Tim Ware - The Tim Ware Group

Tim Ware came to prominence with the release, in 1980, of The Tim Ware Group on Kaleidoscope Records. The Tim Ware Group, working with a number of other talented San Francisco Bay Area musicians, helped define the emerging genre of New Acoustic Music]. The band featured Tim, who also composed all the music, on mandolin and guitar, Bob Alekno on guitar and mandolin, John Tenney on violin, Sharon O'Connor on cello and Kenneth Miller on acoustic bass. The album also featured David Grisman, Darol Anger and Mike Marshall on the mandolin quartet piece "Spiral Moons" (which Rosanne Cash cited as one of her favorite tunes in a Down Beat magazine article from that period). In the spring of 1980, "Spiral Moons" had its world premiere at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, performed by Tim, Darol, Mike, and Mark O'Connor, and a few months later, this same quartet reprised that performance at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, California. The album photography was done by former Rolling Stone chief photographer Baron Wolman.

The Tim Ware Group released their second album, Shelter From The Norm, on Rounder Records, with David Balakrishnan replacing John Tenney on violin. Although the Tim Ware Group, in the mandolin-based edition, disbanded in 1985, the music generates interest to this day (Tim was featured as Artist of the Week on the Mandozine website.). The album cover art (left) was designed and created by noted designer and artist Michael Cronan.