Some team ups were just meant to be, and such was the case on Friday night in Watson as legendary Canadian songster Tim Hus teamed up with leadoff man Jolie Blue in an unforgettable evening of purely Canada stories and songs.
It’s not the first time the two have shared a stage. Jolie is a long-time fan of Hus and makes every effort to open for him when he’s in our neck of the woods, even when it means playing for the hat. Jolie Blue’s take on song writing is purely Saskatchewan. A true prairie raconteur, Blue shares observational and narrative qualities of another local home-grown story spinner, Quick Dick McDick, with whom Blue recently performed at a benefit in Watson.
Blue opened his set with a classic Stompin’ Tom Connors inspired parody of the Green Grass of Home, followed up by a tune purloined from Northwest Territories’ songwriter and Yellowknife city councillor Cat McGurk. Ski Doo Cool takes a jab at the passion of snowmobilers everywhere and the unique off-road culture they share.
Blue takes a poke at uncooperative grain buyers and handling corporations, American audiences, old timers bragging about bumper crops, and just about anything a prairie stubble jumper could put his mind to.
His ballad, ‘Cruising to Tugaske’ puts an unlikely spin of the dating life in a small town, while an ode to Cooperalls pays homage to a long-lost memory of Canadian hockey outfitting. Even the trials of fulfilling an elusive dream over becoming Eyebrow’s volunteer fire chief got a special Jolie Blue musical treatment. Blue had the audience hooked from the opening chords.
Tim Hus took the stage for an amazing pair of sets, flanked by musical compatriots Spider Bishop on standup bass and the legendary Thom Moon on drums. Moon was a longtime musical collaborator with Ian Tyson in his touring and recording days.
Tim Hus is the consummate storyteller with songs from every region of Canada based on his crisscross touring. As well as echoes of Stompin’ Tom and Ian Tyson, you can hear the playfulness of grassroots greats Jerry Reed and Ray Stevens in the mix.
Hus’s self-professed love of words and an ability to parlay regional imagery melds with an obvious love of the prairies, cowboy culture and the legacy of Canadian song writers. He performed songs from the West Coast salmon fishing communities he’s visited and northern Canadian climes. Songs with tributes to pickup trucks, rodeos and dust are true reflections of the pioneers of cowboy storytelling like Wilf Carter, but all with Hus’s own vision and adept song craftsmanship.
Carter’s ‘Blue Canadian Rockies’ was dedicated to the people and community of Jasper in the midst of a disastrous wildfire.
Hus mixes a detailed travelogue with touching biography in a style that harkens back to the Canadian classics but with an attentive eye that is uniquely his own. With the occasional Stompin’ Tom nasal inflection or Carter’s trademark yodel, Hus brings nostalgia and novelty to his songs. Heartwarming examples are Hus’s ‘Wild Rose Saturday Night’ and a kicking two-step with Spider’s slap bass, “Bucking Horse Rider,” that Hus has performed at the Calgary Stampede.
There was even a purely Canadian slap leather moment with a Kootenays showdown in the ballad ‘Slocan Slim and the Kootenay Kid,’ a Marty Robbins styled old-west tale.
Hus told the enchanting story of searching for a duet partner to recount the experience of a seasoned, gritty foothills cowboy talking to a younger counterpart. Hus entertained the idea of Ian Tyson or southern Alberta’s Corb Lund, but neither quite fit the bill. Enter Rose Valley native son, Garry Fjelgaard who gladly teamed up with Hus for the recording, all for the cost of a smoky sausage lunch on the ferry dock.
Hus even had a song inspired by Watson’s lineup of classic tractors on Main Street with the inspired ‘Dangerous Dave’s Tractor Show.’
The audience truly became part of the show, with Hus’s genial manner, jokes and stories mixed with the audience’s obvious love and adoption of Hus as one of their own. No doubt Tim Hus and crew will be back to Watson and area at some point. Do yourself a favour and take in a show by one of Canada true chroniclers.