TC Higgins
TC Higgins’ inspired writing and heartfelt delivery have created a landscape of sound and emotion you will find, at once, new and familiar, a pleasure to come back to again and again.
As TC says, “This album was made with intention. I let myself hope people would be moved by it, that it might be useful in their lives. While in production, I frequently asked myself, ‘Would this sound good played in someone’s kitchen?’. The heart of a home is
where I hope this CD fits best.”
With the help of ace engineer and co-producer, Randy Gildersleeve, TC found the warmth and deepest expression of each song. Some of Minnesota’s finest musicians put their hearts into this project. People like Gary Raynor on bass, Brian Wicklund playing mandolin and fiddle, Dan Newton on accordion and Kelli Rae Tubs on drums.
It’s not surprising TC would put great care and attention into these songs....They tell stories he started writing over 35 years ago.
Living in the hill country of NW Ontario, Canada was an unusual place to be introduced to country blues artists such has Mississippi John Hurt and Huddie Leadbetter, but TC spent many hours ‘soaking it in’, even as he was deeply affected by artists such as Joni Mitchell, Dylan, The Band and Van Morrison. But it was the syncopated rhythms and heartfelt stories of country blues thae made him start putting pen to paper.
Words flowed into songs and quickly to a budding career in music. TC won a province-wide songwriting contest and moved to Toronto in 1971. performing at colleges and coffee houses over the next five years he found television and radio work with his songs but the coveted recording contract did not present itself.
A desire for change led him in many different directions over the intervening years until, in 1999, he lost his wife to cancer. Trying to re-discover who he was, TC turned to the guitar he’d kept with him all those years and it proved to be a wake-up call to the heart. Late night music sessions helped remind him of the promises he’d made to himself many years before.
Twenty-five years passed since TC had last written a song when he spontaneously
wrote the ‘Goodbye Song’. The lyrics were so charged with emotion it was six weeks before he could sing this song all the way through.... His heart was, indeed, reawakened. New songs pulled him forward as he reworked old material while pondering the idea; 'Could music be the drive wheel again?'
Other aspects of life were changing as well. In 2001 TC met his future wife, Julie. Love inspires hope and joy....and in this case, music. New songs flowed more easily (song #4, Cornbread Kisses, contains Julie’s recipe!) and he decided to lease out his business, Truffle Hill Chocolates, to give music a chance. He and Julie bought a small farmstead near the St. Croix River and were married in June of 2005....truly a year of new beginnings.
So, that pretty much brings us up to date. Give it a listen, we hope you will agree, there is a lot of living on this album! As TC says, “These songs blend into a moment neither here nor there, a place where, I hope, people will want to visit.....because they are welcome here."