Knoxville state of mind
Serendipity brings couple into local music scene
By WAYNE BLEDSOE
The Knoxville News-Sentinel

With: Velvet and the Westside Daredevils
Where: Patrick Sullivan's Great Room
When: 10 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $5

Musicians Tim Lee and Susan Bauer Lee sit on the rear deck of their Fountain City home. A squirrel hops on the handrail, gnaws at birdseed and eyes the owners with little concern. Things are relaxed.

Tim and Susan have lived in Knoxville for 3 1/2 years. Longtime Knoxville music fans may view them as newcomers, but the Lees say they feel like local artists.

"I feel like I am," says Tim. "I've felt at home here since the beginning."

The Lees are originally from Jackson, Miss. Tim made waves in the early 1980s with his band The Windbreakers and has since logged time as a sideman with the Swimming Pool Q's, Let's Active, Marti Jones and a stack of Knoxville artists. He has just released a new solo album, "No Discretion," on Paisley Pop Records.

It's a disc that used six different studios; a number of producers, including early R.E.M. helmsman Mitch Easter and Knoxville's own artist/producers Don Coffey, Jim Rivers and Todd Steed; and a wealth of musicians, some from Knoxville and some not.

"I could've played all the instruments myself, except for drums, but I love to see what happens," says Tim. "If I go in all by myself then I know what it's going to sound like."

The Lees, who have been married for 22 years, often rely on serendipity.

"We've never actually 'planned' anything," says Susan. "Everything just sort of happens - the way it always does."

In addition to music (Susan plays bass in her husband's group), the two have a tandem-act day job. Susan is artistic director and Tim is editor of Dirt Late Model, a specialty racing magazine based in Knoxville. (Susan is also art director for Living Blues magazine.) The duo came for the magazine, but quickly slipped into the music scene.

Tim says he was amazed at how many excellent musicians Knoxville has and that he actually felt a little sheepish adding himself into the mix.

"R.B. Morris, Superdrag, Leslie Woods, and I kind of knew who Todd Steed was already. Then there were younger bands like the Westside Daredevils," says Tim. "But I think being in Knoxville is largely responsible for me playing again."

He says Jackson was not a great spot for a man who wanted to form a band that played its own music, and that The Windbreakers were probably the first rock band in the city to perform original material.

"We were influenced (by) and interested in the whole New York punk scene with Patti Smith and Television and all that," he says.

Tim joined with Bobby Stuliff to form the core of The Windbreakers, but Tim says other group members were not exactly enthusiastic about The Windbreakers' prospects when only cover bands were getting gigs.

"They said, 'How are we gonna make money with original music?' And I said, 'We're probably not!' "

Still, says Tim, it turned out to be perfect timing. Promoters were willing to book national tours with young punk and New Wave acts. Clubs were springing up around the country and needed talent.

"It was an era when you could create your own thing," says Tim, "and you didn't have to get on Warner Bros. Records to get attention."

In the mid-'80s, the group was once listed as one of America's best unsigned bands by Rolling Stone magazine.

"The next year everybody had a deal but us," Tim says.

Tim wasn't worried. The Windbreakers released six records in 20 years, and Tim decided that he'd rather work with people he liked and trusted as opposed to pursuing big-label deals.

"My manager once told me, 'Your problem is that you don't want to be a star,' " Tim says.

While The Windbreakers drifted apart to pursue projects that put more food on the table, Tim says the power-pop sensibility of his music has changed little. Susan took up bass shortly after the move to Knoxville and has become Tim's one constant band member.

And Tim says the duo's philosophy has only become stronger.

"You become more spontaneous the older you get," he says. "You trust your instincts more and think about it less."