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INTERVIEW
WITH BEATROUTE MAGAZINE, MAY 4, 2006
TIM HUS
SMALL TOWN STORIES AND A SPARKLING TELECASTER
by Rick Overwater
"Jeez, would it kill you to
write a song about the Bow River?” That question, asked
back in 2004 when he had just released Alberta Crude, his second
full-length, summed up Tim Hus’ opinion on the state of
country music to a “T.” Viewed against a backdrop
of hackneyed sentimentality and overproduced love songs containing
more cheese than Safeway’s dairy aisle, Hus’ raw,
twang laden biographies of blue collar Canada were as far away
as one could get. Thankfully, that’s still the case.
Poised to drop Huskies and Husqvarnas, his latest album, Hus
is still the traveling troubadour, immortalizing the unsung
lives of hard-working people – most of whom have never
spent a single workday under fluorescent lights. People who
primarily live and work in the country, the all-but forgotten
reason somebody once coined the term “country music.”
“I really try to be a grassroots kind of entertainer
and those are the people who identify with me the best,”
says Hus. “Those are the people that I get my stories
and songs from. I’m not necessarily saying I’m always
going to keep writing songs in this vein, but I have endless
ideas to write about and I definitely had three albums worth
of stuff I wanted to say.”
Primarily driven by his regular band, bass player Spider, guitarist
Rick Preston, and occasionally drummer Pat Phillips, Huskies
and Husqvarnas is a prime display of Hus at his best, spinning
tales of beer haulers, train robbers, oilsands workers, bronc
riders and down-on-their-luck farmers amidst the thump of a
standup bass and the sparkling spank of a telecaster guitar.
With a few ringers on hand, Calgary banjo killer Craig Korth,
part-time Ian Tyson fiddler Myran Szott and Corb Lund, to name
just a few, it picks up where Alberta Crude left off. God willing,
it’ll bring more of the successes Hus experienced following
the last record.
“We actually charted on some
AM country stations, which was quite cool,” enthuses Hus.
Of course those were largely rural stations where the connection
to Hus’ subject matter is the strongest. “Yeah,
the program directors seemed a little more lenient that way.”
Of course, with Hus’ reputation for racking up the miles
between tiny hamlets and big cities – he’ll play
‘em all – there has to be some highlights on the
gigging front as well.
“I really find it to be quite
the thrill that we’re on the level where we get to do
high-profile shows, like Alberta Scene, where we had back to
back shows in Ottawa. And then we’re out in Castor, Alberta,”
he laughs.
It’s pretty obvious which of those gigs are just a showcase
for Hus’ style and which are the ones who make him what
he is.
“I’m not ashamed to say we spend
a lot of time in small-town saloons,” Hus states. “But
we’re all from small towns, so sometimes we prefer it
that way. I think it is kind of a niche market.”
For a storyteller like Hus, these are prime hunting grounds
for the material he proudly weaves into factually-accurate yarns,
and most nights its easy hunting.
“I can hardly imagine
being in a bar somewhere and somebody just says ‘Well
damn, I don’t have any story to tell. Go to the next town
if you want to talk.”
So when Hus finishes unveiling Huskies and Husqvarnas in the
big cities, it’s back to those same small burgs. You just
know there’s bound to be one drunk who takes rejection
of his Brooks and Dunn request personally, or a bunch of small-town
rockers voicing disapproval because they’re stuck with
Hus in the town’s only watering hole.
Not to worry, unruly audiences keep Hus entertained.
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Tim Hus Music Copyright 2008
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