Tim Hus

By Shelley Arnusch, Culture Snacks

Calgary-based country singer Tim Hus is playing two shows at the Ironwood, tonight (Thursday, Oct. 17) and Friday, Oct. 18 to celebrate the release of his latest album "Western Star."

Hus, you might recall, was featured in the February 2013 issue of Avenue Magazine, as part of the ongoing "Final Note" series of profiles of local musicians. (Check out the accompanying video of Hus singing about "politicians, fishermen and liars in general.)

"Western Star" is Hus's third album for respected roots music label Stony Plain Records. It was produced by Harry Stinson, a renowned Nashville-based producer who has also worked with Hus's labelmates Ian Tyson and Corb Lund. Like previous efforts, the record taps into Hus's affinity for the straight-talkin' workin' man's world, with songs that cover everything from potash mining, to truck driving and bass fishing.

The Ironwood is familiar territory for Hus — he plays the historic Inglewood room on a regular basis and celebrated his 10-year performing anniversary there back in November 2012. This time around his set will include the new songs from "Western Star," along with selections of old favourites.

The Ironwood doesn't sell tickets to shows, but instead adds the cover charge to patrons' bills at the end of the evening. Seating reservations are recommneded. To reserve call 403-269-5581. For information about upcoming events at the Ironwood visit ironwoodstage.ca.
- Avenue Magazine / October 17, 2013

The travelling country musician reminisces on his early days in Calgary's music scene

Even though he’s in every way the quintessential Calgary cowboy singer, Tim Hus actually spent his formative years in Nelson, B.C.

Like many Kootenay boys, Hus, 34, worked in logging camps to finance his post-secondary education. The rough-and-rugged logging life was ideal creative fodder for an aspiring country-folk-roots musician, and he began writing songs and playing them for his campmates — though he points out an audience deafened from daily exposure to chainsaws might not have been the most reliable gauge of talent.

Regardless, Hus began to believe he might have what it takes to make it as a “travelling cowboy singer.”

“Someone once told me that, if there’s something you really want to do in your life, then you owe yourself five years to try and do it, and then, if it doesn’t work out, you go and do something else,” he says.

A modest start

He moved to Calgary in 2002, envisioning the city as something of a Nashville North, fishing for band mates before he had a place to live. There’s not much to say about his first show, save his recollection that it drew a rather sparse crowd. “I had one friend in town at that point, the guitar player had one friend, the bass player had a girlfriend and another friend and then two guys playing darts,” he says.

Humble beginnings notwithstanding, at the five-year mark, Hus was on the roster of respected roots label Stony Plain Records and on tour with the legendary Stompin’ Tom Connors, a professed fan. In 2005, he’?d also been selected to perform for the Alberta Centennial celebrations at the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival, an annual event held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that draws attendance figures in the one-million range. Hus shared the Folklife bill with close pal and collaborator Corb Lund and his hero, Ian Tyson.
Needless to say, he decided to continue on his musical journey.

Ten years later...

Hus celebrated his 10-year anniversary in music with a show at the Ironwood last November and recently recorded his sixth album for Stony Plain with Grammy-winning producer Harry Stinson.
These days, the part about being a “travelling cowboy singer” is especially prophetic as he plays in the area of 200 shows per year. Seems there’s a dedicated audience out there for quintessentially Canadian “storytellin’?” cowboy music, or, as Hus would say, “It doesn’t take a real genius to figure out that people like to hear songs about things they’re familiar with.”
- Avenue Magazine / February 6, 2013

Besides a gritty ability with lyrics and catchy country music-making, Tim Hus possesses a drawly singing voice that sounds just like your dusty rough-hewn uncle who always shows up on holidays banged-up, unshaven, limping just a tad, and grinning like he knows a whole bunch of things you don't because yer just too danged citified, Buster. More, he ain't one of these Hollywood types who came up through breakfasts on silver platters and dandied-up parties on Rodeo Drive, nope, not at all, cuz in his life he's been, now get this: a beer truck driver (huzzah!), warehouse hand, carpenter's helper, framer, tree planter, forklift driver, van driver, brewery worker (double huzzah!), fruit picker, fisherman, pine-cone picker (seriously!), well driller, sawhand, cabinet maker, painter, courier, assembly line worker, furniture mover, salmon farmer (I'm pretty sure you don't need chaps for that), maintenance man, and general all around day laborer. Beat that inside straight for the Everyman Life if'n ya can, Bertram.

Western Star kicks off with Hus' fourth ode to truck drivers, helping out ol' C.W. McCall and the asphalt rough riders of times gone by right on up to this very day, this one commemorating Western Stars rigs, having previously covered Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Freightliner. Skip down three cuts and you have my kinda religion, the Church of Country Music, Hus relating an anecdote about an audience member who one time clamored for a George Jones song. Tim asked the guy if'n he mightn't have photos of George and Jesus on his mantel back home, and the gent replied "I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe in George Jones". Heh! Open up that bottle of JD, bartender, I do believe I've located my kind of atheist and a friend.

So…are we talkin' Americana here? Nope, Hus comes from the North country, a firm-blooded son of Canada, but, hell, what's the diff? Throw together a concert with Colin Linden, Willie Nelson, Steve Dawson, Ray Benson, Ian Tyson, and this youngun Hus, and what you have is brothers of the sod 'n stave, my friends. Forgotten Sailor sounds like a cross between Gordon Lightfoot and latterday Tyson while Halifax Blues boasts an electric guitar by either Billy McInnis or Kenny Vaughn, can't tell which, that's downright funky, funky, funky. The lyrics are all pure Laredo/Halifax street poetry, and there're so many Stetsons, rattlesnake belts, leather boots, and steer horns bedecking the dozen songs here that you're gonna swear you accidentally stumbled onto a Canuck version of a grittier Oklahoma. And Hus' 'Canadiana Cowboy Fabulous Superlative Band'? Bet the house that they are…'cuz they are, and in Tim Hus, I think we're looking at the new lion of country music. This is one of the best country albums I've ever heard. No lie.
- Peterborough Folk Music Society.

If Hank Snow was alive and in his prime Tim Hus and Hank would qualify as one heck of a tour. Pack it all in the back of a Western Star and Move On.

Yep, folks this is one heck of a batch of great songs written by Hus.

Produced by Harry Stinson and using amazing players like guitarist Kenny Vaughan and Hus’s own fiddler Billy MacInnis with Stinson’s drums in the pocket with upright bassist Riley Tubbs make you just want to turn this up driving and pass everything in sight.

Honestly, it’s hard to believe but Hus can sing about any subject and it make it bonafide

Check out the lyric for the title track.

I’m a two-way teamster transport truckin’
Diesel demon double-clutchin’
Makin’ my way along every highway whenever you are
I’m a white line wrangler wheeling my wide load in my Western Star

Elsewhere Halifax Blues and The Church of Country Music celebrate Alexander Keith, South Shore girls, and George Jones at the country music altar with condolences to Merle Haggard and Hank Williams.

Heck, I’m telling you Hus has written some gems on this album .

The tone and the lyrical vibe of Madawaska River is a musical nod to the great Stompin’ Tom Connors and would have gone down well at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins Ontario, where I once brought Jeff Healey because he wanted play in the same room as Stompin’ Tom.

And yes, for you Alberta folks that’s a true story.

In one word folks Tim Hus’s Western Star is BONAFIDE

The band’s music is available worldwide including AMAZON, SPOTIFY, and APPLE ITUNES https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-worlds-gone-crazy/id673101570

- John Emms Music Reviews / Oct. 9, 2013

By Vicki Arndt, Gazette Contributor

Tim Hus and His Travelin’ Band open the 2013-’14 Centre Stage Concert Series on Sept. 20-21 at the Empress Theatre.

Hus, whose music has been aptly dubbed “Canadiana Cowboy Music,” is a Canadian country-folk singer and songwriter based out of Calgary and originally from Nelson, B.C. Hus’s music has taken him coast-to-coast and beyond performing at 200 plus shows a year with his band.

Bull fiddler Riley Tubbs and lead guitar and fiddle player Billy MacInnis will perform alongside Hus at the Empress shows.

Hus’s fresh, foot stompin’, two-steppin’ style music tells of the tales of the Wild West culture and the rough and tough characters who created it.

From gunslingers, rum runners, farmers and oil riggers to ranchers, loggers and gamblers, this artist sings about it all in a uniquely Canadian and Tim Hus way.
Hus is set to release his sixth album titled Western Star with Stony Plains Records/Warner Music on Sept. 10.

The album is produced by Grammy Award-winning Harry Stinson of Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives.

The Empress Theatre presents Hus as part of his CD release tour.
All 12 songs, with titles like Halifax Blues, Wild Rose Waltz and Gravel Pit Song on the new album were written and composed by Hus.

Once again, the artist who is said to have “a song list as long as a Saskatchewan fence line” puts all his energy and star quality talent into songs about Canada.

The CD cover photo features Hus at the Empress Theatre, making it a must have album of the year for Fort Macleod and southern Alberta residents. Hus did a photo shoot in 2012 at the Empress Theatre for the CD.

Hus is a Canadian through and through and caught the attention of the late country-folk singer-songwriter Stompin’ Tom Connors.

Hus and His Travelin’ Band were the last to tour with Connors during extensive tour dates back in 2009-’10.

Connors made his appreciation for Hus’s song writing well-known during their time together and expressed openly to his fans and friends that he was passing on his musical torch to Hus.

Hus has also worked closely with his good pal and country artist Corb Lund and the legendary Ian Tyson, who were both featured on Hus’s fifth album Hockeytown.
Tickets are available at www.empresstheatre.ab.ca or by calling 1-800-540-9229.
Centre Stage Concert Series subscriptions are on sale until Sept. 15.

Subscriptions include six concerts featuring great artists including three-time Juno Award-winning folk singer-songwriter Connie Kaldor and the fast-paced music of award-winning P.E.I. bluegrass group Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys. Subscriptions are available by calling 1-800-540-9229.
- Macleod Gazette

Posted by Gillian Turnbull on October 10, 2013

Finally, finally managed to get the new Tim Hus disc, Western Star.

Here’s the reason I like Tim: he’s nice. You know, if you’ve interviewed musicians, that they typically fall into one of two categories: 1) sullen and annoyed, offering one-word answers, tired of being interviewed; 2) all-too-eager to talk about themselves nonstop. Tim has conversations. He answers questions, then responds with some of his own. He seems to remember details about everyone he meets. And, meet many people he does; he’s now in his 10th year of touring across Canada, never slowing down. He goes to all the small towns and tiny venues on the way to bigger centres, eager to talk to folks wherever he ends up. Don’t confuse his eagerness with some yeehaw just trying to make friends; he’s a pretty hip guy.

He’s genuine and enthusiastic, and that comes through in his music. Western Star, his sixth album, is no exception.

It seemed appropriate that my first listen occurred when I was on the road traveling east through Kingston; the opening title track is a country road song in the voice of a trucker singing his own praises. Yeah, I thought from my bus seat, “I’m a diesel demon double-clutchin’/...white-line wrangler/ wheelin’ my wide load in my Western Star...” Imagine how actual truck drivers feel – Hus has a way of making the average job sound like it’s nothing short of super-hero accomplishment.

The aggrandizing of jobs so ordinary that many wouldn’t be aware of their existence continues in “Hardcore Apple Picker”. In the first verse, Hus takes listeners through a slew of apple varieties, leading others (such as grocery store cashiers who memorize the produce codes for all those suckers) to identify with the picker’s plight. He even throws a bit of summer love with a Quebecois girl to sweeten an already cute song.

In his usual style, Hus wants to tip his hat to all corners of Canada: B.C. in “Hardcore Apple Picker”, the East Coast in “Halifax Blues”, Saskatchewan in “Marietta Miner”, Alberta in “Wild Rose Waltz”; in other tunes, to all the hard jobs done by good men (and women): fishermen in “Master Caster”, truckers in “Western Star”, barrel racers in “Short Go Shuffle”. The album’s pinnacle is its actual midpoint: “Forgotten Sailor” slows the pace for a sombre reflection on the anonymity of both the occupation and of being so easily swallowed by the sea while at work.

Producer Harry Stinson (Ian Tyson, Matraca Berg, Corb Lund) was brought in for Western Star, and like all good ones, Stinson teases out the best in Hus without overwhelming the album with an obvious production stamp. “Forgotten Sailor” might be the best example of this, presuming Stinson had a hand in the arrangements: its sparse start builds anxiously through the song to a peak and is stripped away suddenly to emphasize the bleak ending. Similarly, little lyrical gems like the classic conflation of horses and girls in “Leanin’ on a split rail fence/ Thought that I might take a chance/ Threw a loop and wound up with a star” from “Short Go Shuffle” don’t drown in the mix. The album is pretty country overall, but with light arrangements that highlight the sharp playing of fiddlers Billy MacInnis and Hank Singer, steel players Kayton Roberts, Gary Carter, and Chris Scruggs, and Tim’s regular backup band.

Some people say that Hus is our generation's Stompin’ Tom Connors. Others say he’s walking in line behind Corb Lund and Ian Tyson. Sure. He ain’t no copycat, though. And like the humble guy he is, he won’t let a conversation go by without acknowledging his predecessors, so if you like any of them, or Hus himself, do yourself a favour and pick this one up.

Western Star can be found on Tim's website and through Stony Plain. He’s on tour through Western Canada right now; dates can be found here.

- No Depression

By Mark Weber - Red Deer Express

Tim Hus has been described as a guy with a voice ‘sweeter than a Husqvarna chainsaw and a list of songs longer than a Saskatchewan fence line’.

The Alberta-based singer with the black hat and easygoing personality is a captivating performer who draws listeners into the settings of his storytelling country and roots music. He didn’t so much grow up in a musical family as a ‘storytelling’ family.
Featuring tunes from his latest CD Western Star, he performs Nov. 8 at The Hideout starting at 9 p.m.

“I would call it cross-country music,” explains Hus of his tunes in general. “Basically, it’s Canadiana roots music in the western vein. I’ve built sort of a ‘troubadour’ style career, and that’s what I was drawn to initially - the storytelling type of country and folk music. That’s kind of the path I’ve followed.”

Mentored by the late Stompin’ Tom Connors (he was part of two national tours as Tom’s opening artist and backup band), Hus carries on the tradition of writing songs about working Canadians and the nation’s rich history.

Looking back to his formative years, Hus’ dad was something of a relentless globetrotter back in the day, having visited or worked in about 100 countries.

Needless to say, there were plenty of stories to tell about his experiences, and it was in this environment Hus grew up. His family wasn’t overly musical, although his father had bought a guitar – which he didn’t really learn himself.

But Hus, who grew up in southern B.C., picked it up as a teen and a gift for songwriting began to surface.

Still, music wasn’t a career he originally envisioned. Over the years, he’s been everything from a beer truck driver to a sawhand, a salmon farmer to a tree planter and a cabinet maker to a well driller. As to music, his career unfolded rather naturally.
Family and friends were quick to recognize his talents, and encouraged him to develop his craft.

And as his discs have taken shape, he’s been singing about all of it. With his band, he brings his music to small town community halls, international festivals and just about every truck stop in between. He racks up about 200 shows a year.

“I consider myself to be fortunate, in that I get to see the country every year. Sort of at a ground level, too, in a lot of ways.” Many of the same folks come out to his shows when he’s in a given town, so it’s kind of like a reunion of sorts, he adds.

Meanwhile, Western Star is his fourth CD of original songs. Recorded in Nashville, Hus had ace producer and session drummer Harry Stinson in his corner for the recording as well. Stinson, who has worked with artists including Steve Earle, Trisha Yearwood, Ian Tyson, Corb Lund and Kevin Welch, brought in an A-list of veteran musicians.

Guests on Western Star include Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart, Lucinda Williams), Hank Singer (George Jones), Wanda Vick (Porter Wagoner), and Chris Scruggs (the surname needs no introduction) who added some stellar lap steel to a couple of tunes.

“It was really a lot of fun. I’ve known Harry for quite some time. I had always self-produced, but it was more a matter of how you have to keep growing and challenging yourself. I didn’t want to make the same album over and over again.”

So Hus and Stinson found the time last year and settled in for a few weeks of recording. “It didn’t take long to record – it was done more of less ‘live off the floor’ but it took longer to mix it because you only have a day or two between tours to work on it.” Stinson is a busy guy himself, also being country singer Marty Stuart’s drummer.

“I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. We’ve also been getting rave reviews on it – the best we’ve had.”

Fans of acoustic and bluegrass music will also be pleased to hear that Glen Duncan made guest appearances throughout the CD on banjo and Tim Graves on dobro (nephew of Uncle Josh Graves – the dobro player for Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys).

Hus is certainly looking forward to taking Western Star across Canada and beyond. Joining him on tour will be his band, the Rocky Mountain Two, featuring Billy MacInnis on fiddle and Riley Tubbs on upright string bass.

Meanwhile, the passion to make his ‘artistic’ mark continues.

“There’s a father and son in Ontario that always come and see us. They had never been to western Canada until last summer. They said because of my songs, they finally took the trip and went to all the sites I’ve written about in my songs. That’s pretty exciting to me, that it connects to people in that way,” he says.

“I’ve also been blessed in that it’s always been supported,” he adds of his music. “I think I’ve played about 1,700 shows by now in my career, and knock on wood, we’ve never played anywhere where we haven’t been asked back yet.”
- Red Deer Express / November 6, 2013

Tim Hus
Western Star
Stony Plain Records

The perfect soundtrack for a family road trip through idyllic, yellowing Alberta wheat fields. Western Star, Tim Hus’s sixth album, opens with the fast past rambler title track, and Hus delights us with his retelling of his adventures as a truck driver.

This song sets the pace for the rest of the album, as Hus enchants us, sharing the stories of the everyday working man across Canada. Even people that aren’t fans of country can take delight in this album’s lightheartedness and upbeat, catchy tunes.

The album really sounds its finest on “Madawaska River”, “Western Star” and the delightful “Hardcore Apple Picker”, a song that will have you singing along and stomping your feet. Hus recounts summers spent packing, picking and falling as he falls in love and ships countless apple crates all underneath the hot Okanagan sun.

At its heart, Western Star is a sincere retelling of the life of the everyday Canadian working class man. Truck drivers to potash miners and anyone with an interest in Canadian folk can relate to this album. It’s no wonder he’s supported Canadian acts like Corb Lund and Stompin’ Tom Connors. Tim is well on his way to becoming one of Canada’s most well-respected country musicians as he plays bars and backyards across the country, spreading his church of country music.

If you want to catch Tim Hus in person or pick up a copy of this CD, he’ll be playing Edmonton twice this October. First on Oct. 3 for his CD release and then again on Oct. 4 at the Uptown Folk Club.

Looking through his tour schedule you’d be hard-pressed to figure out when he has time to write new songs. After Edmonton he’ll be looping through small town Alberta and then off back east, crossing Canada’s endless wheat fields and rivers.

- Allison Leonhardt
- The Griff

Vue Weekly
September 25, 2013
Tom Murray / tom@vueweekly.com

If there was one recent moment that encapsulates exactly what Tim Hus is all about, it's when he played the song "Hardcore Apple Picker" from his new album Western Star to a crowd of people in the Okanagan.

"Afterward there was this huge lineup of people looking to buy the album with the 'apple-picking song' on it," he chuckles from his home in Fort Macleod, where he's busy stuffing envelopes full of the new album to send out to radio stations and magazines. "These are people who had all grown up around that; I mean, you can't escape it there; it's probably the first job you get as a teenager, and there they are hearing me sing about it."

Hus has another song about potash mines that goes over well with miners in Saskatchewan. In fact, over the course of six albums he's made an attempt to celebrate as many facets of Canadian life as he can. Does all of this sound familiar?

"Stompin' Tom once told me that he hoped I would be the one to pick up where he left off and maybe bring Canada's story to the international level," says Hus, who toured with Tom and viewed the recently deceased Canadian legend as a mentor and guide. "He's the guy that got it going here, but he felt that he ran out of time."

Western Star definitely continues in the Stompin' Tom vein, if not a little more fleshed out and country sounding. Hus recorded it a year ago with Harry Stinson, an in-demand producer (Corb Lund, Trisha Yearwood) songwriter (Martina McBride's number-one hit, "Wild Angels") and multi-instrumentalist sideman (Marty Stuart, Steve Earle). Stinson had taken a shine to Hus's material when he and Lund were recording Hurtin' Albertan, and invited him down to work with him at his place just outside of Nashville.

"I definitely didn't want to do it in a studio in the middle of downtown Nashville," Hus explains. "Harry has this place he likes to use in the hills, though, so we went there instead. It was casual, and he brought a few people in to play along with my regular touring band."

Those "people" were long-time Nashville cats like Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart), Hank Singer (George Jones), Wanda Vick, Chris Scruggs, Glen Duncan (Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys), Tim Graves, and Kayton Roberts (Hank Snow). The recording was live off the floor and the seasoned pros were happy to get outside of the close confines of the Nashville machine.

"It was personally thrilling to me that these guys actually liked my songs," Hus adds. "I guess to them they would be a little different, nothing like what they usually deal with. I mean, sessions in Nashville are pretty textbook: show up, unpack and play, pack up and go to the next one. We definitely had a relaxed and easygoing feeling happening, and they were into it."

The session musicians even took an interest in the unabashed Canadiana in the lyrics, but Hus dismisses any idea this would make his songs somewhat opaque to outsiders.

"I've been criticized before in reviews about my music being regional and I always disagree strongly with that. Nobody says that about American music, nobody ever says that about ['San Antonio Rose'] or 'California Girls,'" he scoffs. "The fact is that a good song is a good song, and anyone can relate to one. When we play the States people relate to all the topics that I sing about in my music because they have them all there as well, whether oil rigs, salmon fishing or farming."

Getting back to Stompin' Tom, who often lashed out at domestic artists who turned to America, Hus admits he's thought about how strange it is to have recorded a batch of such overtly Canadian songs in Tennessee. For a minute, anyway.

"Tom would have ribbed me about it, no doubt," Hus chuckles. "But he kind of painted himself into a corner sometimes, and that's a slippery slope to go down. I never was anti-American or anything, and Harry was the man for the album. It would have been ridiculous to have flown him up here just so we could say we did it in Canadian airspace."

"Mind you," he reflects, "that actually would have been Tom's style."

- Vue Weekly

By Mike Bell / October 17, 2013

Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.

So. Um. Fur trader? Cattle rancher? Wild west bounty hunter? No. Western Star.
That’s the short answer and the album name behind the fashion statement Calgary cowboy country artist Tim Hus is making on the cover of his latest album for Alberta record label Stony Plain.

“I had to shoot a Manitoba trapper just to get the coat,” Hus says and laughs.

Yes. The coat. It is a thing of beauty, a piece of work, a cloak of art. The jacket, in which the veteran singer­songwriter is apparelled, is a wondrous creation made from the hides of deer and elk and lined, so damn haute couturely, with the fur of a wolf. And it is, Hus says, part of a statement he wanted to make with Western Star.

It actually grew from discussions he had early in the recording process with his first­time producer Harry Stinson, a man who’s also a member of American country artist Marty Stuart’s backup band the Fabulous Superlatives. Hanging out together down in Nashville, Hus marvelled at the band name and their rhinestone suits, mentioning he “liked the idea that there was no doubt when the headliners had arrived.”

When Stinson suggested making style part of the motif, part of the double meaning by using Western Star — a song about commercial truck driving that appears on the disc but one that could quite easily reveal career aspirations — as the album’s title, Hus cottoned quickly to

the idea of reinforcing it by shooting the cover wearing one of Stinson’s Nudie Suits.

“But I was looking at the photos and I just thought, ‘You know what, it looks pretty good but this feels like a Nashville star or somebody. It doesn’t feel like a Canadian cowboy singer. What would a Canadian cowboy singer wear?’ And I thought, ‘I know the guy that’s got the coat,’ ” the charming as all hell musician says. “I figured if you’re a Nudie, rhinestone suit kind of guy, that’s a country star from Nashville but if you’re a Canadian cowboy singer you’ve got to wear something like Jeremiah Johnson.”

He chuckles. “Unfortunately you can’t play in it. People have been asking me, ‘How come you don’t wear that for the show?’ but it doesn’t get comfortable until it’s 50 below.”

It should get close to that as Hus hits the road with his band to promote the record, which was released last month but which will get a proper local launching Thursday and Friday at the Ironwood before he continues on throughout Western Canada for the next couple of months.

The 12­track release is, by any and all estimations, the man’s finest work and the surest path he could have to making the title seem prophetic.
Filled with unabashedly but somehow coolly hokey and unencumbardly catchy, twangy western tunes, it features Hus, a self­professed “well worn­in machine,” firing on all cylinders.

He admits that it’s “not too much of a deviation from what I’ve done in the past,” but finds him mastering it as superlatively and as easily as the national treasure who befriended him, mentored him for a handful of years, who he toured with a couple of times and whose path he follows most closely, the late and so, so, so very great Stompin’ Tom Connors.

Helping Hus, of course, is Stinson, who not only recorded the songs with a prairie clarity and simplicity but brought with him a “nice Rolodex” that included a handful of guest artists and Nashville greats they could call on that had collectively played with C&W legends such as Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, Flatt and Scruggs and, perhaps most importantly, George Jones.

Hus says the inclusion of those players — such as fiddler Hank Singer, steel guitarist Kayton Roberts and banjo and Dobro player Wanda Vick
— was a nice nod to the past and what he sees as his place in cowboy music.

“I guess I just wanted to acknowledge being a link in the chain,” he says, noting it’s even more important now that Jones and Connors have recently passed. “This kind of music, Americana, or in this case Canadiana, I consider it our cultural music, in a way, just because it’s from this continent and in this form. I just wanted to acknowledge that it’s our trade ... travelling around and writing these storytelling songs and chronicling the country and the people in it and the places and—”

The jobs they do?

“Yeah,” he says, “and touring around and doing that and also that this kind of music has been around long before we came around and I imagine it will be around a long time after us. So I did want to acknowledge some of those who have gone before us.”

As for the songs, themselves, well, they also acknowledge what it is Hus thinks he’s doing, something he hints at by referring to being a cowboy troubadour as being a “trade.” Perhaps because of that, as well as the

fact that he’s held jobs ranging from beer truck driver to salmon farmer to oil rig worker and cabinetmaker, he feels a certain kinship wi - Calgary Herald

At minus 25, the cowboy hat and snakeskin boots were a dead giveaway.
Tim Hus is not a Yukoner. But that hasn’t stopped the Canadiana cowboy from singing about sled dogs and chainsaws, growing muttonchops like a Yukon riverboat gambler and that damned old Dempster Highway.
The rising Alberta country star finally made it North last week, driving up the highway that’s made it into lots of his truckin’ songs. The Alaska highway’s grades and curves weren’t as threatening as expected. Steamboat Mountain wasn’t much, he said.
But the Yukon is better than imagined.
“Everything is called the gold pan or the nugget, and even the beer has huskies and bears on it,” said Hus with a grin.

“Most of the places I write about, I’m familiar with so I was itchin’ to get up here and see if what I had in mind was right – it is.”
Hus came to Whitehorse for a break, after a non-stop winter of gigging down South.
He wanted to do some ice-fishing.
Hus didn’t catch anything, except an intimate gig at Music Yukon.
“I play anywhere they need a guy in a hat,” he said, the melting snow dripping off the wide tan brim onto the table.
Turns out tractor pulls, rodeos, the Calgary Stampede and plenty of bars all over Canada need a guy in a hat.
When Hus plays in boomtowns, like Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray, there’s a sense that people are there just for work, he said.
“They’re just there to make money; there’s not a good sense of community,” he said.
“It’s all men and equipment. And every place has a big row of diesels out front – all running.
“I don’t get that impression from the Yukon – people here have chosen to be here.”
Hus would move to Whitehorse if it weren’t such a bad location to tour from.
Bushpilot Buckaroo, his latest release is a frontier album.
And the North has that same frontier mythology to it, he said.
“I’m drawn to that here, with the paddlewheelers and sled dogs.”
There’s a romance to Hus’ music that lures more fans than the usual big-haired, tapered-jeans country scenesters.
There was an Alberta show where Hus walked into a room full of punks, with tall purple Mohawks, leather jackets and spiky studs.
“I was the only cowboy hat there,” he said
“I thought,’This could be interesting’”
But as soon as he started singing, the punked-out crowd joined in.
“They knew all my songs,” said Hus.
Great artists, like Johnny Cash, transcend their genres, and Hus is thrilled when fans who can’t stand country take to his tunes.
The songs are like touchstones, he said.
“I sing about the different provinces, forestry, fishing, cowboying, truckin’, and workin’ the oil rigs, and it doesn’t take too long before I sing a song that hits home for everyone in the audience.”
It all started in a log camp.
Fresh out of high school, Hus was set to drive truck, just like his dad.
The brake course started on Friday, but on Thursday he got a call from the logging camp and that was it.
“I wrote my first song to entertain the guys in camp,” he said.
“They’re a great audience – entertainment starved and tone deaf from all those chainsaws.”
It was a song about work in the camp, and it was a hit.
“I’m always looking for that common thread people can grab hold of,” said Hus.
“And I got so good at writing songs about working, I don’t work anymore.”
Hus grew up listening to American folk and railway songs in Nelson, BC.
Songs like the Wreck of the Old ‘97 are great, but music you can relate to is more inspiring, he said.
Stompin’ Tom Connors’ song about Vancouver’s Second Narrows Bridge came to mind.
“It’s about places I’ve been,” he said.
“You can actually touch those places.”
Now, Stompin’ Tom has referred to Hus as an inspiration, mentioning him to local media when he last played Calgary.
Hus was playing the same night, and, unfortunately, missed the show.
Ian Tyson also came out to see Hus, who was just signed to Tyson’s label, Stony Plain Records.
But Hus doesn’t want to be “plugged into the hit machine,” and he doesn’t plan to move to Nashville, Tennessee.
He’s more interested in chronicling the Canadian experience.
Canadian country singers writing about Texas sound goofy, he said.
“They’ve never been there, it’s just what they think they should be doing.”
“You do better if you write honestly about what you know.”
Hus, who plans to return to the North, keeps on applying for all the Yukon’s music festivals.
And he’s got lots to say about the territory.
“The trapline set and the cordwood split, racks in the smokehouse all filled up, fresh game in the backs of the hunters’ trucks,” he sings in Huskies and Husqvarnas.
“Where sled dogs and chainsaws won’t let you down - Yukon News, January 14, 2009

It’s been a long road for Tim Hus since I reviewed his second disc, Alberta Crude, back in 2004. Since then he’s continued to pick up well-deserved momentum, attracted fans like Corb Lund and Ian Tyson, and moved to a bigger record label in Stony Plain.
His latest release features the likes of Myran Szott of Ian Tyson’s band, Craig Korth of Jerusalem Ridge and Gary Fjellgaard, who duets with Hus on Steven Fromholz’s The Man with the Big Hat, made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker.
As a songwriter, Hus just gets better and better. With songs of the quality of Battle River, Vancouver Blues and Hockey Mom, this is one bush pilot buckaroo that’s going to keep flying high until he becomes a national legend like Stompin’ Tom Connors.
Great stuff. Keep going, Tim!

– By Barry Hammond - Penguin Eggs Magazine, Autumn 2008