Mitchell Plumlee performs with Kenny Lee and the BBQ Band at Utleys 6/2009. Photo by Leslie Plumlee.

As a child, Tim “T. Martel” McKinney was dubbed “little Michael” by his family and as an adult, his vocals and stage presence on pop covers like Billy Jean drive the college girls wild.  But his dead-on versions of the pop king’s hits are eclipsed by Martel’s versatility as a performer and the accolades his original “hiprock gospel” music has provoked.

Timothy Martel McKinney was born in 1971 in Springfield, Tennessee. He was moved to Auburn, Kentucky as a baby and remained a Logan County resident until a recent relocation to Bowling Green.

The McKinneys were a music loving family.  Every member sang in the choir at the Star of Calvary Baptist Church and performed with gospel groups.  Linda McKinney, Tim’s mother, was a member of the Golden Crowns.  The group, which is still together, showcased the talents of 6 members of her 16 person family.  They were featured in many concerts and programs like the Bobby Jones Gospel show.  Linda McKinney departed four years ago from the Golden Crowns who are currently working on a new CD, to pursue a solo career and work with the Spiritual Keys.

Tim grew up listening to the Jackson 5.  “My family picked at me and called me ‘little Michael’, so with them doing that I just said ‘you know what, I might as well go on and do it’.” said McKinney.  His mother also took him to church and made him learn gospel songs.

But, he liked gospel, and along with his cousins, Ben and Thomas Sharkley and Phil Clemons formed a gospel group, performing traditional songs like “Mary Don’t You Weep”, “Jesus Will Fix It”, and “Hard Fighting Soldier”.  They didn’t want for venues to perform in, having both an uncle and a grandfather who were pastors.  “Everyone in Springfield knows us – we have our own football team”, McKinney laughed.

At 14, McKinney shared the stage at the Capitol Arts Center with renowned gospel musician John Edmonds when he was called on stage to perform the lead on “Earth Angel”.  Though Edmonds suggested collaboration, it never came to be.  However more recently McKinney ran into Edmonds again and the singer exclaimed “What are you doing, I figured you’d be out of here!”

By 16, Tim was ready to rebel and changed direction to rap on the streets.  Along with brother Chris McKinney and friend Marty Hayes, who former patrons of the club Players would recognize as a regular DJ, McKinney formed The Hardcore Boys.  The Hardcore Boys enjoyed regional success, particularly in Springfield and Nashville.  Tim spent most of his time writing rap songs, entering rap battles and using his skills to lead pep rallies in high school.

This foray into a professional music career also included work writing jingles and performing for radio commercials at Steve Weber Studios with engineer Brad Waters.  

The Hardcore Boys got McKinney noticed and he was offered a deal with Nastyville Records in Nashville, but turned it down. “I just felt like it wasn’t the right deal.  My inner man told me it wasn’t a good deal.” said McKinney of the experience. 

The group was already working with Nashville manager Cody Bell who paired them with Sir Chance The First and DJ White Knight.  An album was in the works and a local promoter was backing them.  “But things happened,” said McKinney cautiously referring to a string of unrelated negative events that culminated in jail time for some and death for others in his new circle of cohorts.

The brush with the dark side of the rap music business caused McKinney to change his course.  Springfield station 94.3 WEGI with DJ Jerry Tyler, was hosting a big rap contest and McKinney entered.  But his recent experience resulted in a last minute change in his plans for his contest performance.  Instead of rapping, he sang.  The girls went wild and he won the contest. 

The Hardcore Boys disbanded and Tim turned his attention to songwriting.  The first song he wrote was entitled “Fantasy Love”.  It told the story of a girl in high school that had a crush on him, the feeling wasn’t mutual and he wanted to let her down easy with a song in her honor.  “There’s a girl in school that follows me around/ Thinks I’m the sweetest guy she ever had found”.

McKinney was 17 by now and he tested the song in the school lunchroom.  “Girls started crying,” he exclaimed.  “I was like ‘Man, that’s wild!’ So, I put it on cassette.”  The cassette was self recorded and backed with a bass line by Kevin Wells.  It became very popular in the school, earning McKinney the name Cool Chill Martel.

“I was a little wild.” remembers McKinney.  “I wasn’t wild, wild – but at that time, you know, it was just about women.  I never drank or smoked or nothing and I still don’t.  I had a lot of respect for people and always believed you treat people the way you want to be treated.”

With new confidence in his voice, Tim began to enter Karaoke contests. According to McKinney he won $100 every time he entered a re-occurring Clarksville Tennessee contest.  He also won $2000 with recording time sponsored by Tommy Hendrick for Travelodge.  Hendricks mastered his pop song “Magic”.  His karaoke rounds culminated with a win naming him the #1 Vocalist in Nashville.

After his “Fantasy Love” cassette, Cool Chill Martel started purchasing and experimenting with Boss drum machines, learning to program his own backup beats.  His focus became pop music.  “The way I write is whatever I feel.  To me art is an expression of mood.  Sometimes pop, Christian, R&B, but whatever it is, it’s never with cursing.  I always try to make it positive and I want the person listening to have fun or dance.”

As his skills on his equipment advanced he began recording his music and started working with Street Made Records, even helping to produce other rappers with producer J-R.  He created beats for others’ recordings and collaborated with regional artists including Below Zero where his vocals are featured on the song “Fallen”.  His background vocals are also featured on local rapper’s Mat-E-Mat’s Hectic Cillaz project on Darkside Records as well as with India Hooks on  fingerpicker and singer/songwriter John Paul Jones‘ Americana album.

Again, though, McKinney shied away from a scene which didn’t always reflect his values.  “It wasn’t my type of environment and I left.  But I’m still cool with all of them.  To me J-R is like one of the best producers.”

Instead, by the late 90’s, McKinney had turned his musical attention to helping out with street ministries for Hillvue Heights’ satellite church in Russellville, singing with Gary Head.  The church had given him the opportunity to perform some of his original Christian music at a New Year’s celebration when Pastor Bobby Baldwin called out from the stage “Make room for Timothy!”  McKinney has affiliations with a variety of area churches, saying “I love pastor Steve Ayers.  Sometimes I go to Crossland Church with pastor Greg, I enjoy his message.”

Of his original Christian music he says, “When I write certain gospel songs, I just let the Holy Spirit take over.  To me I don’t even feel like it’s me when I write stuff.  I work on my craft, listen and mediate on The Word.  It’s not where you’re going to church at, but where you’re taking the church.  I need to get outside to people who are lost.  No matter where I’m at, I’m gonna speak about Jesus.  The reason why is my gifts and talents – I know where it comes from – it glorifies Him.  It’s not in the church building, it’s in you and others see it.  You don’t have to dress and wear crosses to show people, people should be able to see it in you.  You should be the light in a dark place.  Jesus said ‘I come for the sick’.  I don’t judge, if someone wants to know they’ll come and you can tell them.  But, I don’t think you should force yourself on anyone.”

He also continued venturing into hip hop and rap, producing a cassette in 1997 under the name T. Martel and Cosmic C with Craig Calloway of Russellville.  The two moved in different directions fairly quickly though and the band was short lived.  But playing at KP Hall in Russellville’s Black Bottom introduced him to other artists like Michael Gough who welcomed him on stage to perform as a guest singing blues cover songs.

McKinney continued to hone his skills on his drum machine and was blessed with a gift from a man who he had sung to over the phone.  The man’s friend had performed with Michael Jackson and was so impressed with his vocals that they sent him a brand new drum machine and talked about major distribution for his cassette.  But they eventually lost touch.  The man’s farewell words to McKinney were “See you at the Grammys.”

T. Martel’s “What’s up” video

In 2000 T. Martel, Marreon and Harold “H-Town” Allen formed an R&B group called 3 Way and released a CD of the same name.  The group did not play out very often and soon broke up.  Allen, who McKinney describes as a great songwriter, went on to work on a solo career and is currently working on his debut CD which McKinney is helping mix down.

Tim “T. Martel” McKinney also decided to go solo and as a starting point attended Tidball’s open mic night.  At first skeptical of how pop and R&B would be received at his club,  Jason Gregory loved it, invited him back and began introducing him to other artists in the Bowling Green scene.  “It opened doors”, said T.  “I did cover and original songs with CD tracks backing me.”  The young ladies in the crowd were particularly taken with T. and would jump on stage with him to dance.  Several of the musicians who were regulars at open mic inquired about forming a band with him.  “A lot of people talk, but only one guy kept talking – Kenny Lee.” explained Tim. “So I went by his house to see what was up.”

They worked up some cover songs and Kenny began inviting T. Martel to take the mic for the second set of his BBQ Band gigs.  The response, particularly the female response was apparent to all.  T. Martel soon became a regular at the BBQ’s Saturday night Utley’s gigs and as he describes it “It just gets crazier and crazier.”

Kenny Lee and the BBQ Band have been a local staple for years and play a variety of cover songs.  But their repertoire has become notably more poppy with the addition of T. Martel.  Though often associated with his Michael Jackson covers because he enhances them with his attire and moves like the moon walk and spins, they actually only perform two Jackson hits, “Billie Jean” and “Smooth Criminal”. Their regular selections include: “Give One Reason” by Tracy Chapman, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” by Simply Red, “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green, “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, “Ain’t no Sunshine” by Bill Withers, and “Purple Rain” by Prince. But Billie Jean remains the performance that drives the women the wildest.

T. Martel performs Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean

T. shared several stories about elated fans, not suitable for print.  Suffice it to say, his experience with the BBQ Band has brought a blush to his cheek on more than one occasion.

BBQ drummer Mitchell Plumlee describes a T. Martel performance saying  “Being on stage with T. Martel is electrifying. I’ve never experienced anything like what’s happening at Utley’s … when T. takes the stage, the place just explodes with energy. He just has a way of connecting with the crowd and bringing them into the act. From start to finish, girls and guys are vying to get on stage; it’s not unusual for there to be at least four or five girls dancing with T. and singing along, and the stage is barely big enough for the four performers. It is really one of those magical acts where the audience and the band become one. I never experienced that before playing drums with T. Off and on over the years, I’ve served a lot of time in the BBQ  Band, but I’ve got to admit that playing T. Martel’s hip/hop/R&B has really taken all of us to another level.”

Band leader Kenny Lee concurs, saying “I first performed with Tim when I was doing a solo piano night.  Tim sang a song with me and he brought down the room.  I realized then that he was an exceptional talent, a great singer with tremendous stage presence.  Later on, Tim came to my Saturday night band gig at Utley’s and Jason Gregory got him up to sing a song and we went into Billie Jean and the crowd went wild over it.  When Jason Gregory left to play drums with the great rock/country band Floord I started working with Tim on some more songs… because I missed having another great singer in the band.  We moved our new drummer Aaron Sturgeon over to bass and brought in Mitchell Plumlee on drums, because Tim’s material needed players that could lay down the R&B funk grooves that Tim needed to match his vocals.  Now Tim is doing Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Usher, Chris Brown, Genuwine, Sam Cooke, Bill Withers… all the great R&B tunes that people can normally only hear from a  DJ live.  Not many singers in the world can pull off the kind of tunes live that Tim does.   Plus Tim’s tenor is strong enough that he can do rock material like Journey and Elvis.  Aaron and Mitchell are laying down as good an R&B groove as I have ever been fortunate enough to work with.  Since I am playing guitar on this material it is R&B with a rock guitar edge and energy, which seems to really get the crowd going and matches Tim’s high energy stage show.”

T. Martel performs Hound Dog

Kenny has become a mentor in T’s eyes.  “Kenny is very, very businesslike.” he says.  “He opened doors.  He shows me things.  He’s older than I am and he’s been out there so I just listen.”  Some of the advice he said Kenny has given include: “You’re an entertainer, You got it and I could use you, you’ll do good… Don’t do originals yet, it will throw people off.  Do covers for a while and work them in, let them feel you.  Don’t tell them it’s yours until after they go good.”

Kenny Lee very supportive of McKinney’s efforts to market his original music.  He says, “Tim is also a great songwriter and recording studio producer as well.  I love his original songs and the sound he gets in his studio. I feel that if the right record company puts out his tunes he could break big.  So far, everybody I have played Tim’s demo for really reacts positively to his songs…Tim has some unique ideas and knows how to put them together….it’s just a function of getting his music to the right person in today’s music industry.”

Plumlee concurs, “And besides being a great performer, T. Martel is a great songwriter.  His melodies are so memorable. The first time I heard any of his originals was just after he’d finished his CD, “I’m Off It.” He put it in the car stereo while giving me a ride home after a gig and I thought he was pulling me leg; I thought these songs had to be something already out on a major label. The melodies are just magical and memorable. It was weeks before I got a copy of the CD, but during that time I never forgot the melody to the first song, “No Radio Play,” and that’s the secret of great songwriting; just like a Beatles’ song, once you hear it, you can’t ever get that melody out of your head. Music just flows from T. Martel.”

T. Martel’s playlist widget from Reverbnation.com

T also returns the compliment saying “Mitchell, he’s so smooth.  I heard him play Al Greene and thought I was listening to the album!”

One friend Kenny has played the originals for is Hillbilly Jim.  According to T. Martel, “He told Kenny he liked it but he was not into that type of music.  He said he would give it to someone anyway because he could tell it was good.  Then he called Kenny back after listening to it a few more times and said ‘Tell T. Martel I’m a T. Martel fan.'”  He says that Hillbilly has shown it to someone at Capitol Records and they liked it but aren’t sure what to do with it at this time.  “But he told me “Hillybilly’s doing some talking.”

Tim “T. Martel” McKinney is enjoying his new experiences with the BBQ band which have recently expanded to monthly shows at Wha Bahs.  They are always adding more songs and he says “The cool thing about it is fans that are always there, always waiting.  Some are starting to wear hats like me!”  He also makes guest appearances with Kenny Lee at the Brickyard Cafe in Franklin and has sung with other local bands like Cootie Brown and Skip Bond and the Fugitives at venues such as 440 Main, Froggy’s, Tidballs and Ellis Place, spanning genres with hits from the 50’s and 60’s, the 80’s and current favorites. He enjoys seeing other shows locally, saying “I appreciate all bands that play here, there are a lot of talented people that don’t get recognized.  Andrea Tanaro is one I often go listen to.”

Other people have recently noticed T. Martel’s talent.  According to T. Martel Preshias Harris has told him she is in the process of consulting with several industry professionals about taking his career to the next level and expanding the production of his show.  Harris told the Amplifier, “T. Martel impressed me. I was blown away by his talent and insight.  It REALLY takes alot to impress me, working as VP of Artist Accounts and Client Strategist for Porter-Gentry Productions and Porter Consulting Group, I have the best of the best, pass across my desk to get to Teddy Gentry founding member of supergroup Alabama, and now an award-winning producer.  T Martel will have a visit to his show from our Nashville office in the very near future….It makes me feel good, when a hometown boy rocks!”

Friend David Rascoe, a pilot in Russellville also helps with photographs and spiritual guidance, says T.   Tim “T. Martel” McKinney can be found online at www.MySpace.com/KYSoulMusic and his friend DaddyJ T.H.C. is currently finishing a homepage for him at www.tmartel.webs.com. 

He has already met with success online.  Tate Music, a Christian based label heard his songs on Reverbnation.com and has offered him a contract. “I like it” says T.  “They give you control, help with marketing.  I’m waiting to see what Preshias and Hillbilly say before I decide to sign.”

The local Family Christian Bookstore is also a fan and recently begun carrying T. Martel’s latest single “Cold As Ice”/”I’m Not A Star”.  He plans to include both songs on an upcoming album. 

T. Martels youtube commercial for Cold As Ice

His son Timothy McKinney Jr helped with some of the beats and production on the songs, but otherwise the vocals and all the music are by T. Martel.  However, he plans to rerecord some of them with live musicians, inspired by the energy at the BBQ Band shows.  “No telling what I’ll do… I’d like a sax..” says T.  “People show me a lot of love.  I’ve paid my dues.”

He didn’t fair as well when he first attempted to get his songs played on local Christian radio.  He says he was told his messages were too direct.  That inspired him to write “No Radio Play” which, he says is about to be broadcast on local Christian radio.  It has become a favorite with kids he meets during community outreach programs wtih David Gray of Word of Life Church.

T. Martel refers to his new style as “HipRock Gospel” and is marketing it under the name Kentucky Soul Productions.  His family supports his efforts whether by assisting with his beats like is the case with his son or by picking out his clothing for shows as his wife Barbara McKinney does.  He says she tells him “I gotta make sure you’re looking good for your girls out there.”  “They know I’m a music man.  It’s my passion plus it’s my ministry.” smiles T. 

But he admits, “The better I get the harder it’s been.”  He’s ready to take it to the next level backed by “a real good band that’s wanting to push our positive music to the world touring.  …I might sing with Tate Music, I don’t want somebody that can change me all up. …God gives gifts for a reason.” 

Other Videos with Kenny Lee & the BBQ Band featuring T. Martel:  Al Green’s You Make Me Feel Brand New |  Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On

Kim Mason is the Content Manager of the Amplifier which was founded by her in 1995. She serves as Executive Director for the BG International Festival and designs websites. www.kimmason.ky.net

Note: The deadwood edition containing this article was printed and released in the early morning of 6/25/09.