Tim Rose

Tim Rose stands out as an overlooked singer and songwriter whose 1960s recordings carried a noticeable similarity to the work of another performer named Tim active in Greenwich Village between 1966 and 1967. Like Tim Hardin, Rose gravitated toward a throaty blues-inflected folk-rock approach marked by pop production touches, yet he relied more heavily on outside material, fell short of Hardin’s caliber both vocally and compositionally, and projected a distinctly rougher, gravel-voiced delivery. Prior to launching his solo path, Rose had performed alongside Cass Elliott in the folk trio the Big Three, several years before she became a member of the Mamas and the Papas. Columbia signed him in 1966, and the self-titled debut album that followed in 1967—incorporating a handful of earlier singles—remains widely regarded as his most important release. Two tracks drew particular attention: a deliberate, slowed-down reading of “Hey Joe” that shaped Jimi Hendrix’s later interpretation, and Rose’s strongest original piece, “Morning Dew,” which evolved into a frequently performed standard later taken up by the Jeff Beck Group, the Grateful Dead, Clannad, and additional artists. Debate eventually surfaced over authorship, with some questioning whether Rose truly composed the song or whether folksinger Bonnie Dobson had originated it. A number of non-album singles he cut during this period have never appeared on reissues, and although he continued to record several further albums into the mid-1970s, none recaptured the stature of his first effort. Rose exerted an influence on Nick Cave and additional musicians before his death on September 24, 2002. The posthumous collection Snowed In, drawn from material he developed during the final year of his life, surfaced in 2003 on Cherry Red Records.