Mary Timony on Her Emotional New Album, “Untame the Tiger”

There are 250 musicians on Rolling Stone’s latest list of the best guitarists of all time, but only one was recently found hanging out at her bright Glover Park rowhouse, making a pot of tea. In person, Mary Timony—who landed at number 95, between Mark Knopfler and Joe Satriani—is as unassuming as a guitar great can be, and though she was honored to be included, she seemed sheepish about the attention as she sat at her white farmhouse table and sipped from a mug. Timony was far more eager to talk about her first solo album in more than 15 years, Untame the Tiger.

Partly recorded in her home’s basement studio, the album is a collection of subtly sophisticated guitar pop that chronicles a devastating period in her life. First, her 12-year relationship unexpectedly collapsed. Then her father got seriously ill, and soon her mother did too, leaving Timony immersed in caretaking responsibilities. “It felt like I was running a marathon,” she says. “The one thing I would look forward to was making another record. In my free time, I was playing guitar, going on walks, and thinking about songs.” Her father died in 2021, two weeks before she was set to start recording. Then her mom passed away the following year—just as Timony finished the album. Untame the Tiger doesn’t sound overly depressing, but the pain of that period still comes through. “It’s a weird thing to lose everyone you’re close to at the same time,” she says.

Timony grew up in DC and attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts, playing in the wiry DC punk band Autoclave before heading to college in Boston, where she ended up fronting the prominent indie band Helium. Since that band’s split, she’s made a series of solo albums and played in acclaimed groups like Ex Hex, Wild Flag, and current DC band Hammered Hulls. Timony has been back in Washington since 2003, when she moved into the house where she spent much of her youth. (Her parents had kept it as a rental property.) It’s the site of her earliest memories, she says; now Ex Hex’s signature neon stage sign leans against the wall of her childhood dining room.

Timony’s mother, Joan, was a beloved longtime teacher at Murch Elementary in Northwest, and when Timony moved back to town, she decided to continue the family tradition by giving guitar lessons. She started out by recruiting students from Murch. Over time, she created a whole community of music-loving kids, organizing concerts for their bands at Comet Ping Pong. Some didn’t even realize their teacher was kind of famous. “At first, I felt like I had to keep it really separate,” she says. “I never talked about my own music. And then I realized: Why am I doing that? That’s so weird.” Timony teaches much less these days, but her students—a handful of adults with whom she works as a creativity coach—tend to be there because they know who she is.

With the album now out, Timony is embarking on a US tour, including a March 14 gig at DC’s Black Cat. (One of her former students, Anna Wilson, will be playing in her band for many of the dates.) She’s also talking to her Ex Hex bandmates about another record, and there could be new music from Hammered Hulls at some point. Meanwhile, she continues to keep a surprisingly low profile around Glover Park—a rock star who’s never been recognized at the local Whole Foods. Perhaps she needs to live in a cooler neighborhood? “I mean, I don’t even know where the cool neighborhoods are,” she says with a laugh. “No, no, I’m just the weird lady that lives in the house with the cats.”

This article appears in the March 2024 issue of Washingtonian.

Rob Brunner

Politics and Culture Editor

Rob Brunner grew up in DC and moved back in 2017 to join Washingtonian. Previously, he was an editor and writer at Fast Company and other publications. He lives with his family in Chevy Chase DC.