Chuck Kuepfer, Staff Reporter

Tim Hus is bringing his self-described “good time cowboy travelin’ show from Alberta” back to the Commercial Tavern on Friday, August 3.

Hus has been touring steady with his band for the past seven years, playing venues across the country.

“We stay pretty busy,” said Hus. “We actually do about 200 concerts a year, and we try and play all the provinces every year. We try to make a run across Canada and get up to the territories as well.”

Hus’s music, which he describes as “roots country,” draws comparisons to fellow Albertan artist Corb Lund.

However, his songs often bring legendary Canadian artist Stompin’ Tom Connors, known for celebrating the people and places of his homeland, to mind.

“I certainly liked his music. I appreciated the down-home no-frills approach writing songs about the same kind of things, his experiences and travels, people that he knew and stuff like that,” said Hus.

It turned out the feeling was mutual, and the artists have spent the past couple of summers touring together.

“He called me up and said he liked that I was writing all kinds of songs about Canada. Of course that had been his thing for many years,” says Hus, who was thrilled to tour with a legend. “Getting to play Canadian country music with Stompin’ Tom, it’s like getting to play hockey with Wayne Gretzky. I was always hoping I’d get to meet him one day, let alone to get to tour with him.”

Hus has released five albums, most recently Hockeytown on Stony Plain Records, home of another Canadian country music icon, Ian Tyson, who has also influenced his music.

The album was released in 2010, the same year he went on tour with Stompin’ Tom in a concert event dubbed “the most Canadian show in the country.”

The tour helped boost his career, along with a flattering endorsement by Stompin’ Tom .

“He sort of tells everybody now that I’m the guy to continue his legacy,” said Hus. “When he hangs it up, he’s going to pass the torch over to me. That’s kind of beyond anything I had expected.”

Hus was recently nominated for the 2011 Canadian Music Award’s Roots Artists of the Year.

His travelin’ band features Billy MacInnis on fiddle and lead guitar and Riley Tubbs on upright bass. MacInnis, an accomplished fiddle players from the Maritimes, has appeared with Prairie Oyster and has been playing fiddle for Stompin’ Tom for the past seven years. Tubbs, from Rocky Mountain House, AB lays down “The finest rhythm in the West.”

Hus said one of the most rewarding things for him as a musician is to see his music bridge the generational divide.

“One of the things I’m most proud of, it happens all the time, a young guy will buy a CD and say, ‘my dad will love this’,” said Hus. “Then an older guy buys an album and says, ‘This is exactly what my son likes’.”

Hus’s Maryhill concert begins at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $10 at the door.

For more information call 519-648-3644.