Boyd Calvin Tinsley is an American violinist and mandolinist who is best known for having been a member of the Dave Matthews Band. During his tenure with the band, Tinsley collaborated in writing songs, harmonizing, and singing backing vocals.
Early life
Tinsley was raised in a musical family. His father was a choir director and his uncle a bassist who also played the trumpet for local bands. He grew up in the same neighborhood as future Dave Matthews Band drummer Carter Beauford and their late saxophonist, LeRoi Moore. He was not an avid music lover or player. He learned violin by accidentally signing up for a middle school orchestra class, under the impression that guitar would be taught. The idea of learning the violin, however, was interesting enough for him that he stuck with it. As a teenager, he took part in forming the Charlottesville-Albemarle Youth Orchestra, in which future Dave Matthews Band member and bassist Stefan Lessard also took part several years later. He studied under Isidor Saslav, concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Saslav offered him the chance to move to Baltimore to work with him more closely. Tinsley was 16 at the time, and declined the offer. Tinsley's interest began to transfer from orchestral music to popular music, listening to other musicians who performed rock, blues, and jazz. He attended Charlottesville High School, where he was President of the Student Government Association in his senior year. Tinsley graduated from the University of Virginia. While there, he became a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
Career
Dave Matthews Band
In 1991, Dave Matthews asked Tinsley to play violin on the song "Tripping Billies" with his band for their demo tape. Tinsley eventually left his existing band to join Dave Matthews Band. On February 2, 2018, attorneys for former Crystal Garden band member James Frost-Winn sent Tinsley a demand letter in an effort to obtain an out-of-court settlement in regard to sexual harassment allegations. On the same day, Tinsley announced via Twitter that he would be "taking a break from the band and touring to focus on his family and his health for a while."
Crystal Garden
In August 2015, Tinsley formed Crystal Garden with Mycle Wastman, Charlie Csontos and Matt Frewen. For two years he looked all over North America for a specific group of musicians who would form a modern dayrock band. On the forming of the band, Tinsley commented "The band was an idea I had maybe three years ago. I really wanted to create a young rock band – not a pop band – but a real rock band that had the same sensibility that rock from the 1960s and 1970s had to it. You know, something rocking from the heart and expressing something real." In their first week of recording sessions at Boyd's studio in Virginia they tracked the bulk of their first studio albumLet The Rocks Cry Out, which Tinsley produced. The album was released digitally on all platforms March 14, 2017 and physically on April 22, 2017. The band appeared on numerous morning shows.
Other work
Tinsley has played in the Boyd Tinsley Trio and in the group Down Boy Down. In 2000, Tinsley made a guest appearance on The Getaway People's second album, Turnpike Diaries. In 2003, Tinsley released a solo album, True Reflections, featuring the title track he had written over a decade earlier. Tinsley was the principal songwriter of the album. True Reflections focuses on Tinsley as a singer-songwriter and does not feature much violin playing. On March 20, 2009, Tinsley appeared with former U.S. poet laureateRita Dove at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville when she launched her poetry book Sonata Mulattica, about 19th-century violin virtuoso George Bridgetower; Tinsley is mentioned in the first poem in the book, "The Bridgetower". He composed and performed a musical piece for the event, read a poem from the book and discussed his musical life in particular and the role of classically trained African-American musicians in general with Dove. Tinsley was a writer for the short film Faces in the Mirror which was first shown at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 13, 2012. Faces in the Mirror is only available for purchase electronically. Boyd Tinsely continues to support and put on pop-up events nationwide for those interested in seeing the film. Tinsley has endorsed products such as Twix, JanSport, and Tommy Hilfiger.
Personal life
Tinsley has two children with his wife Emily: a daughter, Abagail and a son, Noah. Tinsley was an avid tennis fan. He used to attend the Championships at Wimbledon,| url= http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2007/07/26/WISH-samprasVmcenroe-C.rtf.aspx |title= Wish you were here-|accessdate=August 8, 2007 |publisher=the Hook weekly
