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THREE QUESTIONS with BOBBLE TIKI: Tin Man

Rusty Parrish sits down with the Volcano's in-house island-themed souvenir

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Honestly, Bobble Tiki feels like he's been getting promotional messages about Tin Man's CD release show for Somewhere in the Middle since 1987. That can't be, of course. Tin Man founder Rusty Parrish created Tin Man after years spent in punk bands, not to mention years then spent away from music focusing on family, but the CD being celebrated tonight (Friday, June 10) at Louie G's in Fife is only the latest in his body of work-not a one-time thing, and nothing to yawn about.

After constructing a safely alt-country meets rock band to suit the Tin Man solo project he first birthed in 2006, Parrish is obviously stoked for Somewhere in the Middle see the light of day. Bobble Tiki can't blame him. By all accounts, from folks who've seen Parrish grace coffee shop stages to the big fans he's won at NWCZRadio.com, Parrish has a certain spark as a performer. It's only natural that he'd want people to know about it. So what if that means he gets an e-mail every day about the CD release show. With a full band in tow (drummer Dave Smith, bassist Ed Hess, guitarist Jeff Weideman Guitar and keyboardist and vocalist Tony Ciarochi), tonight's action should be something worth catching.

Bobble Tiki caught up with Parrish this week to get his take on tonight's CD release for Somewhere in the Middle.

BOBBLE TIKI: The creation of Tin Man, and the album Somewhere In The Middle, isn't something that happened over night. If you could, talk a bit about the journey you've taken to get to this point. How have your experiences made you the artist and musician you are today?

RUSTY PARRISH: Well Bob, or is it Tiki? Anyway, Tin Man was started as my solo project and has now been fully realized as a band. I didn't want to go and perform using my name, so I came up with this name to hide behind, so to speak, I grew up in Minneapolis playing in bands, so having a (band) name seemed like the way to go. I moved to the Northwest in 1995 and kinda gave up music to raise a family. But the bug bit me again and I started playing solo in 2006. I went to coffee shop route but grew bored with it quickly and knew I had to work with a band again. I put out tw solo CDs during that time of material I had recorded in my home studio. When I went looking for musicians to play with most of them couldn't understand where I was headed. So I decided in the Spring of 2010 to head back to Minneapolis and record my strongest and best songs with musicians I had played with in the past and (who) understood what I was looking for. The result is the new CD, Somewhere in the Middle. It was recorded over 10 days last summer.

TIKI: Describe what you've accomplished with Somewhere In The Middle, and what kind of statement you intend it to be. Did it come out how you'd hoped it would? In retrospect, is there anything you'd do different?

PARRISH: Well I think this is the best thing I've done, from the songwriting to the production and packaging It turned out way beyond what I expected it to be. The title of the CD say's it all about what I was trying to do. I like many different types of music and I wanted to showcase that in this CD, and I think I pulled it off. Also, I think it really brought into focus what I was trying to do by myself but couldn't. The only thing I would change would be to have had the current members of the band on the project, but that will happen soon enough as we are already working up material for the next CD.

TIKI: The CD release show is scheduled at Louie G's in Fife. What does the venue offer a performer like yourself that made it appealing when putting all of this together?

PARRISH: Louie has a outstanding venue, great food and most importantly the desire to do it right with a real stage real lights and plenty of room to do it in. On top of all of that, Louie really wanted to help us out and made it work for us and his club.

 

[Louie G's, with Wings & Things, 8:30 p.m., $5, 5219 Pacific Hwy E., Fife]

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