For the past two decades, T. Hallenbeck has followed a sort of zigzag path through the music scene, pausing now and then
to deal with various existential disasters and the unfortunate necessity of having to have a day job. Born in Indiana and
raised in the Great State of Ohio, Hallenbeck began his training as a classical cellist in the fourth grade but realized
his parents' worst fears early in his so-called high school 'career' when he took all his paper route money and bought a
cheap electric guitar at a local pawnshop, after which he proceeded to make a great deal of noise in whatever garage bands
happened to be nearby. In 1988, Hallenbeck left The Great State of Ohio and migrated to the California Bay Area as guitarist,
singer, and songwriter for his band Harm Farm,
a quartet that delighted in dredging the depths of ethnic, folk, and even classical currents to create some of the more
unusual sounds in the Bay Area underground of the early 1990s.
When Harm Farm self-destructed after two albums and several U.S. tours, Hallenbeck switched from guitar to bass and
masterminded the lowbrow viscerality of Crank, an extremely loud power trio
that had some pretty good shows in its time. Crank's dissolution somewhere around 1997 left Hallenbeck paranoid about
starting another band, or, to put a more favorable spin on it, free to explore the hermeneutics of songwriting in a
solo context.
For what was left of the 20th century, Hallenbeck devoted his time to reclaiming long-neglected cello chops, learning
mandolin and mountain dulcimer, experimenting with low-budget audio engineering, reading lots of science fiction, and honing
the lyrical sensibilities apparent in his later recordings. He broke his self-imposed solitude in 2001 with a stint in a duo
with fellow songwriter Ira Scott Levin and later, an ongoing
involvement with singer/songwriters Julia Bordenaro, Barbara Griesau, and Allene Rohrer, collectively known as Thread.
Hallenbeck has completed four self-released solo albums: Atavist (1999), Secret Society (2002),
Doubting Thomas (2004), and most recently, Packrat (2006). He is now working on new songs for his next recording.
Drawing from disparate influences such as Richard Thompson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Bob Mould, Joni Mitchell, the Gnostic
Gospels, Seamus Heaney, and Robert Heinlein, Hallenbeck's songs walk the hinterlands of perception and the boundaries
of experience. Sounds serious, doesn't it? It's not, really - his stuff is as goofy as it is thoughtful.
Although a good part of his recorded material is a multi-instrumental circus, Hallenbeck's live solo performances are
events of stark simplicity: one guy playing guitar and singing. Or playing Appalachian dulcimer and singing. Or
sometimes playing cello and not singing.
T. Hallenbeck resides in Oakland, California, with his wife, artist
Reshma Azmi.
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T. Who?
