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BEATROUTE,
JUNE 5, 2008
ARMED WITH A GUITAR INSTEAD
OF A GUN
TIM HUS IS SET TO RELEASE BUSH PILOT BUCKAROO WITH
SHOWS THIS MONTH
By Josh Markle
It is pouring rain outside in Kamloops. I picture Tim Hus standing
at a payphone on a deserted street, his collar pulled up and
an old hat pulled down over his face. This is one of the first
stops on his annual May pilgrimage through British Columbia.
We talk briefly about the weather - it was great until a few
days ago, the band having played their first outdoor show of
the year under bluebird skies - and then I ask Hus where he
is headed next?
"You mean in life in general?" he asks with mock bewilderment,
"or on the tour?" I tell him the tour, but still he
seems to be on only slightly surer footing. "Well it is
hard to say when our tours start and end," Hus says thoughtfully.
"I just call it the never ending highways tour. Right now
we are on our annual May trip through BC - we do it every year.
We just did the Kootenays, now we're on to the Okanagan, then
with luck we'll be back through Calgary in time for our CD release."
The release in question is for Hus' fouth and latest album,
Bush Pilot Buckaroo. This most recent installment in
an already impressive catologue of cowboy Canadiana is trademark
Hus: a series of colourful yarns woven into a rich account of
life in West Canada - though it would be a mistake to think
Hus' reach ends there. Surely the characters who pass through
Hus' stories are rooted in the West, but they are certainly
not unique to it.
"They sent me down to represent Alberta at the Smithsonian
Folklife Festival a couple years back," Hus recalls, considering
his subject matter. "People sometimes say that my songs
are too regional, but I don't think that's the case. People
experience the same things all over the place."
This is something that should not need explaining after listening
to Bush Pilot Buckaroo - it is clear that the overarching
theme is not the specifics of his subject matter but rather
his ability to tell a story. Hus begins to tell me about his
roots as a storyteller but we are interrupted by the distant
and folksy whistle immortalized in Sergio Leone's Man With
No Name series - it is Hus' cell phone.
While he curtly tells the person on the other end he is indesposed,
I start to think the musical interlude could not have been more
appropriate. Like the Stranger, Hus travels a never ending highway,
keeping men as sharp as his own wit and honest - only with guitar
instead of gun.
"Sorry about that," Hus says when he returns. "My
dad was a real globetrotter. He helped to build the railroad
across Australia, was a bricklayer in Brazil, and he always
had great stories. His father was a storyteller, too. So I guess
I come out of that tradition, only I've decided to put it to
a guitar."
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Tim Hus Music Copyright 2008
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