After coming out of the closet, Tim Dillinger, Gospel and Soul recording artist, felt exiled from his southern home, cut off from his roots in Christian and Gospel music. Shunned by the audience base he worked hard to attain, he was forced to face the consequences of choosing to live his truth. New York City held out the promise of a new beginning and new musical opportunities.
Despite a tour as part of a trio of soul vocalists and a run of sold-out shows in the city, Tim found himself confronting a soulless industry fueled by the dreams it destroyed. In a short span of time, several of his musical mentors and heroes died, leaving him bereft. As the trio struggled to balance singing with survival, conflict escalated to crisis. Tim retreated to a healing community in upstate New York where he could safely enter the dark night of the soul.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Dillinger is an award-winning singer-songwriter, producer, poet, speaker and activist whose career spans almost twenty years. His work has been featured in a number of national media platforms ranging from NPR to Huffington Post to Colorlines Magazine. He hosted Out the Box with Tim Dillinger for three seasons and interviewed a range of cultural icons including Nikki Giovanni, Jimmy Scott and Dorothy Norwood. He has released five albums. The Road Home to You is his second book. He is an undergraduate student at University at Albany, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Africana Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at University at Albany. He resides in New York's Capital District with his husband, their cat and two Yorkies.
PRAISE FOR TIM DILLINGER'S WORK
"Dillinger has jumped out of the box independent musicians often create for themselves in hopes that major labels will invest in a purposefully narrowed and more sale-able vision. Dillinger is led by his heart rather than notions of potential for fame and fortune and contrary to popular belief, that's a really good thing." -- Juba Kalamka, Colorlines Magazine
"Tim Dillinger is a soul man. It come out in his singing: where he finds the 'one' of every note, every groove, every feeling. And it comes out in his writing, where he's searching for (and finding) the deepest expression of his dreams, his joys and his brave struggle for self-acceptance in a world that hasn't yet crossed all the boundaries of color and spirit and sexuality that Tim has." -- Michele Kort, author of Soul Picnic: The Music And Passion of Laura Nyro; Senior Editor, Ms. Magazine
"Artists like Dillinger can go toe-to-toe with the best of those conservative circles who'd leave them on the outside looking in on a house whose glass seems to grow shakier by the year." -- L. Michael Gipson, SoulTracks.com
