What Tim Says about CA
"The ‘Bluegrass' astounds everyone who hears it plugged in, and it sounds great acoustically too. I was recently backstage at the IBMA Awards with my Composite Acoustics getting ready to go on, and Tony Rice asked me to play the guitar a bit for Del McCoury – both true legends of Bluegrass music. Tony said: "Listen to that. Isn't it something? It sounds incredible!" Del just grinned and agreed. But these comments are nothing new. I truly believe that Composite Acoustics instruments are the future of acoustic guitars and offer the best value in an acoustic stage system. They work particularly well for Bluegrass music. I've expected criticism of the sound and look of the guitar, but I haven't gotten any - and if you can persuade hardcore Bluegrass players, then you've done something special. It's hard to argue with good sound, and Composite Acoustics guitars just sound great."
"Humidity doesn't affect them - neither does temperature change. My ‘Composite Acoustics Bluegrass' sounds “better” after I've left it in the trunk of a car in the middle of summer - that's not a joke. I never worry about checking the instrument on an airplane. “Worry free” - that should be Composite Acoustics' slogan."
Tim Stafford Biography
A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, Tim began playing guitar seriously at the age of 18 after starting out on the banjo four years earlier. He played with various groups in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee as a teenager, including Mountain Memories. As a member of Kingsport's Boys in the Band, he was a judge at the 1980 National Flatpicking Championship in Winfield Kansas. Later, he helped found the band Dusty Miller, which was named SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band champions in 1990. A few months later he joined Alison Krauss and Union Station, along with Adam Steffey and Barry Bales. The band was named IBMA Entertainer of the Year in 1991. He left Krauss's band in May 1992 in order to spend more time with his son Daniel, who was born in January of that year. Tim won a Grammy in January 1993 for his work on “Every Time You Say Goodbye” (Rounder, 1992).
In 1994, he organized the group Blue Highway, whose first project “It's a long, long road” spent six months at the top of the Bluegrass Unlimited charts and went on to win IBMA's Album of the Year Award (1996). The band has also been awarded Emerging Artist of the Year (1996) and Gospel Recording of the Year (1997). The band's project on Ricky Skaggs's Ceili Music label, “Blue Highway”, spent 2 months at #1 on the Bluegrass Now charts. Blue Highway's gospel recording “Wondrous Love” (2003) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Albums category. “Wondrous Love” won the Dove Award in 2004 for Best Bluegrass recording.
Before playing music full-time, Tim was involved in higher education. He finished PhD coursework in History at Miami University in 1986 and has taught courses for seven years at four different Colleges and Universities, including both Western Civilization and American History surveys and one upper-division course on Mass Communications and Popular Culture. He was a research associate/instructor at the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University for over three years. The documentary record "Down Around Bowmantown," which Tim co-produced there, was placed on the Library of Congress American Folklife Center's Selected List of American Folk Music Recordings for 1989. He also taught guitar and banjo at ETSU's famed Bluegrass and Country Music Program.
Tim has taught guitar and bluegrass at Augusta Heritage in Elkins, WV; Rockygrass Academy of Lyons, CO; CBA Music Camp at Grass Valley, CA.; Camp Bluegrass in Levelland, TX; Steve Kaufman's Flatpicking Camp in Maryville, TN; Bluegrass at the Beach at Nehalem, OR; Sore Fingers UK; Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend in Roanoke, VA; Wintergrass in Tacoma, WA, and Nashcamp in Nashville, TN plus numerous festival and event workshops across the country. Acutab Publications published a transcription book of his solos on Blue Highway recordings in 1998, while Flatpicking guitar magazine released his first instructional video, “Acoustic Guitar Fundamentals”, in 2001. In January 2001, Tim was voted the Guitar Performer of the Year in Bluegrass Music at the 27th Annual Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America Awards show in Nashville.
In addition he's a former Vice Chair of the International Bluegrass Music Association's Board of Directors as well as a member of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance based in Bristol. Tim's songs have been recorded by a string of first rate artists. “Born with a Hammer in my Hand” by Tim and Shawn Lane, was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2000 IBMA Awards. At the 2001 IBMA Awards, Tim was honored as producer and performer on “Knee Deep in Bluegrass: The Acutab Sessions”, which won Instrumental Recording of the Year. Tim served as co-chair of the Music Group of the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Curatorial Committee.