Tim Hicks hits all the right notes with Sioux Lookout audience

Tim Brody - Editor

It was a packed house at the Sioux North High School cafetorium on Nov. 1 as the Sioux Hudson Entertainment Series (SHES) presented Tim Hicks, making the first stop on his Campfire Troubadour Tour.
Hicks, accompanied by bandmate Chris Altmann, quickly won over the crowd of approximately 220 people with his “everyman approach”.
Styled as though he was playing for a few friends around the campfire on a beautiful summer evening, Hicks made everyone feel like they were one of those friends with his easy-going manner.
Playing a range of his best known songs, such as “No Truck Song”, “What A Song Should Do”, and his iconic “Stronger Beer,” Hicks also paid homage to Canadian legends with covers from Neil Young and Blue Rodeo.
Hicks’ performance had audience members, older, younger, and in between, clapping, stomping, singing and dancing along.
A five-time JUNO Award nominee and CCMA Award winner, Hicks has achieved four Platinum-selling singles, a Double Platinum single, nine Gold singles, and eighteen Top 10 radio hits in his decade of releasing music.
“I had so much fun. This was a great crowd, especially to start the run off with,” Hicks shared after the show.
He threw his song list out the window during the show, explaining that you have to go with the crowd.
“We had no expectations. We had no idea what it was going to be like. This is the first show on this run... I learned from playing bars for so many years you can plan, and plan, and plan, but in the moment, if a song isn’t right, it’s not right.”
“I have this thing,” He continued, “If I mention an artist or there’s some connection to an artist, I want to put a cover in. Honestly that’s just for me and Chris. We’ve been playing “Get By” and “Stronger Beer” and “Talk to Time” for as long as they’ve been out, it just keeps us on our toes and it’s kind of fun for us to sort of bust things out.”
The Canadian country music singer/songwriter said of the idea for the Campfire Troubadour Records and tour, “For years we talked about doing an acoustic record of some sort but for whatever reason my team was really hung up on it being thematic. We brainstormed for years, well, maybe it should be a summertime acoustic record, maybe it should be cottage centric, maybe it should be all songs about beer or whatever. During COVID it hit me like a ton of bricks, because that was our get of jail free card, so we used that because we could be outside and we could be distanced and do all the right things so that the neighbours could come over for a beer and it would be safe. Of course, the guitars would come out. It got me thinking, maybe it’s time. I was in touch obviously with my co-writer and producer in Nashville and he’s like, ‘dude, you’ve got the skillset and the studio to do it.” He said, “Record your tracks at your place, send them to me, I’ll record mine, and then, boom! Acoustic record.’ Which made a lot of sense because for years I did gigs just like this, not in a nice place like this, but in bars and restaurants and whatever, or wherever I could do them. So, to me, it was nothing to send the band away and do a night of songs like this. I’m very at home doing it. So, that’s kind of where it came from. The experience of doing it and the campfire in the backyard when the guitars come out.”
Sioux Hudson Entertainment Series Chairperson Alyson Martin said it was a fantastic show, “We were really happy to see the turnout. A really mixed group of people, a lot of new faces, younger people, which of course is great.”
The next show in the Sioux Hudson Entertainment Series will be on Tuesday, Dec. 3, featuring Ian Sherwood, which SHES describes as: “Guitar, saxophone, huge songwriting and a voice that won him a Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer, lan Sherwood Brings The Light to every stage he stands on. A born storyteller, his music dances the line between folk and pop.”