By Gary Wien
originally published: 11/27/2025

Photo by Robby Klein

(OCEAN GROVE, NJ) -- Split Level Concerts presents singer-songwriter Tim Easton at the Jersey Shore Arts Center on Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 8:00pm.  He's currently on a world tour in support of his latest album, Find Your Way.  Quincy Mumford will open the night.

There are world tours and then there are WORLD TOURS.  Easton is on the latter.  A look at his next six months of concerts includes shows in Spain, Australia, and around 13 states in America.  He's coming to New Jersey right after a stint in Europe and performs in Massachusetts the next night.

Tim was born on the Canadian border in upstate New York and spent his formative years living in Tokyo, Japan and Akron, Ohio.  Traveling early and often, he learned the ways of the road and rails and spent 7 years as a bona fide troubadour, making his way around Europe, playing the streets and clubs, living in Paris, London, Madrid, Prague, Dublin, and wherever he laid his hat.

Over the years, he's developed a knack for storytelling and baring his soul with deeply personal lyrics.  Split Level Concerts always tells the audience to trust them with the artists they put on stage as they are all songwriters they think you should know.  Tim Easton definitely fits that profile.

After digging into his catalog and his biography, New Jersey Stage reached out to him to learn more...

---

Please support the advertisers at New Jersey Stage!
Want info on how to advertise? Click here

---

It sounds like you had a rather interesting childhood. How did growing up spending time in Japan and the United States give you the confidence to be a artist performing across Europe?

I was lucky to live in Japan as a kiddo.  Second through fourth grade. That experience gave me the confidence to travel, which in turn led to the songs. I was singing at family gatherings and whatnot early on. That helped too. I was a street musician in Europe for around seven years, and that sealed the deal. Got my hours in.

 

Did your songwriting style evolve almost like a personal diary from your travels?

Very much so. Listening to the masters also helped with that evolution.  My first tunes were learning how chords went together from the Beatles song book.  Then I heard Woody Guthrie and the country blues and it grew from there. Much later, listening to the standards and learning a few of those classic tunes also helped.

When you first performed around Europe, where did you say you were from? Or did you just say you were a nomad?

There is a certain truth to the nomad statement, but I always say "I'm from Ohio," even though I was born in Upstate New York. Right on the Canadian border. My Mom was Canadian. Now I live in Tennessee and the South has definitely had an effect on my guitar playing style.

---

 

I really like how you release a song each year to raise awareness for Southern Alliance For People and Animal Welfare. This year’s track - “Joni's Song" - is beautiful. You've been making these songs for the past decade. What led you to create this series? 

I started in with SAFPAW because I felt that it was important to do something local. SAFPAW is more or less a one woman operation. Laurie Green is out there day to day working with the unhoused and their pets. I really just do something every year as a way to contribute to her work. She does the hard stuff and I just want to bring as much awareness to it as I can.

In July 2025, you released "Spotify War Machine Zero Integrity Blues" - a song attributed to your 'alter ego DARK WATSON'.  When did Dark Watson come about?

Dark Watson is a pun on Doc Watson. The alter-ego is nothing new in the arch of an artist. Hank Williams had Luke The Drifter. David Bowie had Ziggy Stardust. I don't inhabit the character like Bowie did, but it's just another outlet for the work I suppose. Also, I do not ask anyone's permission or spend money trying to promoter this work. It's very self-contained.

 

Speaking of Spotify and Tik-Tok... What are your thoughts on social media?

I am addicted to it as much as anybody. I use it for work. I use it to promote tours. I don't slam the Tik-Tok like some I know who do it very well. I would rather write songs. It is a necessary evil.

 

 

---

Please support the advertisers at New Jersey Stage!
Want info on how to advertise? Click here

---

Do you use it to bridge the gap between yourself and your fans?

Absolutely. I try to just be myself.

​​​​​​

I saw that your brother, Bob, died this month. Very sorry to hear that.  In your post, you said your brother sort of inspired you to become a songwriter.  Was he a musician as well?

My oldest brother Bob was a lawyer who raised a family in California after moving out there in the seventies. He showed me the basics of blues guitar, and a lot of passing chords and moves that I use every show. I will demonstrate that in my live show.

You've written some painfully autobiographical tunes over the years and I absolutely love the "You Don't Really Know Me" album.  Are there songs that are simply too painful to play years later?

Thanks. Some folks have asked me how I could be so honest in some lyrics but I don't see another way to do it. I had a few songs that were in fact too painful but I've pushed through that now.

 

If someone wanted to check out your music before the Ocean Grove show, what is an album or two you'd suggest they play?  

I think the Not Cool album is my best.

Looking at your upcoming tour schedule, I guess you still love traveling.  What is it about touring and playing live shows that you still love after all these years?

I feel lucky that I get to do it at all. My career, for lack of a better word, is very much based on the folk path. I play where I can when I can.  I do love to travel. That is a fact!

---

Tickets for the show on Saturday, December 6th are $31.60 and are available for purchase online. Showtime is 8:00pm. The Jersey Shore Arts Center is located at 66 S. Main Street in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

Opening act Quincy Mumford is a genre-blending singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Asbury Park, New Jersey, whose music fuses soul, funk, hip-hop, and surf-inspired R&B into a sound that’s both laid-back and deeply groove-driven. Growing up in the beach town of Allenhurst, Mumford’s early years were shaped by surfing, skateboarding, and a love for artists like Jack Johnson, Bob Marley, and D’Angelo—elements that continue to inform his musical identity.

---

Gary Wien has been covering the arts since 2001 and has had work published with Jersey Arts, Upstage Magazine, Elmore Magazine, Princeton Magazine, Backstreets and other publications. He is a three-time winner of the Asbury Music Award for Top Music Journalist and the author of Beyond the Palace (the first book on the history of rock and roll in Asbury Park) and Are You Listening? The Top 100 Albums of 2001-2010 by New Jersey Artists. In addition, he runs New Jersey Stage and the online radio station The Penguin Rocks. He can be contacted at [email protected].

---