortly after was playing clubs such as the Bitter End and Café Wah? in the Village. 

As a product of the sixties, Tim’s Heroin habit was no secret, nor was he ever apologetic about it. “Tim stories” followed him like some mythical character. Through it all, somehow Tim always managed to pull off iconic performances, seemingly teetering on the edge at all times. Ultimately his addiction took him Dec 29th, 1980. 

I got to know Tim more as an adult when he had returned to LA in the late seventies after getting clean, cold turkey at his folks in Seattle. He had received and new record contract and was halfway through recording Unforgiven when he passed. As so many artists in the 60’s, after having penned some of the most recorded tunes in history, Tim was singing on the street to drum up money for dinner; his story was classic, worthy of a Hollywood script. 

This project is way overdue, both personally and cosmically. As a working musician all my life in Southern California, this has been something on my backburner for decades. And, even once I commenced with the project, personal delays and hurdles seem to constantly arise. It seems nothing is simple with Tim Hardin. However, it is here, and I hope these arrangements touch my listeners as much as Tim touched me. Although his songs stand alone with just a guitar and voice, I took the liberty to produce completely new full arrangements. I also made a point of choosing songs spanning all of Tim’s career. I want to thank John Sebastian and Mike Maniere, two of Tim’s early bandmates, for contributing to this effort. 

On Tim’s gravestone it says, “He sang from the heart”. Tim was the real thing. He came and went before the hoopla of rock and roll, disco, commercialism, etc etc. Tim embodied the essence of the classic troubadour of the past; simply a man with a guitar and a voice and something to express….. in my mind, truly the “last troubadour”. 

Thank you, Tim… may your songs live on forever. 

Richard Hastings