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CALGARY
HERALD, JUNE 3, 2008
BUCKAROO
HUS BRINGS LIFE TO HIS STORIES
TIM HUS RELEASES HIS NEW CD BUSH PILOT BUCKAROO SATURDAY AT
IRONWOOD
By Heath McCoy
Listening to Bush Pilot Buckaroo, the latest offering from cowboy
troubadour Tim Hus, two things become wonderfully apparent in
short haste.
One, this Calgary-based singer-songwriter is a fine storyteller,
chronicling the rural Canadian experience in the authentic rootsy
tradition we've heard from the likes of Ian Tyson, Stompin'
Tom Connors and Corb Lund. Secondly, his stories are richly
informed by a lifetime spent on the road and that's going back
much further than the 30-year-old's actual career as a musician.
Hus, who grew up in the Kootenays, was raised to be a road dog.
Some of his fondest childhood memories are of hitchhiking and
riding freight trains with his father, making their way across
Europe and North America together.
"It was his feeling that I needed to do that with him,"
says Hus, who will be releasing his new CD on Saturday at the
Ironwood. "That was part of my education. We did it quite
a bit when I was between nine and about 15. . . . He said, 'That's
the way you open yourself up to meeting people.' . . . . Once,
we went right across Canada. I guess our destination was just
makin' it to the other side.
"Tim's father was a seasoned storyteller as well.
Born in Hamburg, Germany, Helmut Hus was primarily a sailor
and a railway worker, visiting 101 countries in his day, before
Tim was born. An avid photographer, Helmut would put on slide
presentations in various countries where he would fascinate
the locals with stories of his travels.
Tim feels he does the same thing today essentially, wielding
a guitar instead of a slide show, singing his "rolling
and driving songs," as he describes them, for the people
he meets.
It can be a hard lifestyle. In the past five years, Hus says
he's played over a thousand gigs, mostly in the "barrooms
of the west," and much of the money he earned went into
gasoline.
But it's a path Hus has dedicated himself to, like his father
and his own country music heroes, from Stompin' Tom, (whom he
covers with the song Hockey Mom) to Gary Fjellgaard, whom he
sings a duet with on Bush Pilot Buckaroo. Then there's the outlaws
like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
"I feel like they were sort of blue-collar working class
people that just happened to be musicians," Hus says. "Of
course, somebody like Willie is a super star . . . but you can't
help but think that if he never became that he'd still be in
a bus or a van with all his guys, playing in honky tonks around
Texas. . . .
"I'm really drawn to that. I feel I have the same values."
CALGARY
HERALD DISC PICKS
Tim Hus, Bush Pilot Buckaroo - Cowboy Tim Hus sets out to capture
the spirit of rural Canadiana with his latest album Bush Pilot
Buckaroo and he pulls it off wonderfully. From Dawson City and
Fort McMurray to Maritimers longing for home in northern Alberta
bars and a guy getting the blues on the corner of Hastings and
Main in Vancouver, this disc has its roots thoroughly planted
on the road. These tuneful portraits are the most charming of
Hus's career.
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Tim Hus Music Copyright 2008
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