We caught up with Tim Shelton late last week, and he shared some of what he has been doing since NewFound Road disbanded last year.
As it turns out, he has spent the past few weeks talking with event producers about a mini-reunion tour for the band this year, which Shelton says wasn’t something any of them had considered.
“We had an offer come in from a festival wanting us to perform, so I checked with everybody to see if they wanted to do it. They did, so we are going to go back out for a sort of reunion tour this year.
The guys are excited about it. We didn’t play at all last year, and there seems to be some interest in having us back for a few shows.”
The shows will be played by the final edition of NewFound Road: Shelton on guitar and lead vocals, Josh Miller on banjo, Jamey Booher on bass, and Joe Booher on mandolin.
“None of us have any interest in returning to full time touring, but we want to go back to places where we’ve had fun in the past. I doubt we’ll do more than a half dozen shows this year.”
A big part of what has reinforced this in Tim is the recent birth of his second son. Garrett Maxwell Shelton dropped in on January 10, weighing in at 7.9 lbs.
Even before his birth, Tim and his wife Holly knew that keeping Shelton off the road was how they wanted to raise their child. But when Garrett required emergency medical intervention immediately upon his arrival, Tim was even more sure of is decision.
“He was suffering from aspiration pneumonia, which means he swallowed fluid in the birth canal, and it got into his lungs when he tried to take his first breath. It was one of the scariest, worst situations I’ve ever dealt with… very hard to see Holly [Tim’s wife] not being able to hold the baby.”
Garrett is home now and doing fine, but seeing this play out completely solidified in Tim’s mind that he wanted to be home, with his family, from here on out.
But he’s not leaving bluegrass music. Shelton is set to start work soon on a solo project for Lonesome Day Records, and he has formed a new company, 10.26 Touring, to help acts he really likes with their booking. He’s working now with The Clay Hess Band, Trinity River Band, and Jesse Gregory on a non-exclusive basis.
For more details on the NewFound Road mini-tour, or 10.26 Touring, you can reach Tim on Facebook or by email.
