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EDMONTON
JOURNAL, JUNE 5, 2008
COWBOY
TROUBADOUR TIM HUS RIDING HIGH
HIS NEW ALBUM, BUSH PILOT BUCKAROO, WILL TAKE FLIGHT FRIDAY
AT CONCERT PARTY
By Peter North
EDMONTON - As an artist, Tim Hus has greatly matured and evolved
over the past six years. Many fans have enjoyed hearing from
Hus's ever-expanding songbook, which is one reason the southern
Alberta singer-songwriter recently signed a three-album deal
with Edmonton's Stony Plain Records.
The first of those three recordings, Bush Pilot Buckaroo, will
be officially released Friday night at a concert party at Queen
Alexandra Hall that is being produced by the Northern Light
Folk Club. It's the perfect down-home and unpretentious setting
for Hus to rattle off numbers such as Dempster Highway, Hockey
Mom, Roadhouse Band and Battle River, which are found on his
fourth recording.
To have Stony Plain directing the production and promotion of
his first major release isn't really a surprise as the two parties
have much in common.
One connection is Corb Lund, who also records for the label.
Lund has been a longtime friend and supporter of Hus, and he's
been quoted as saying, "Tim's one of my favourite songwriters.
Nobody captures the rough-and-ready frontier imagery better
than him."
Hus and Lund also co-wrote the song Hurtin' Albertan, which
found its way onto Lund's Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer
album and Hus's Huskies & Husqvarnas disc.
Two summers ago, Hus and Stony Plain's Holger Petersen got to
know each other a little better, helping to pave the way for
the business deal they settled on earlier this year.
"Holger and I were roommates at the big Alberta bash in
Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2006. The organizers just
happened to pair us up. He mentioned he liked what I was doing
and kept an eye on us. For obvious reasons, I've always liked
his label and initially we just talked about distribution and
then talk turned to a deal."
Hus draws on influences such as Woody Guthrie, Fred Eaglesmith,
Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Stompin' Tom Connors, and his father,
Helmut Hus, who to this day is one heck of a raconteur. A jack
of all trades who travelled the globe visiting 101 countries,
Helmut Hus also encouraged his son to "do what you want
to do, but do it well."
Thinking outside the box, Hus will put on his own gigs if need
be and has worked his way back and forth across the country
playing venues ranging from backyards to honky-tonks to rodeos.
"We just played our annual gig at Springpoint Hall in the
Porcupine Hills. It's great. There will be nobody around all
afternoon while you're setting up and then all of a sudden the
pickup trucks start arriving. Kids, dogs, local ladies unloading
boxes of pies and tarts -- it's a real community affair,"
says Hus, who just came off a three-week swing of B.C.
"People are saying the material on Bush Pilot Buckaroo
is our strongest work by far. But I hit a new milestone at one
show where a guy yelled out, 'Your new songs are fine, but play
some of the old stuff.'
"I've hit the place where some of my material is old stuff;
that feels like we've been around."
Hus plans to drawn on some of that old material. Look for songs
like Beer Hauler, Huskies & Husqvarnas, Saddle Bronc Ride
and Alberta Crude to find their way into the two sets Hus will
be performing with his longtime road buddies, bassist Spider
Bishop and Telecaster player Peterbilt Pete Christian.
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