Singles Spotlight:
Tim O’Connell –
“Good Enough
(A Father’s Song)”

Hello reader,

How are you today?

I’m excited to share another singer-songwriter, who you may not have heard of before today, but continues to create great music: Nashville’s own Tim O’Connell. I’m thankful he reached out to SWT and told us about his newest EP, GEMS, so we were able to not only share O’Connell’s story but also write a Singles Spotlight on one of the songs before the year ends.

From the bio that O’Connell provided, “An ASCAPLUS Award-winning songwriter who grew up in Clinton, Maryland, Tim has made Nashville his home for over 50 years.  

Tim began listening to rock and roll in the mid-1950s, courtesy of his older brothers’ record collections and American Bandstand. When he was 16, he discovered soul music and began paying close attention to the songwriting. Smokey Robinson was an early inspiration, followed by Bob Dylan. In the summer of 1968, Tim worked with some house painters who listened to country music all day long. That’s when he first heard Johnny Cash. Two years later, Tim moved to Nashville.

Tim’s songs have been recorded by artists in seven different countries, including Cash.  USA Today called Cash’s recording of Tim’s song, ‘A Singer of Songs,’ one of the key songs of Cash’s career.  

But while continuing to write country songs, Tim also began to listen to jazz seriously.  Seeing Carmen McRae perform on television was a real ear-opener, and Tim wrote some songs with Carmen in mind. Since then, he has had songs recorded by jazz vocalists Lisa Maxwell, Bettina Pohle, Eileen Howard, and Chloe Brisson.

Which brings us to the current album, which is called Gems for a reason.  ‘One day,’ O’Connell explains, ‘I heard a songwriter say that writing a great song was so hard that if you did it five times in a lifetime, you would be in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  It made me start thinking about which of my songs might get me into the Hall of Fame.  So I went through my whole catalog and picked out five songs that I thought were Hall of Fame material. These are my gems.’”

O’Connell further explains the process of the GEMS EP saying, “In December of 2024, a friend of mine named Woody Bomar gave me a biography of Lamont Dozier that his son, Scott B. Bomar, had co-written. I took it home and put it on my bookshelf and didn’t do anything with it until, one day in the middle of the winter when I was cleaning up my office, I came across the biography. The book had an accompanying CD in the back that was Lamont singing several of the big hits that Holland-Dozier-Holland had written for Motown artists.

So I put the CD in my computer and had it playing while I continued to clean my office. And it sounded great. The overall sound, the production, everything was fantastic. So I thought that I would really like to work with whoever had produced that CD.

I looked to see who the producer was, and it was a man named Fred Mollin. Luckily, he had a website, and he lived in Nashville. So I contacted Fred through his website and asked him if he would consider producing an EP for an independent artist. He said he would and that he would have some time in early May.

So I sent him demos of the songs I wanted to record, and he immersed himself in the songs. On May 4th, we went into Sound Emporium studios with a great band that Fred had assembled and recorded the tracks for all five songs in one day. We took a few days to add vocals and overdubs, a few days for mixing, and we had the completed EP.

From the time I was 18 years old, I had dreamed of one day recording an album with some of Nashville’s best session musicians. So GEMS is a fifty-six-year-old dream come true.”

The best way to listen to and purchase digital copies of O’Connell’s previous albums is on Bandcamp. These include the albums Timmy and the Timbermen: The Garage Band Sessions, Volume One (2025), On Broadway (2022), and ten original Christmas songs on Silent Nights (2021). Via Apple Music, you can find, On That Hillbilly Highway (2024), It’s My Song, Dammit! (2011). Happy listening!

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to listen to O’Connell’s newest five-song EP GEMS. Throughout the EP, the listener is treated to crystal-clear vocals from O’Connell and easy-to-decipher lyrics, alongside strong piano work, solid musicianship and good production. The first and last tracks have lyrics that long for past relationships. “My Heart Goes With You” has a piano-led melody with a lounge tempo. This allows O’Connell’s vocals and lyrics to stand out wonderfully. The final song, “Once Upon A Dream,” is even more reflective, as its lyrics explore a past romance and mistakes that were made. The melody is grounded in jazz and uptempo beats. While listening, I went back and forth between which song to shed spotlight upon for SWT’s Singles Spotlight series. Would it be the second or the third song on the EP?  The second song, “Give ’em Hugs,” has a great message about childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and the importance of hugs and love. It’s a piano-based melody that is sweet to the ear, that has some depth and layered texture. More than one may assume, given the title. Skipping ahead two songs to the fourth on the GEMS EP is “Till Now,” which lyrically serves as the opposite of the other songs about relationships. This one glows as its melody flows with a smile. O’Connell’s lounge-like vocal delivery dances over the piano keys, and there is a fantastic sax solo.

In my opinion, one of the best songs on the GEMS EP is “Good Enough (A Father’s Song).” It’s a powerful song from a father to his son(s). It’s definitely not limited to Father’s Day, a birthday, or a special occasion. This gorgeous song should be listened to year-round. It is beautifully written from start to finish, and I know many fathers will hear this one, tear up, and share it with their own sons, and rightfully so. O’Connell has summed up the thoughts, wishes, and hopes of many fathers better than they could say. Kudos on the songwriting here, Tim. O’Connell’s lyrics are among his best, and the piano-based melody, paired with his vocal delivery, deeply humanizes him. And it makes the listening experience the most relatable of any song on the EP. O’Connell’s lyrics are consistently heart-on-the-sleeve, but this song is so powerfully poignant regardless of the relationship with your father. I’m so stoked to share it with you. Listen for yourself and then listen with your dad.

O’Connell provided some insight for “Good Enough (A Father’s Song)” telling SWT that, “I wrote this song when my two sons were little, thinking about what I would want to say to them when it was time for them to go off on their own. When we took them each to college, I left them with a cassette of the song. It’s basically saying that adult life can be hard and filled with disappointments, but you can always count on your parents.” And he shed some pride upon his sons, saying, “My oldest boy is now the Mayor of Nashville, and the youngest one teaches Theatre at Worcester State University in Massachusetts.” Congratulations, sounds like you and your wife both did a great job, Tim.

Make sure you’re on song #3 and press play!

The cover art for GEMS EP:

The tracklist for the GEMS EP:

1. My Heart Goes With You [2:36]
2. Give ’em Hugs [4:18]
3. Good Enough (A Father’s Song) [2:57]
4. Till Now [4:20]
5. Once Upon A Dream [3:52]

Alex M Theel

Co-Founder, Reviewer, Content Creator, Business side, Editor at Scummy Water Tower Productions | Web

Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site, scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions and SWT Interviews. And all of our socials.
Questions, feedback, or more? Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com