Offering insight into the creative processes of music composition, writing and visual art, Tinman Tre presents 150 vignettes from Author David Cope's life. Some of the individuals discussed in this innovative autobiography include Orson Welles, Ernie Kovacs, Evelyn Wood, Hieronymus Bosch, Salvador Dali, Stan Laurel, Raymond Chandler, Bill Watterson, George Perle, William Holden, John Cage, Donald Erb, Gordon Mumma, George McGovern, Andre Gregory, Leon Panetta, Brian Ferneyhough, Laurie Anderson, Mickey Hart, Brian Eno, Hiram Bingham, Pinchas Zukerman, Yuja Wang, John Steinbeck, George Lucas, and Steve McQueen.

The title, borrowed from L. Frank Baum's book The Wizard of Oz, is an aphorism affectionately attached to Cope in the late 1990s. The reference reflects the many attitudes about his work with his computer music program, Experiments in Musical Intelligence, critics feeling the results of this program lacking heart.