Here is a link to an article on the front page of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette 12/26/06. I don't know how long the link will last, but it works right now. I love how he describes his first audition.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...=73267340647497

Hey there -- I'm working on getting a copy of it up and on my site. It will feel right at home along side of the one from the Athol Daily News I'll let everyone know when it is up there.

Great article...........Go TIM!!!!!!

Thanks for posting this link. Very interesting article!

If anyone has an issue with that link, I've posted the article along with the one that was in the Athol Daily News. www.pcjunkie.net bottom center of the front page! enjoy.....

What a great article. I can see I'm gonna have to check out pcjunkie. In the meantime, let's see if this works in case the article isn't available at the original link.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Singer could be next country idol

Athol grad on ‘Nashville Star’

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By Jason Feifer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF





PRINCETON— On stage in the corner of a tiny, crowded bar, underneath a television set showing the Packers-Vikings game, Tim LaRoche strummed the final notes of a song.

“Nashville Star!” somebody shouted out.

Come next month, Mr. LaRoche, 36, will hearing a lot more of that. He’s one of 10 contestants for the USA Network show “Nashville Star,” a country music version of “American Idol” that has launched some of the genre’s newest names.



Mr. LaRoche is ready for the experience. He’s been a full-time musician for years, playing everything from arenas to small gigs like this one in the bar at the Mountain Barn restaurant. He even turned down a record label contract to do the show, hoping that by the time it’s done, his name will be bigger and the contracts will be better.

If it doesn’t work out that way, that’s OK by him. Mr. LaRoche is a laid-back guy, quick with a smile and a voice tinged with the accent of his adopted home, Nashville. He was raised in Gardner and Athol, graduated from Athol High School in 1988, and seems genuinely pleased to be along for the ride.

“Five years from now, record deal or not, this is just awesome,” he said.

Mr. LaRoche grew up in a family of musicians and always worked to hone his skills. As a teenager, even though he was listening to country and bluegrass at home, he played heavy metal with his friends: It was the music of choice in the area, and Mr. LaRoche figured metal’s quick fingerwork would be good practice for country.

In 1995, he moved to Nashville. He considered himself a guitarist only — “I never thought about being the big singer and star” — and found work onstage and in studios. A few years later, he moved back to Massachusetts because of an illness in the family.

While back here, Mr. LaRoche developed a singing voice and started playing bars as a solo artist. When he moved back to the Nashville area in 2003, it came in handy: He picked up gigs as a singer and started attracting interest from record labels.

Now he plays about 320 gigs a year, most of them like the one in Princeton. He lives on a horse farm in White House, Tenn., with his wife, Viki, and 2-year-old daughter, Janna.

“This is my bread and butter,” he said before taking the stage Thursday.

“This is how I put diapers on the kid’s butt.”

And yet, one of the most important performances came when he was least prepared.

It was a sleepy Tuesday morning a few months ago, and Mr. LaRoche was raggedy and unkempt.

A bandmate had gotten married on Sunday at Mr. LaRoche’s farm, and the party easily stretched into Monday. Aside from cleanup duty, Mr. LaRoche hadn’t done much since the party.

But that morning, he saw a news report saying it was the final day of auditions for “Nashville Star.” He knew he looked like a mess, but there wasn’t time to fix it. He hopped in the car, took off and waited in line more than an hour for his chance to try out.

“The judges said that when I walked on stage, they said, ‘Oh God, save this guy for the blooper reel,’ ” he said.

Then he sang. He wowed them and went on to best 20,000 other people who auditioned across the country.

“He’s certainly put in his time making this happen,” said Mr. LaRoche’s uncle, Richard Rheault.

“My way of looking at it: He totally deserves it. He’s worked hard for years down there in Nashville.”

“Nashville Star,” which is in its fifth season, takes almost all its cues from “American Idol.” In each show, contestants perform in front of a studio audience and are critiqued by judges, and then viewers vote on who stays and who goes.

The winner scores a record deal with a country division of Warner Bros. As with “American Idol,” winning is no guarantee of commercial success.

Still, the promotional power is there: Millions watch, and the album from last season’s winner, Chris Young, made its debut at No. 3 on the Billboard country chart.

The first episode airs Jan. 11. Mr. LaRoche said he’s not nervous; the shows are taped at the Acuff Theatre in Nashville, which he has played before.

The television cameras, he said, will just make it more fun.

LOL. I'm feeling too blasted lazy to take out the annoying bits .

It is funny that the story didnt make the headlines of the Athol Daily News that day but I bet if we didnt have a fire in this small A$$ town it would have. Giv'em hell Tim. PS. Awesome show at Trav before you headed back south.

Thanks for the link to your site. I missed the Athol article. I wasn't sure the Worcester paper link would work for people who don't subscribe. Happy to see it works.

Thanks for posting the whole article WVGal. Now it doesn't matter if my link works or not.

I Like the Athol article much better than the W T&G artcile.

Thank You so much for sharing it with us.