Biography
California native Trevor Beld Jimenez has built a reputation both through introspective solo work and as the driving force behind the sunlit folk-rock and alt-country sounds of Franklin for Short, Tall Tales & the Silver Lining, and Parting Lines. As bassist and co-vocalist he guided Franklin for Short across five albums, the last of which was 2010’s Dark Cloud, before shifting focus to Tall Tales & the Silver Lining, whose second full-length, Fall In, also appeared that year. The group’s seventh studio effort, Tightropes, surfaced in 2015, after which Beld Jimenez and Tall Tales bandmate Tim Ramsey issued See You on the Other Side in 2018 as Parting Lines. His first record under his own name, I Like It Here, arrived in 2020 and featured guest appearances by Ramsey, Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson, and vocalist Kacey Johansing.
Beld Jimenez, handling bass and vocals, started Franklin for Short alongside Seth Pettersen (vocals/guitar) in Ventura in 2001, making their live bow at a local café open-mike night. Early songs written by Pettersen were tracked in the first months of 2002, leading to the Stereo Tyke EP Wildcat later that year. Two further albums followed in 2004—In the Dark on Stereo Tyke and Lovesick Mistress on Blackbird Music—while 2005 brought the Blackbird release The Gift Curse. By the time Swell emerged in 2008 the lineup had expanded to include lead guitarist Bryan Russell and drummer Brian Granillo. That same year the Beld Jimenez-led Tall Tales & the Silver Lining delivered their debut LP, The Understanding, via Beehouse Records. Franklin for Short’s self-released Dark Cloud appeared in 2010, after which the band paused, while Tall Tales returned with Fall In, again on Beehouse.
Tall Tales & the Silver Lining, whose membership shifted around a core that included Beld Jimenez’s wife Tania, unveiled Nice to Meet You Again in June 2011. The songwriter next experimented with distribution by issuing four seasonal EPs from mid-2011 onward, each containing one single and recorded at a separate Los Angeles studio. In 2012 he put out the self-recorded demo collection Unknown Futures, Pt. 1 (drawn from the previous eighteen months), the fifth Franklin for Short album Short Songs, and, in December, a twelve-song Tall Tales set on Rocketship Records that gathered the seasonal material; the latter marked his first release for that label. The band’s touring résumé grew to include West Coast dates behind Langhorne Slim, Blitzen Trapper, Dawes, and Kurt Vile. Besides appeared in early 2014, followed later that year by Tall Tales & the Silver Lining’s New York City debut at the CMJ Showcase. Their seventh album, Tightropes, arrived in early 2015 on the Other Music Recording Company imprint.
During this period Beld Jimenez worked steadily as a sideman, joining GospelbeacH and supporting Vetiver and Little Wings with Tall Tales colleague Tim Ramsey. The pair later recorded as Parting Lines, releasing See You on the Other Side in 2018—the same year Franklin for Short reconvened for the Tree EP. When Beld Jimenez resurfaced with a full album’s worth of songs in late 2020, it constituted his first release under his own name. Issued by Curation Records, I Like It Here assembled more than a dozen contributors drawn from GospelbeacH, Mapache, and Fruit Bats.
Beld Jimenez, handling bass and vocals, started Franklin for Short alongside Seth Pettersen (vocals/guitar) in Ventura in 2001, making their live bow at a local café open-mike night. Early songs written by Pettersen were tracked in the first months of 2002, leading to the Stereo Tyke EP Wildcat later that year. Two further albums followed in 2004—In the Dark on Stereo Tyke and Lovesick Mistress on Blackbird Music—while 2005 brought the Blackbird release The Gift Curse. By the time Swell emerged in 2008 the lineup had expanded to include lead guitarist Bryan Russell and drummer Brian Granillo. That same year the Beld Jimenez-led Tall Tales & the Silver Lining delivered their debut LP, The Understanding, via Beehouse Records. Franklin for Short’s self-released Dark Cloud appeared in 2010, after which the band paused, while Tall Tales returned with Fall In, again on Beehouse.
Tall Tales & the Silver Lining, whose membership shifted around a core that included Beld Jimenez’s wife Tania, unveiled Nice to Meet You Again in June 2011. The songwriter next experimented with distribution by issuing four seasonal EPs from mid-2011 onward, each containing one single and recorded at a separate Los Angeles studio. In 2012 he put out the self-recorded demo collection Unknown Futures, Pt. 1 (drawn from the previous eighteen months), the fifth Franklin for Short album Short Songs, and, in December, a twelve-song Tall Tales set on Rocketship Records that gathered the seasonal material; the latter marked his first release for that label. The band’s touring résumé grew to include West Coast dates behind Langhorne Slim, Blitzen Trapper, Dawes, and Kurt Vile. Besides appeared in early 2014, followed later that year by Tall Tales & the Silver Lining’s New York City debut at the CMJ Showcase. Their seventh album, Tightropes, arrived in early 2015 on the Other Music Recording Company imprint.
During this period Beld Jimenez worked steadily as a sideman, joining GospelbeacH and supporting Vetiver and Little Wings with Tall Tales colleague Tim Ramsey. The pair later recorded as Parting Lines, releasing See You on the Other Side in 2018—the same year Franklin for Short reconvened for the Tree EP. When Beld Jimenez resurfaced with a full album’s worth of songs in late 2020, it constituted his first release under his own name. Issued by Curation Records, I Like It Here assembled more than a dozen contributors drawn from GospelbeacH, Mapache, and Fruit Bats.
Albums
Singles
