Tim Loten
Tim Loten was born and raised in Lanark County Ontario Canada on a sheep farm into a musical family. Despite receiving music degrees at Ottawa University Tim's parents chose to move out to a rural county and make a living in agriculture. Living in a family with great appreciation for music gave Tim an early start on instruments playing violin and then piano by eleven. Eventually Tim settled on the guitar and was particularly intrigued by bottleneck slide blues after finding a resonator guitar in a relative's attic. As a teenager Tim was fortunate to receive lessons from several Canadian blues greats such as Rick Fines of Jackson Delta, Tony D of Monkey Junk, and solo artist Sue Foley. Towards the end of his high school years Tim joined a local folk band called the Ivory Quintet. The group was a rural Canadian dance band inspired by Canadian folk acts such as Stan Rogers and Great Big Sea.
It was after joining this group that Tim picked up the banjo and took to it right away. Tim wrote recorded several songs with the group including a now local favourite still referred to as "The Banjo Song." Looking to pursue a career in music Tim auditioned for the renowned Berklee College of Music and was accepted. While attending the school Tim was able to take lessons with a number of current banjo masters such as Bruce Molsky, Wes Corbett, and Tony Trischka; a long time teacher and friend of Bela Fleck. While attending Berklee Tim helped found the Folk Rock group Yankee and the Foreigners. Together they released a four track EP in August 2015 entitled "Don't Wake Me Up" and later a debut self titled album in August of 2017. The band also completed a pair of tours in the United Kingdom in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
After returning home to Canada in 2017 Tim helped found a new indie folk group called RedFox, this time in Montreal Quebec. The group has released several EPs as well as a full length album in the summer of 2021 entitled "Stranger Love." Despite the pandemic the band still records and tours together. Most recently Tim produced and performed a Canadiana bluegrass record written by Jono Townsend entitled "Crooked Creek" released in the fall of 2021.