Tall Timber
Bands / Ensembles
Tall Timber was a bluegrass band from Seattle, Washington, formed in the mid-1960s by fiddler Vivian Williams and her husband, Phil Williams, who played bass and banjo. The couple had first led a string band called the Turkey Pluckers, formed in 1962, before helping start the strictly bluegrass Tall Timber Boys about four years later. The band was later called the Tall Timber Gang and then simply Tall Timber. Vivian said she was comfortable with "Boys" in the name because Bill Monroe had once had a woman bass player in his Blue Grass Boys. Members included Vivian Williams, Barney Munger, Sue Thompson,Phil Williams, Dick Marvin, and Lou Harrington. The band recorded for Voyager, the label the Williamses founded in 1967, and backed Vivian on her 1979 solo album, Fiddler. Vivian, Phil and Kentucky banjo player Paul Wiley also filled in for members of Bill Monroe's band at concerts in Seattle and Centralia, Washington. The couple helped found the Seattle Folklore Society, the Northwest Folklife Festival and the Darrington Bluegrass Festival. Phil Williams died in February 2017 and Vivian Williams in 2023.